Q: A friend’s child has been diagnosed with hemiplegia. Can NeuroDevelopmental Movement® help her?
A: Yes, the NeuroDevelopmental Movement® (NDM®) work would be an appropriate approach, and here is something about NDM® that is hard for people to ‘get’: We don’t treat particular diagnoses. What we treat are any gaps in the developmental profile. Hemiplegia can manifest as gaps in many areas of functioning. Our job is to treat the functional gap, not the ‘hemiplegia’. So, I can’t say that I treat hemiplegia. I know this might not make immediate sense. But I try to be clear about it because our work is definitely not a substitute for medical intervention. If we said we were treating the hemiplegia, we would be doing a medical intervention, which we are not. If we are treating the sensory and motor functions that are dysfunctional, then we are talking about doing NeuroDevelopmental Movement®.
So, if the child has visual tracking or alignment issues, if she doesn’t know where her body is in space, if she doesn’t have full range of motion in the hip sockets, if her midline functioning is impaired, etc., then we can make a big difference for her. I have had many children work with me with the diagnosis of hemiplegia. Their functional skills have all been greatly enhanced.
Any neurological condition that is not genetic and not progressive is a condition where we can make a difference.