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Can You Tell a Baby has CP Right Away?

One of the signs that a child is at risk for Cerebral Palsy (CP) is that they manifest counter-oppositional Movements. 

An example of what counter-oppositional movement is, is shown in the short video.

Within the first hour of birth you can see if a child is doing counter-oppositional movements. 

But because risk for CP can be assessed at birth using the Newborn Movement Assessment™ (NMA), risk for Cerebral Palsy can be reduced using the Movement Lesson™ Technique. 

You can teach your...

Things you might say if you have a baby with high or low muscle tone:

High Muscle Tone Baby (Child):

• My baby is stiff
• My baby can't bend their legs, their arms
• My baby startles a lot
• My baby is very colicky
• My baby has bad reflux
• My baby is delayed in their baby milestones

Low Muscle Tone Baby:

• My baby is floppy
• My baby is nonresponsive
• My baby has no head support
• My baby is delayed in their baby milestones

How Low and High Muscle Tone is Initiated at Birth 

During a natural delivery through the contractions of the mother, this is the first time that the baby gets to experience active and passive muscle response.

As the uterus contracts, the baby experiences the stimuli of active or high tone muscle, and the muscle tone transfers into the baby.

In between the contractions, the baby experiences passive or low tone muscle, and at the same time moves into position to be birthed. 

So when there are birthing complications, or a person elects for a C-section, the...

What are the Affects Swaddling Can Have on Your Baby? Things to Consider Before Swaddling Your Baby.

• Compounded movement deviations occur when a baby is swaddled. 
• Swaddling becomes addictive because a baby doesn't know how to move when it is not swaddled. 
• Determining whether a baby should be or shouldn't be swaddled, one can use the Newborn Movement Assessment™ to determine if the baby is at high risk or low risk for movement deviations (developmental milestone delays).    
• Parents must be careful not to swaddle too much as it can cause developmental milestone delays.
• If a child needs to be swaddled, The child needs Movement Lesson™ or some form of early intervention sooner than later. Needing to be swaddled is an early sign that negative movement deviations are already occurring in the child's system. 

Have You Ever Asked, "Should I Swaddle My Baby?"

Let's talk about swaddling. It's not about "do" or "don't do."

We have...

* 6 Essential Exercises for Movement & Milestone Development

The purpose of these exercises are to teach you a skill set you can use in the home to initiate milestone movement patterns for your child.

You are not teaching your child to mimic a movement you are teaching to do transitional milestone movements. 

Transitional milestone movements are the movements that happen between milestones movements; in other words, teaching your child the necessary movement

• to independently get an arm off the floor and to reach (reaching),
• to get the head off the floor and into the air (successful tummy time),
• to go from the back to the front and the front to the back (rolling over),
• to independently get in and out of sitting and so on.

At a minimum, take 15 minutes a day, working on each side of the body, and go through each of these exercises.

It doesn't matter if your child is an infant, baby, toddler, teen, adult, for any person to have movement success, these movement...

“We are not built for exterior motion. We are built for interior movement. That's how our bodies make up movement.”    - Michelle Turner - 

Stage 1. Vision Development 

The first stage for childhood development is vision development. 

Suppose a child has any visual complications due to the structure of their eyes. In that case, it will change all of their movements and even cause developmental delays. 

This would include things like lack of convergence, lack of binocular vision, nystagmus, astigmatism, strabismus, and so forth.  

So, before working with a child’s movement milestone development, their functional vision must be resolved first. Then one can start working with fine and gross motor skills.   

To understand if your child has visual needs (even if you think their vision is fine, or the doctor has said, “their vision is fine,”) do the following...