Hypotonia exercises to help meet developmental milestones
Doing therapy with Maddison is a daily occurrence. Sometimes it’s structured, sometimes it through play. But we know that Maddison needs it, so we keep it up! The only way to build muscles is to work them!
Maddison has atypical cerebral palsy with hypotonia (low muscle tone). Her brain doesn’t properly communicate with her body, and her muscles in turn aren’t very strong. Read more about Maddison here.
We made a little video to showcase some of the exercises we do with Maddison to help her build those muscles. We show how we can work her brain, some of our weight bearing techniques, and some exercises to help with her developmental milestones.
This video really shows where Maddison is at with her development. Her hypotonia is so prevalent as she flops around. But this is why we have to work at her muscle development daily. The only reason she has come this far is because we’ve kept on working her muscles. And if we want her to continue to develop and meet those milestones, then we have to keep on working!
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You’d be right in thinking that doing these routines each day are exhausting. It can be hard making time in the day to make sure that Maddison is getting her work out. But I constantly remind myself that she really needs it. At the same time, if we can’t seem to fit a exercise routine into our day, or like in the video she’s more on the fussy side, we’ll just take it easy. It’s okay to take a break from structured exercise routines.
In the video I mention a couple ways that I’m able to squeeze in some of her exercises into our daily life. It’s all about incorporating it into play!
To be honest,
I almost scrapped this video all together. I completely forgot to put in my other earring (how silly). And Maddison wasn’t all smiles (as I hoped she would have been). But I still felt that there was enough content to be able to make a little video showcasing Maddison’s exercises. And hey, it also gives the viewers a taste of what it can be like working with children with disabilities. More often than not things don’t go according to plan. It means we have to adapt, and work with what we got!