Cerebral Palsy: A Case Study at The Van Buren ISD
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Authors
Decker, Hillary
Issue Date
2006
Type
Presentation
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Abstract
During the summer of 2005, from June-August, I worked with Frank Lima, a physical
therapist, at the Bert Goen’s Learning Center. The school is designed to serve “children with
severe cognitive and physical impairments. The combined efforts of teachers, teacher’s aids,
speech therapists, nurses, OT’s, and PT’s presents children with severe disabilities the
opportunity to reach their full potential physically and cognitively.
The children Frank and I worked with suffered from many different disorders including spina
bifida, Hurler’s Syndrome, Angelman Syndrome, and the most prevalent, cerebral palsy. The
disabilities also ranged in severity; some children could walk and talk while others had very
limited cognitive abilities and very little motor function. However, in the cases of cerebral palsy,
the differences in clinical manifestations and severity was astonishing. These differences
motivated me to investigate in-depth not only the different clinical presentations of cerebral palsy
but also demographics, diagnosis, assessment, and treatment and management options associated
with it. I then used this information in a comparative case study of two students I worked with
over the summer.