Thanksgiving is the day set aside in the United States and Canada as a day of pausing to reflect all that we are thankful for by connecting with friends and family over good food. It is also the day of taking special precautions when serving people with developmental disabilities.
Aspiration is a huge risk during the holiday season. Factors that place people at risk for aspiration includes the following:
Being fed by someone else
Poor chewing or swallowing skills
Weak or absent coughing/gagging reflexes which is common in people with cerebral palsy or muscular dystrophy
Eating to quickly
Inappropriate fluid consistency
Inappropriate food texture
For children and adults with autism, Thanksgiving may be a challenge for a variety of reasons:
Sensory and emotional overload with large groups
Picky eaters
Difficulty with various textures of food
To help you mange Thanksgiving with ease, click on the articles below:
Published by: Cerebral Palsy News Today
Written by: Charlotte Baker
Depression, burden of care, and fatigue all hamper quality of life for mothers of children with cerebral palsy (CP), a study found.
A “holistic approach” including training in managing children with CP along with “psychological interventions” would improve quality of life for these mothers, the researchers said.
Researchers in Iran asked mothers to complete a series of questionnaires to evaluate the impact of fatigue, depression, and burden of care on their quality of life (QoL).
“The burden of caregiving can adversely affect the physical, psychosocial, and mental health of caregivers, leading to poor quality of care and unmet patient need,” the researchers said. Click here to read the rest of the story.
Source: Cerebral Palsy News Today
Written by: Marisa Wexler
A recent study found that adults with cerebral palsy have a higher risk of developing mental health conditions, highlighting the need for better holistic care in this population.
The study, “Prevalence of Mental Health Disorders Among Adults With Cerebral Palsy: A Cross-sectional Analysis,” was published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.
Most research on cerebral palsy (CP) focuses on children because, until relatively recently, it wasn’t that common for people with CP to live through adulthood. That paradigm is rapidly changing, so it’s necessary for researchers and clinicians to understand the challenges adults with CP face so they can be given the best possible care and support to have not just a longer life, but higher quality of life. Click here to read the rest of the story.
March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness month! Although I blogged the definition of developmental disabilities here, I wanted to give you more information besides the Federal regulation. Quite often, people are confused between the definition of an intellectual disability and a developmental disability.
A developmental disability is described as an assortment of chronic conditions that are due to mental or physical impairments or both. For example, you may have a child or an adult with an intellectual disability or perhaps a person diagnosed with cerebral palsy and an intellectual disability. It is also considered a severe and chronic disability that can occur up to the age of 22, hence the word developmental. A developmental disability can occur before birth such as genetic disorders (i.e. cri du chat, fragile x syndrome,) or chromosomes ( i.e. Down syndrome, Edwards syndrome); during birth (lack of oxygen) or after birth up to the age of 22 (i.e. head injuries, child abuse or accidents).
The disability is likely to occur indefinitely meaning the person will require some type of ongoing service throughout their lives. Finally, the person must show limitations in 3 or more of the following areas of major life activities:
Self-care– brushing teeth, hand-washing and combing hair independently
Receptive and expressive language-ability to understand someone talking and to also be understood
Learning– ability to read and write with understanding
Mobilityability to move around without any assistance
Self-direction– time management, organization
Capacity for independent living– requiring no supervision
Economic self-sufficiency – having a job and purchasing what one needs
Here are some examples of a developmental disability:
Does everyone with a disability also have a developmental disability?
The answer is no. there are people with disabilities such as epilepsy and cerebral palsy simply have a disability based on the criteria listed above. However, many people with developmental disabilities quite often have a combination of disabilities. For example a child with autism may also have seizures and an intellectual disability or an adult may have cerebral palsy, intellectual disability and epilepsy. In addition there are many people in the spectrum of autism who also have ADHD and so forth.
So what’s the difference between an intellectual disability and a developmental disability?
A person with an intellectual disability falls under the category of a developmental disability meaning you can have an intellectual disability and a developmental disability. check here for the definition of an intellectual disability, you will see they are quite similar. Below is an infographic created by Centers on Disease Control:
