Cerebral Palsy Case Analysis - Essay Example

? Cerebral Palsy My younger sister, who is only 6 years old, is a victim of Cerebral Palsy (CP), which is a persistent and incurable mental disease. The term basically refers to a group of psychological brain disorders including uncontrollable body movements, unusual posture, loss of control over urination and stool excretion. The symptoms of the disease appear within the early years of life, which makes care and attendance of children suffering form it very difficult for parents and caretaking siblings. My sister got affected with the disease because of German measles infection during my mother’s pregnancy (“Cerebral Palsy” n. p.). CP generally has four different types. My sister is a victim of spastic cerebral palsy, which causes stiffness in muscles and creates difficulty in normal physical movements (“Cerebral Palsy” n. p.). One arm and both of her legs are unmovable in addition to significant impairment issues in hearing, listening and ability to talk. She is also unable to write and does not respond to normal calculations. With the span of time she has started to project retarded mental behavior. The disease was diagnosed when she was 3 years old, since then I am taking care of her. Taking care of patients with cerebral palsy is a challenging full time job, which requires extra patience and sympathy to the patient (Raina et al., n. p.). Since I am also studying in college, sometimes it becomes very difficult to perform both tasks together. The most difficult part of caring for CP patients is to keep them and their surrounding clean and tidy all the time in addition to the need for training them concerning eating and stool excretion patterns. I have used different psychological tools and techniques in order to release stiffed muscles and improve body movements of my sister. I spent a lot of time to do various mental and physical exercises with her. Research indicates that operant conditioning has powerful impacts over the development of children with CP disorder. Therefore, I use this technique in day-to-day sessions with my sister to make improvement in her behavior trying to help her be more independent. I started off with operant conditioning by analyzing the specific behavioral patterns of my sister first; for instance, she is always playing with her red doll, she even tries to pick her up if it is placed at some distance. She listens with attention if someone talks to her politely and caresses her. By watching same cartoons repeatedly she started to repeat the dialogues and even sings some poems which she has heard many times. After analyzing her attitude I checked her room environment; she is used to spending the whole day within the premises of her room without even walking out for weeks. Closely observing all the components which might be used to improve her behavior I set my target and started working by utilizing the operating conditioning in the first place. I started keeping her doll far away when she sleeps so that whenever she wakes up she sits and sometimes even walk to get the doll herself. Then I stated hiding her doll so that she is compelled to find it herself. Initially she was not inclined to do the task however, when I did not return her doll she started to find it herself by making specific body movements. I used to apply operant conditioning in such a way that she considered it her playing time and loved the doll hide and seek game. This was also useful in her potty training and improvement in eating habits in a way that I used to tell her that if she will finish her food without creating any mess around her then I will return her doll in that case she would not have to look after it. I always used to be very calm and polite with her whenever she throw away food or drinks I just clean the stuff without scolding her so that she don’t get scared. Her reaction towards cartoons and the way she started repeating the dialogues after watching the same series for various times helped me to improve her speech and conversation. I used to repeat few sentences again and again in front of her for days and for weeks in case of difficult ones. Initially she was unable to follow my lip movements and word pronunciations but within few days she showed drastic improvement in her speech and within two months she learnt to converse more comfortably and frequently. After seeing significant changes in her behavior I took her out of the room and let her sit with other family members; this was exceptionally beneficial for her as my family could easily show their concern as to her illness and can look after her while doing different household work (Hill, n. p.). Despite of all the benefits and positive outcomes of the psychological conditioning it did not seem to be beneficial in improving her cognitive thinking, writing and calculation capacities. These are few areas which I found to have shown no impact of operant conditioning. Cerebral Palsy Connection (CPC) is a CP support group which helped me a lot in carrying different physical therapies with my sister. The group’s website frequently uploads different stories of CP patients and allows communication between different patients and their families so that they all can help each other in making behavioral and mental improvements in their patients (Paul n. p.). Specific support processes for my sister’s health and safety include regular physical therapies with a specialized therapist, counseling for better emotional health, hearing aids to reduce hearings and listening problems, eye lenses for clear vision and medicines to deal with other issues. The total lifetime cost of cerebral palsy patient’s treatment is $921,000 according to the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (“Cost of Cerebral Palsy” n. p.). However, the emotional cost of experiencing life with a CP patient and that too your own sister is far more than the amount that could be hold by mathematical digits. Looking at your younger sister suffering from such an incurable disease often makes me restless and depressive which is deeply affecting my health as well therefore I also seek medical assistance to ensure my health which is also a recommended thing to do for the family members of CP patients (Raina et al., n. p.). In future I would have to spend almost all of my personal time taking care of her, which will influence family life for better and will help in my career. Works Cited "Cerebral Palsy." McKesson Health Solutions LLC. 18 Sep 2008. Print. "Cost of Cerebral Palsy." My Child at Cerebral Palsy.org. 2013. Web. 5 Feb 2013. Print. Hill, Linda D. "Contributions of Behavior Modification to Cerebral Palsy Habilitation." Journal of American Physical Therapy Association. N.d. Web. 2013. Print. Paul, Jesse. "Therapies for Cerebral Palsy." CP Connections. 2012. Web. 5 Feb 2013. Print. Raina P., M.O'Donnell, P. Rosenbaum, J. Brehaut, S. D.Walter, D. Russell, M. Swinton, B. Zhu, and E. Wood. The Health and Well-being of Caregivers of Children with Cerebral Palsy. Canada: Pediatrics. N.d. Web. 2005. Print. Read More