Selecting Therapies to Improve Upper Extremity Function after Pediatric Stroke

This event was held on December 6, 2024.

Following a stroke in an infant or child, it can be difficult for that infant or child to use their hands for important things like play, schoolwork, and self-care. Michelle Ballasiotes will introduces the session with stories of lived experience from her childhood and from her experiences now as a pediatric occupational therapist.. Drawing upon research mostly based on cerebral palsy (CP), Todd Levy helps you understand therapy choices. Todd highlights key themes underlying the therapies that have the most scientific support behind them. This helps caregivers select the best therapies and to incorporate some aspects of therapy into the daily life of the child, while allowing for children to be children and not always patients.

This talk complements a published paper that you can use as a resource.
Levy, T. J., & Hoare, B. (2023). Therapy Choices for Children With Difficulties Using 1 Hand After a Brain Injury. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 104(8), 1363-1366.
https://iapediatricstroke.org/wp-cont...

Todd J. Levy is a clinical specialist in occupational therapy at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). His early career laboratory work at Washington University School of Medicine focused on protecting the infant brain from the secondary effects of neonatal brain injury. His current research is focused on the effects of unilateral perinatal stroke on the dominant hand. Mr. Levy is lead occupational therapist for CHOP’s interdisciplinary Stroke Clinic and has provided care to infants and children with a variety of brain injuries from the acute hospital setting, to inpatient rehabilitation, to outpatient clinics and schools. He has updated his practice based on experience and emerging research over the past 21 years. Mr. Levy assisted in the development of the Academy of Certified Brain Injury Specialists’ (ACBIS) Advanced Practice in Neurorehabilitation certification program, and he served two terms on the ACBIS Board of Governors. He founded and co-leads the pediatric stroke task force of the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine and is co-editor-in-chief of the International Pediatric Stroke Organization’s online news periodical Kid Stroke Connections.

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