In July we completed our 25th hand training camp, with more than 150 children participating since 2002. Ten children from as far away as Greece participated. We expanded our projects to include teenagers and children with other forms of CP. Our next camp will be a bimanual training (HABIT) and CIMT day camp for children age 6-17, June 23 - July 12, 2013. PARTICIPATION IS FREE BUT SPACE IS LIMITED! CONTACT US NOW.
We have developed a NEW PROJECT for younger participants age 1.5 to 5 years whereby we train caregivers to provide these hand treatments in their own home. This project takes place throughout the year. Contact us if you would like to be considered for any of these projects.
Marina Brandao, OT, successfully defended her PhD dissertation in May, 2012 at the Federal University, Belo Horizonte, Brazil. She has been intimately involved in our CP camps since 2007. Electra Petra, a former evaluator and camp supervisor, defended her dissertation in 2011. Congratulations to both!.
We continue to collaborate on a project in Belgium involving a sleep-over HABIT camp, with the second camp held this summer. The camp expanded focus to include the lower extremity. Our camp supervisor, Marina Brandao, PhD, also conducted a camp in Belo Horizonte, Brazil in July. We also collaborated a group in Tel Aviv and London on "Magic" theme-based HABIT camps.
Finally, we have begun intensive speech treatments for children with CP. Please contact us if you are interested.
Click here for a link to an article about our summer camps.
In 2011 we published the report of a trial in Neurorehabilitation & Neurorepair comparing CIMT to bimanual training (HABIT). 42 children participated From July 2007 through July 2009. Thank you to all those who participated. We are excited to report that there was no consequence of providing intensive training without the use of physical upper extremity restraints--CIMT and bimanual training (HABIT) resulted in equal improvements in most clinical domains. However, in two other publications it was reported that HABIT may have an advantage in making progress on goals identified as important by children and caregivers (forthcoming), and in improving bimanual coordination determined in our state-of-the-art movement analysis lab.
Dr. Kathleen Friel, who is leading our TMS plasticity project, received the 2012 Gayle Arnold Best Paper Award from the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. This is the second award to our group, with the first being in 2007 (pictured below) for a paper describing the initial development of HABIT.
Center for Cerebral Palsy Research
Research projects in this center focus on: 1) delineating mechanisms of sensorimotor control in typically developing children and adults, 2) elucidating the biological bases of pediatric movement disorders, and 3) applying research-based knowledge toward developing evidence-based educational and therapeutic interventions. All three areas are intertwined, with the ultimate goal of applying the findings of each of these to improve the lives of children with physical disabilities. The work has been described in The Lancet: "Progress in understanding the fundamental basis of [CP], and progress in treatment and rehabilitation demand objective and discriminating measures of sensorimotor coordination. Using such an approach in [recent studies], Gordon and colleagues provide new insights into the nature of the disabilities? More effective therapies and rehabilitation may be possible by targeting [Gordon's findings] to assist children with [CP] to learn how to optimize their manipulative capacities."
In keeping with this promise, our center has been at the forefront of Constraint-Induced therapy research. Since 1997, we have administered and tested the intervention in more than 100 children. Most recently, we have developed and begun testing a new intervention, Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy (HABIT) that strives to improve coordination of the two hands in children with hemiplegia. Our work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the United Cerebral Palsy Research & Education Foundation. Our work was also recognized recently with the receipt of the 2007 and 2012 Gayle G. Arnold Award for Best Scientific Paper. We are expanding our work into lower extremity training and speech therapy as well.
Our staff includes highly skilled physical therapists and occupational therapists and a psychologist, and consultants, including a pediatric neurologist and social worker.
Our Staff
Andrew Gordon, Ph.D. Dr. Gordon is a Professor of Movement Science and Neuroscience & Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is the Project Director and has been intimately involved in studies of hand motor control in healthy individuals and cerebral palsy since 1990. and has more than 90 publications to date. He has focused the knowledge gained from these studies into modifying and testing CI therapy for use in children with hemiplegic CP since 1998, and has been the Principal Investigator on a CI therapy trial funded by the National Institutes of Health.
Dr. Levy is an Assistant Professor of Speech & Language Pathology. Her interests include accent and intelligibility in speech-language pathology, including CP.
Kathleen Friel, Ph.D. Dr. Friel is a Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology. She is interested in the mechanisms underlying spinal cord and cortical mechanisms of hemiplegia and plasticity associated with training.
Jasan Carmel, M.D. Dr. Carmel is a Pediatric Neurologist and Director, Motor Recovery Laboratory; Director, Early Brain Injury Recovery Clinic at Burke Medical Research Institute. He is interested in the mechanisms underlying spinal cord and cortical mechanisms of hemiplegia and plasticity associated with training. Marina Brandao, OT, PhD. Dr. Brandao is an Occupational Therapist who was the first to conduct CIMT and HABIT camps in Brazil. She has been intimately involved in our projects since 2007, and for the past few camps has served as the overall supervisor. She recently completed her Ph.D. at Federal University, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where she is now teaching and conducting research. Cherie Kuo, PT, M.S. Cherie is a Physical Therapists and research Assistant on the project.
Ashley Chinnan, PT
Ashley is a physical therapist with extensive experience with cerebral palsy. She has been working with the project since 2005 and is assisting with supervising interventions.
Claudio Ferre, M.S. Claudio has a masters degree in developmental psychology and is interested in development of hand function in typically developing children and children with CP.
Lily Hung, PT, Ed.D.
Lily is a recent graduate of our doctoral program, and has been working on our clinical trial since 2007. She is a physical therapist and has considerable experience working with this population. Presently she is an Assistant Professor at Queens College, although his actively involved with many projects.
Steven L. Wolf, Ph.D., PT, FAPTA Dr. Wolf has been a consultant on our Constraint-induced therapy projects since 2001. He is a Professor of Rehabilitation and Geriatrics at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta. He was the first to test the effects of restraining the non-affected hand and providing intensive practice to the affected hand in patients with stroke and recently published the results of a multi-center randomized clinical trial on constraint-induced therapy in patients with stroke (EXCITE). He has been instrumental in assisting us in maintaining the key ingredients used in the adult CIT studies while we modify CIT to be child-friendly.
We also have a group of undergraduate and graduate student volunteers, all of whom have experience working with children. They make up the nucleus of our team.
Our Cerebral Palsy related Publications (with links to abstracts where available)
Brandão, MB, Gordon, AM, Mancini, MC, Functional impact of constraint-therapy and
bimanual training in children with cerebral palsy. American Journal ofOccupational Therapy
(Accepted).
Hung, Y-C, Casertano, L, Hillman, A, Gordon, AM (2011) The Effect of training specificity on
bimanual coordination in children with hemiplegia. Research in Developmental Disabilities
32: 2724-2731.
Gordon, AM (2011)To constrain or not to constrain, and other stories of intensive upper
extremity training for children with unilateral cerebral palsy.
Gordon, AM, Charles, J, Schneider, JA, Chinnan, A, (2007) Efficacy of Hand-Arm bimanual intensive therapy (HABIT) for Children with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy: A Randomized Control Trial. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 49:830-838.
Charles, JC, Gordon, AM, (2007) A repeated doses of constraint-induced movement therapy results in further
Steenbergen, B, Verrel, J, Gordon, AM. (2007) Motor planning in congenital hemiplegia Disability Research 29: 13-23.
Gordon, AM, Steenbergen, B, Charles, J (2006) Movement planning is disrupted by impaired sensorimotor integration in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Pediatric Research 60: 587-91.
Steenbergen, B, Gordon, AM (2006) Activity limitation in Cerebral Palsy: Evidence for disorders in motor planning Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 48: 780-783.
Charles, J, Gordon, AM (2006) Development of Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy (HABIT) for Improving
Eliasson, AC, Forssberg, H, Hung, YC, Gordon, AM (2006) Development of Hand Function and Precision Grip Control in Individuals with Cerebral Palsy: A 13-Year Follow Up Study. Pediatrics 118:e1226-236.
Charles, J, Wolf, SL, Schneider, JA, Gordon, AM (2006) Efficacy of a Child-Friendly Form of Constraint-Induced
Gordon, AM, Charles, J, Wolf, SL (2006) Efficacy of Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy on Involved-Upper
Extremity Use in Children with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy is not Age-Dependent. Pediatrics 117:e363-373.
Charles, J, Gordon, AM, (2005) A critical review of constraint-induced movement therapy and forced-use in children with hemiplegia. Neural Plasticity 12: 245-261.
Gordon, AM, Charles, J, Wolf, SL (2005) Methods of Constraint-induced Movement Therapy for Children with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy: Development of a Child-friendly Intervention for Improving Upper Extremity
Duff, SV, Gordon, AM (2003) Acquisition and retention of anticipatory control of grasping in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 45, 746-757.
Gordon, AM, Lewis, S, Eliasson, AC, Duff, S (2003) Object release under varying task constraints in childen
Eliasson, AC, Gordon, AM (2000) Impaired force coordination during object release in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 42, 228-234.
Gordon, AM, Duff, SV (1999) Relation between clinical measures and fine manipulative control in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine and ChildNeurology 41, 586-591.
Gordon, AM, Charles, J, Duff, SV (1999) Fingertip forces during object manipulation in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. II: Bilateral coordination. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 41, 176-185.
Gordon, AM, Duff, SV (1999) Fingertip forces during object manipulation in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. I: Anticipatory scaling. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 41, 166-175.
Eliasson, AC, Gordon, AM, Forssberg, H (1995) Tactile control of isometric fingertip forces during grasping in children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology 37, 72-84.
Eliasson, AC, Gordon, AM, Forssberg, H (1992) Impaired anticipatory control of isometricforces during grasping by children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology 34, 216-225.
Eliasson, AC, Gordon, AM, Forssberg, H (1991) Basic coordination of manipulative forces of children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology 33, 659-668.
