Tim and Yuting are content in their decision not to have another child, and the years with Lisa have been both joyous and exhausting. At age 7, Lisa has come a long way - she can now speak relatively well and can communicate her basic needs. Tim and Yuting have worked with her, and she has had ongoing speech therapy and occupational therapy. Additionally, Lisa visits regularly with a doctor who specializes in working with children with CP.
Lisa goes to the local public school, and she has a wonderful teacher who cares deeply for Lisa. For most of the day, Lisa is in a self-contained classroom, but the school she attends is rather progressive in its insistence that students with disabilities be integrated as much as possible into typical activities with other children. As a result, Lisa has many people at school that she considers friends, and her peers treat her with kindness and seem to forget Lisa's limitations and challenges. Tim and Yuting could not be happier with the school and the hard work that all have done to provide care and education for Lisa.
Describe some of the goals and objectives that are likely to be found on Lisa's IEP.
Find research that looks at the nature of peer relationships for children with CP.
What is the relationship between general intelligence and CP?
How is it that Lisa's therapeutic needs are met? In other words, what is the likely intensity of speech services and occupational therapy services? Are there any services that come into the home?
Describe some of the goals and objectives that are likely to be found on Lisa's IEP.
ReplyDeleteWe are happy to see that Lisa’s school has decided that her least restrictive environment is in the classroom for the majority of the school day. It is good that Lisa is able to connect strongly with her peers and form relationships with children her age. It is also very important that Tim and Yuting are comfortable with the choices that they have made with the school. We are also glad that Lisa is receiving constant speech and occupational therapy and have created these goals in response to her recent progress. These three goals should be included in Lisa’s individualized education plan (IEP).
First, Lisa will develop social understanding skills that are measured by these examples. Lisa will acknowledge a peer’s attempt to communicate by responding verbally or nonverbally. Lisa will follow the positive lead of other students in the classroom when appropriate (e.g. lining up at the door for recess). Lisa will raise her hand in the classroom when she plans on participating in the activity or responding to a question. Lisa will practice turn taking skills with other student in conversation and in games. Lisa will accomplish all of these goals with 90% accuracy but the end of the school year.
Second, Lisa will increase her ability to compose narratives in response to previous knowledge or her changing environmental stimuli. This goal may be practiced in speech therapy but will also be measured by these examples. Lisa will be able to comprehend the main idea of a book read in the classroom and communicate a response or summary to the story. Lisa will be able to put events in sequential order (e.g. the steps to brushing your teeth). Lisa will be able to communicate what happened in her day. Lisa will accomplish all of these goals with 90% accuracy but the end of the school year.
Third, Lisa will increase her ability to monitor her emotional status and adjust her feeling if necessary. Lisa will be able to express her current emotions. Lisa will be able to say if she has had a good day or bad day. If Lisa has had a bad day she will attempt to find ways to turn her day around. Lisa will be able to express why she feels a certain way. Lisa will begin to understand the emotions of others and feel empathy towards their feelings. Lisa will accomplish all of these goals with 90% accuracy but the end of the school year.
What is the relationship between general intelligence and CP?
ReplyDeleteThere are many documents that say general intelligence has a direct relationship to CP. It is documented that the neurocognitive profile of individuals with CP often shows deficits in general intelligence (Gagliardi, 2011). The word often is key here in my opinion. That means that it is known to happen, but it is not a definite “side effect” of CP to have lower general intelligence. It is also said that if there are deficits in general intelligence, it is going to be specifically in visuoperceptual abilities, including visuomotor and visuospatial processing (Gagliardi, 2011). In other words, the individual will struggle with the visual perception of motor activities and of spatial relationships of objects.
The fact that an individual has CP does not mean that they suffer from an intellectual disability. In some instances, decreased motor control may hinder the individual’s ability to show their cognitive abilities, while it is said that consistently individuals with CP show evidence of a lower IQs than typically developing children (Corollaries of Cerebral Palsy, n.d.). So this means that even if an individual with CP does not have an intellectual ability, if they have deficits in motor functioning, we may not be able to tell if they have a low IQ or not. But it is also said that severe motor impairment in CP appears to be frequently, but not necessarily, combined with associated impairments such as mental retardation (Gagliardi, 2011).
What I think is important to realize is that nothing is definite when it comes to intelligence and CP. There are works that say that in most cases general intelligence is lower in individuals with CP, but that’s just it, in most cases, not all. So just because Lisa has CP does not mean that she has lower general intelligence.
How is it that Lisa's therapeutic needs are met? In other words, what is the likely intensity of speech services and occupational therapy services? Are there any services that come into the home?
ReplyDeleteBecause of the wide range of symptoms that commonly accompany cerebral palsy, it is very beneficial for Lisa to receive services to help expand her current abilities. The speech therapist’s main role is to help assist Lisa in communicating. It appears that Lisa has come a long way, and she can now speak fairly clearly, as well as communicate most of her needs. It is likely that the speech therapist would work on making Lisa’s speech clearer, build on her language skills with new words, teach her to speak in more complex sentences, and improve her listening skills. In order to achieve some of these goals there are numerous techniques that the speech pathologist might utilize with Lisa. These could include picture cards for vocabulary, matching games for sentence building, and other board games that might address her goals. The speech pathologist might also teach Lisa ways to form sounds more clearly with her mouth so that others can understand her better (A Resource for Parents and Families 2011).
The occupational therapist will help Lisa work on moving the small muscles of her body, which might include her fingers, face, hands, feet, and toes. Another job of the occupational therapist would be to help Lisa in daily living skills, including dressing, eating, brushing her teeth, and feeding herself. In the school setting, the occupational therapist may help teach Lisa easier methods to write, draw, and cut using scissors (A Resource for Parents and Families 2011). Hand-eye-coordination is commonly a skill worked on with the occupational therapist to help children with cerebral palsy with sports, other recreational activities, and copying words down from a board (About Cerebral Palsy 2005). The overall job of the occupational therapist is to make life for Lisa as easy as it can possibly be for her on a day-to-day basis (A Resource for Parents and Families 2011).
Both occupational therapists and speech therapists often come into homes to work with children with disabilities. Sometimes it is necessary for the therapists to see certain skills that need to be worked on based on the child’s needs in the home setting. It is likely that the school provides services from an occupational therapist and speech therapist to Lisa once or twice a week while she is at school. The Yoo family may have to pay out of pocket to receive additional services from these therapists at home, depending on what insurance will pay for.
Works Cited
ReplyDeleteAbout Cerebral Palsy (2005). In Cerebral Palsy Source. Retrieved February 26, 2012,
from http://www.cerebralpalsysource.com/About_CP/dysarthria-cp/index.html
A Resource for Parents and Families (2011, January 12). In About Cerebral
Palsy . Retrieved March 12, 2012, from http://www.about-cerebral- palsy.org/
Corollaries of Cerebral Palsy. (n.d.) Cognitive/Linguistic Impairments. Retrieved March 15, 2012 from http://www.corollariesofcerebralpalsy.net/
Gagliardi, C., Tavano, A., Turconi, A.C., Pozzoli, U., Borgatti, R. (2011). Sequence Learning in Cerebral Palsy. Pediatric Neurology,44(3), 207-213. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0887899410004431