Fox 5 Does Heartwarming Piece on Participant in TC's Cerebral Palsy Camp
The camp is held annually on the 10th floor of TC's Thorndike Hall for children and young teens with cerebral palsy. At the camp, the children practice repeated hand and arm exercises with the affected limbs or exercises created by Gordon that require the coordinated use of both limbs.
Gordon, a professor of movement sciences in the Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, established the camp to study the effectiveness of a therapeutic method he had developed for hemiplegia, a severe weakness in the limbs resulting in very low dexterity on one side of the body that affects many CP patients. Gordon's current research efforts are aimed at mapping new or restored brain circuitry resulting from the therapies he has developed. Now, campers like Dylan undergo brain tests before and after the three-week program to see how they have improved.
Gordon has found that function of the impaired limb can improve by up to 30 percent, and brain tests administered before and after the three-week camps demonstrate that the exercises can re-establish or make new brain pathways that were previously not there.
Gordon's insights have enabled thousands of children with cerebral palsy to lead more active lives. Ultimately, his research could help patients with neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease or those who need a prosthetic limb.
LINK: Young Partial Paralysis Victim Striving To Motivate Others
Published Friday, Jul. 18, 2014
