Therapy can help individuals achieve their goals and lead fulfilling lives. Discover strategies for supporting therapy goals in real-life situations and treating conditions like cerebral palsy.

<h1>Helping Patients to Apply Therapy Goals in Real-Life Situations</h1>
Therapy goals are essential for helping patients achieve their desired outcomes, but applying these goals in real-life situations can be a challenge. The transition from the clinic to everyday life can be difficult, and patients may struggle to apply what they've learned in therapy to their daily routines. In this blog post, we'll explore some tips and strategies for helping patients apply therapy goals in real-life situations.
Provide Practice Opportunities
One of the most effective ways to help patients apply therapy goals in real-life situations is to provide practice opportunities. This can involve role-playing, simulations, or even in vivo exposure to situations that trigger anxiety or stress. By providing patients with practice opportunities, they can gain confidence and develop the skills they need to apply therapy goals in real-life situations.
Encourage Generalisation
Generalisation is the process of applying therapy goals to a wide range of situations, rather than just the specific situation in which they were learned. Encouraging generalisation is an important part of helping patients apply therapy goals in real-life situations. This can involve discussing how therapy goals can be applied to different situations, or providing patients with tools and strategies for generalising their skills.
Collaborate with Support Systems
Collaborating with support systems, such as family members or caregivers, is another effective way to help patients apply therapy goals in real-life situations. Support systems can play a crucial role in reinforcing therapy goals and providing patients with the support they need to apply these goals in their daily lives. It's important to involve support systems in the therapy process and provide them with the tools and strategies they need to support their loved ones.
Provide Feedback and Reinforcement
Providing feedback and reinforcement is an essential part of helping patients apply therapy goals in real-life situations. By providing regular positive feedback and reinforcement, patients are more likely to feel motivated and confident in their ability to apply therapy goals in their daily lives. It's important to provide specific and meaningful feedback that reinforces progress and helps patients stay on track towards their goals.
Use Technology
Technology can be an effective tool for helping patients apply therapy goals in real-life situations. For example, our platform at Synopsis App includes a wide range of activities that have been curated by experienced therapists to help patients achieve their therapeutic goals. Our platform also includes tools for scheduling appointments, generating reports, and communicating with patients and colleagues, making it easy for therapists to provide effective and efficient care.
Provide Follow-Up Support
Providing follow-up support is an important part of helping patients apply therapy goals in real-life situations. This can involve scheduling follow-up appointments, providing ongoing support and guidance, or even setting up virtual coaching sessions. By providing ongoing support, patients are more likely to feel supported and confident in their ability to apply therapy goals in their daily lives.
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By providing practice opportunities, encouraging generalization, collaborating with support systems, providing feedback and reinforcement, using technology, and providing follow-up support, therapists can help patients overcome the challenges of applying therapy goals in real-life situations. By working collaboratively with patients and their support systems, therapists can help ensure that their patients receive the support and care they need to achieve their desired outcomes.
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From the Synopsis Team

Helping Patients to Apply Therapy Goals in Real-Life Situations

<h1>Collaboration with Parents: How to Work with Parents to Support Their Child's Therapy Goals</h1>
Collaboration with parents is an essential part of providing effective therapy for children. Parents are often the most important and consistent presence in a child's life, and they play a crucial role in supporting their child's therapy goals. In this blog post, we'll explore some strategies for working with parents to support their child's therapy goals.
Establishing a Positive Relationship
The first step in collaborating with parents is to establish a positive relationship. It's important to build rapport with parents and make them feel comfortable and supported throughout the therapy process. This can involve taking the time to listen to their concerns and understanding their goals for their child's therapy.
Sharing Information
Sharing information is an important part of collaborating with parents. It's important to keep parents informed about their child's progress, including what they're working on in therapy and how they're progressing towards their goals. This can involve providing regular updates, sharing progress reports, or even inviting parents to observe therapy sessions.
Setting Goals Together
Collaborating with parents means setting goals together. It's important to work with parents to set goals that are meaningful and achievable for their child. This can involve discussing their child's strengths and weaknesses and identifying areas where they would like to see improvement. By involving parents in the goal-setting process, they become invested in their child's therapy and are more likely to support their progress.
Providing Strategies for Home
Providing strategies for home is another important part of collaborating with parents. Parents can play a crucial role in supporting their child's therapy goals by practicing strategies and activities at home. It's important to provide parents with clear instructions and guidance on how to implement these strategies at home. This can involve providing handouts, modeling activities, or even setting up virtual coaching sessions.
Encouraging Communication
Encouraging communication is essential for effective collaboration with parents. It's important to provide multiple ways for parents to communicate with their child's therapist, including email, phone, or even text messaging. This can help ensure that parents feel supported and connected to their child's therapy process.
Emphasizing Positive Reinforcement
Emphasizing positive reinforcement is important for building a positive relationship with parents and supporting their child's therapy goals. By providing regular positive feedback and reinforcement, parents are more likely to support their child's progress and feel engaged in the therapy process.
Being Flexible
Being flexible is another key strategy for collaborating with parents. Parents have busy schedules and competing priorities, and it's important to be flexible and accommodating in scheduling appointments and providing support. This can involve providing options for virtual appointments, rescheduling appointments as needed, or even providing in-home therapy sessions.
In conclusion, collaborating with parents is an essential part of providing effective therapy for children. By establishing a positive relationship, sharing information, setting goals together, providing strategies for home, encouraging communication, emphasizing positive reinforcement, and being flexible, therapists can work together with parents to support their child's therapy goals. By working collaboratively with parents, therapists can help ensure that their child receives the support and care they need to thrive.
From the Synopsis Team

Collaborating with Parents: How to Work with Parents to Support Their Child's Therapy Goals

<h1>What is Cerebral Palsy?</h1>
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a condition of the central nervous system (brain, cerebellum, spinal cord) and is caused by damage to one of its parts that does not progress over time. It was first described in 1860 by the English surgeon William Little.
The disease is characterized mainly by movement disorders, speech and hearing problems, sometimes with intellectual disability and epilepsy. It is classified into the following categories according to the clinical picture of the patient and the topographical distribution of the motor disabilities: Hemiplegia, diplegia, tetraplegia, athetoid cerebral palsy and ataxic cerebral palsy.
Symptoms
Infants with cerebral palsy have muscle weakness, lack of muscle tone and, later, muscle spasticity and lack of coordination.
In a child with cerebral palsy, other symptoms may include salivation, speech impairment, difficulty controlling the bladder and/or bowel, seizures, hand tremors, and inability to locate objects by touch. Children with this disorder may experience visual impairment more often than other children. Usually children with cerebral palsy may have average or above average intelligence. However, there may be mild or severe impairment of cognitive function in some patients.
Cerebral palsy can be classified into 4 different types:
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<li>Spastic: characterized by stiff movements and caused by damage to the motor cortex</li>
<li>Dyskinetic: characterized by uncontrollable movements and caused by damage to the basal ganglia</li>
<li>Ataxic: characterized by poor balance and coordination and caused by damage to the cerebellum</li>
<li>Mixed: a combination of 2 or more types of CP</li>
</ul>
Causes
Cerebral palsy is caused by abnormal brain development or damage to the developing brain. This usually happens before a child is born, but it can occur at birth or in early infancy. In many cases, the cause isn't known. Many factors can lead to problems with brain development. Some include:
<ul>
<li>Gene mutations that result in genetic disorders or differences in brain development</li>
<li>Maternal infections that affect the developing fetus</li>
<li>Fetal stroke, a disruption of blood supply to the developing brain</li>
<li>Bleeding into the brain in the womb or as a newborn</li>
<li>Infant infections that cause inflammation in or around the brain</li>
<li>Traumatic head injury to an infant, such as from a motor vehicle accident, fall or physical abuse</li>
<li>Lack of oxygen to the brain related to difficult labor or delivery, although birth-related asphyxia is much less commonly a cause than historically thought</li>
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Epidemiological data
Cerebral palsy is a relatively rare disorder that affects men and women in equal numbers. The United Cerebral Palsy Association estimates that between 1 in 1000 and 3 in 1000 infants develop cerebral palsy each year in the United States.
Treatment
There is no cure for cerebral palsy. Several medical specialties are involved in its diagnosis and treatment (paediatricians, neonatologists, paediatric neurologists, neurologists, geneticists, neurophysiologists, neurosurgeons, orthopaedists, etc.) and many paramedical professions (physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, etc.). The clinical picture and abilities of a child with cerebral palsy can be greatly improved with interventions such as:
An important part of rehabilitation for people with cerebral palsy is Physiotherapy, which focuses on developing and retraining movements as close to the normal patterns as possible. Sometimes the use of aids such as splints, braces, stools, wheelchairs, etc. is indicated. There are many neurodevelopmental techniques such as Bobath, PNF, Vojta, hippotherapy, specific hydrotherapy techniques, etc. In addition, it is necessary to stretch the spastic muscle groups and strengthen their competing muscle groups in order to reduce the contractures and permanent deformities.
The aim of Occupational Therapy is to help the person through targeted activities and therapeutic methods to carry out his/her daily activities, reaching the maximum degree of autonomy. Occupational therapy intervention has as its main concern the support of children in order to integrate smoothly and fully into the school environment and to develop their social activities.
In particular, it helps to improve posture and balance control (e.g. sitting position), develop the functionality of the upper extremities (gross - fine movement) and achieve autonomy in activities of daily living (feeding, dressing - undressing, toileting, etc.).
The proper use of adapted equipment and adaptations in the environment (home, school) is an important part of occupational therapy intervention, which tries to create a functional environment for the child with cerebral palsy.
Speech Therapy is an important part of the rehabilitation team for children with a brain dysfunction. Approximately 65 - 70% of these children have some speech difficulties. Difficulties range from slight abnormalities of articulation, such as a slight dysarthria, to a complete lack of verbal communication. The aim is to give the child as much control over the speech organs as possible so that he or she can speak freely and express their needs.
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There is no medication that &quot;cures&quot; cerebral palsy, as brain damage is irreversible. However, groups of drugs such as antiepileptic/muscle relaxants are important aids in limiting seizures and/or anticholinergic drugs, which can help control urinary incontinence.
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In some cases, surgery may be performed to lengthen and transfer tendons in patients who have severe muscle contractions associated with cerebral palsy. This procedure can be done in several areas of the body, including the elbows, shoulders, and back of the heel.
Neuroplasticity
Cerebral palsy is a life-long condition, meaning that the brain damage that causes it will not go away over time. However, it is important to remember, that the brain has neuroplasticity, which is the ability to rewire itself and reassign affected functions to undamaged areas of the brain.
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Through intensive training that focuses on high repetitions, individuals with cerebral palsy improve mainly their motor skills.
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Additionally, early intervention is key to improving several functions, because children’s brains have greater levels of plasticity than adult brains.
From the Synopsis Team
Angelina Chatzaki, Occupational Therapist

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Collaborating with Parents: How to Work with Parents to Support Their Child's Therapy Goals

What is Cerebral Palsy?