Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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Hi dr arif again.
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And today I'm going to talk to you about the
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therapists and the professionals that help Children with cerebral palsy
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improve the functionality and become independent.
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Uh I get this question a lot from parents asking
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me what is the difference between physiotherapists and occupational therapists
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or what does a speech therapist do?
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This is a brief about that.
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Let's start with physiotherapists.
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I'm sure if you've never been to a visit therapist,
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you must have heard of them or for yourself or
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your child, You've taken their services at times.
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So physiotherapists, they minimize the effect of physical impairment.
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So the main function or aim is to provide certain
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interventions like stretches, uh strength, building, art Asus and providing
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them the right training to do this to minimize the
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effect of physical impairment because you cannot reverse the pathology.
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So what you can do is you can improve on
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what you have to make that child capable of uh
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mobility or certain level of mobility and functionality.
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Okay, what they also do is they promote optimal function
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and musculoskeletal development.
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So as the child grows up, they make sure the
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as the muscle is growing and stretching that it grows
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and stretches in the right way and thereby improving their
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function month on month, year on year.
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So that's what a physical therapist or a physiotherapist does.
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And there are advanced pediatric physiotherapist have dedicated a number
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of years and all their career to treating Children with
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physical difficulties.
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Yeah. So then what does all this lead to all
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this leads to uh and enhance child's ability and independence?
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The aim is to make that child as independent as
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possible when he or she is into their teenage years
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or into adulthood.
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Now you're not achieving 100% results in every child because
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there's a ceiling to the capability of medical science and
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visual therapy.
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But we try to achieve the maximum possible potential for
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that child.
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What about occupational therapists?
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Occupational therapists are slightly different.
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They have a different function as such and there are
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different goal for the child.
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But occupational therapists and physiotherapists, they work hand in hand
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to improve the child's functionality.
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So what do they do?
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They improve a child's sensory skills, their physical skills, their
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cognitive skills and the visual perceptual skills, sensory skills.
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Like some kids have overloading of uh sensation or under
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loading and their behavior changes when they are exposed to
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that sensory stimulus.
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So they help kind of desensitize them to that physical
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skills. They collaborate with the physical therapist to help improve
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the child's physical skills, mainly with the fine motor skills
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like hand function, holding a pencil holding a spoon to
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feed oneself cognitive skills, giving them ability to logically think
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and process um what's in front of them which will
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perceptual skills like holding a ball understanding that are perceiving
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the spatial, having the spatial awareness around them.
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So giving them that ability and what how do they
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help this child?
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They help by developing their self care ability, their social
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ability, uh their play performance and school performance.
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So that's what an occupational therapist does.
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Now. What about the speech therapist?
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As the name suggests?
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A speech therapist helps to form sounds much is speech,
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a speech therapist helps to produce words which is expressive
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language. And a speech therapist helps a child to understand
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words which is receptive language, remember speech expressive language and
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receptive language.
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And not all Children will require all these uh functions
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to be improved.
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It varies and thereby help the child to.
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They also help the child to improve his or her
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fluency. Especially Children who are stuttering.
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For example, they help them modulate their sound at times,
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and they also have the ability, after certain specialized training
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and studies to help Children improve their swallowing mechanism and
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making sure they're safe to swallow.
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That's the three important therapists are professionals that work with
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Children who have several policy, Stay safe and look after
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others around you.
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Bye bye.