Emerging methods are great for treating neurodeficiencies, including problems at birth, disorders and traumatic injuries. Unfortunately, physical therapists who employ these principles can be hard to find. The emerging method is known as neurodevelopmental therapy, or NDT.

Basically, Neurodevelopmental Therapy is a way to look at problems on a targeted, individual level. Physical therapists use hands-on treatments and high-tech machines to teach functional tasks. For instance, consider the case of a boy who can't grasp a fork might set a goal to do it. The pediatric therapist might guide the patient through lifting the hand, reaching for the utensil and recognizing how it feels and then using the fingers and thumb to grab. It's all step by step, and guided by touch from the time the session begins until the task is accomplished.

Neurodevelopmental Therapy is patient-driven, because they have to set goals. For children with special needs, Mom and Dad may set the goals. For adult patients dealing with issues like stroke or TIB, the goal might be learning to reach to the side without losing balance. Some of the best physical therapists who ise these techniques say that the patient's view of their own treatment makes a huge difference in their healing processes.

Beyond feeling like it's working, Neurodevelopmental Therapy truly works. People treated with it need fewer supports and improve at proper positioning. Gains can be made in a variety of functions.

For kids with special needs, pediatric physical therapists can use Neurodevelopmental Therapy to help them be less dependent. They can learn to support themselves, climb stairs, or even crawl or stand. Practitioners of this method believe that some degree of improvement is realistic for almost everyone, even if they have been diagnosed with lifelong conditions such as cerebral palsy.

The body of research on Neurodevelopmental Therapy isn't very exhaustive, but the subject isn't controversial. Many of the studies have been done on small groups of patients, so aren't widely applicable. But it all makes sense and a growing number of pediatric physical therapists and other specialists have adopted its techniques.

If you or a family member struggle with mobility, function or even speech and language, consider finding a autism spectrum therapy salt lake city expert to help.