What sort of special treatments do brain-injured children need?

The treatments are three-fold:

• Physiotherapy for gross motor skills; Occupational therapy for fine motor skills and Speech therapy for oral control. They need physiotherapy to have their limbs and muscles manipulated manually because they cannot do this on their own. If they don't get this kind of treatment, their muscles lose their elasticity and this creates all sorts of painful problems with their joints and skeletal structure.
• Occupational therapy is used to assist with everyday tasks such as dressing and feeding (e.g. holding a spoon) in order to obtain the greatest possible independence for the child.
• Finally, Speech therapy addresses the important oral functions such as chewing, swallowing, breathing and in a small number of cases, learning to speak. It's very important to make sure that brain-injured children start getting these treatments within the first two years. Another more complex treatment that these children often need is orthopaedic surgery to correct the problems with joints and tendons that physiotherapy can't treat. As you can see, the need for physical care never ends. But most of all these children need to be loved, embraced and accepted for who they are.