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Motor Milestones Achievement and Cranial Positional Deformities in Children

Carolyn B. Armstrong, PT, DPT, PCS

December 4, 2013

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Question

As head shape improves, do you also see improvemens with motor milestones?

 

Answer

No. I would say that in the children that I have seen, the delay actually still seems to be present. Again, they happen to coincide, but there may not be a causal relationship.  Many times, the delays persist.  I have talked to doctors and others who have looked at the same research as me. They feel that sometimes the developmental delay is present, and it causes a child to not move as much early on. That may be what actually feeds into the head deformation. The predilection to developmental delays are actually limiting movement, and that limitation is why the child has not moved their head on the surface and has some of the cranial deformations.  

If you look at children with normal movement, they do not tend to have cranial deformation. In children with normal development, the child begins to move early, so they start having pressure on other parts of the skull. Those are the children who have more spontaneous recoveries.  So, no, I do not necessarily see the improved motor development changing at the same rate as the head shape improvement.  

 


carolyn b armstrong

Carolyn B. Armstrong, PT, DPT, PCS

Carolyn B. Armstrong, PT, DPT, PCS has practiced pediatric physical therapy in a variety of settings for over 35 years.  She is the owner of Armstrong Physical Therapy, LLC in Colorado providing early intervention physical therapy services, and works in a public school setting providing school-based services to children ages 3-21.  Dr. Armstrong specializes in clients with neurological impairment and has presented continuing education seminars on clinical management of this population.  


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