It is important for professionals who provide medical, rehabilitation, educational, and community services for children and youth with cerebral palsy to provide a quality medical home, family-centered, and needs-based services to address their needs and improve child and family well-being. Knowledge regarding determinants and unique profiles of needs for families of children and youth with cerebral palsy is limited. The aims of this research were to (1) test structural equation models of determinants of three types of family needs of parents of children and youth with cerebral palsy; (2) identify and describe unique profiles of family needs; and (3) examine whether profiles of needs are differentiated based on child, family, and service characteristics. Participants were 579 parents of children and youth with cerebral palsy. Children/youth and their parents completed a modified version of the Family Needs Survey, Family Environment Scale, Coping Inventory, Children's Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment, Measure of Processes of Care, and Services questionnaire. Research assistants determined the Gross Motor Function Classification System levels of the children. The structural models explained 23% of variance in needs related to child condition, 43% of variance in needs related to community and financial resources, and 33% of variance in needs related to family functioning. The determinants of the three models included different combinations of services (accessibility, coordination, processes), family (relationships, income), and child (gross motor function, adaptive behavior, communication problems) characteristics. K-means cluster analysis indicated four unique profiles of needs: Low Needs, Needs Related to Child Health Condition, Needs Related to Community and Financial Resources, and High Needs. Profile membership was differentiated based on child gross motor function and adaptive behavior, family relationships and income, and access to and coordination of services. Families who were included in the profile of low needs commonly reported accessible, coordinated, and family-centered care. The results emphasize the importance of providing medical and family-centered services to address the unique needs of families of children and youth with cerebral palsy. Service providers are encouraged to engage families in expressing their needs, collaborate with families in identifying resources to meet needs, and guide families in navigating complex service systems to address needs.

Children with complex cerebral palsy (typically, but not always, GMFCS levels IV and V) require skilled management and extensive expertise which can be overwhelming or intimidating for many clinical practitioners. This book explores management of the many medical comorbidities these children encounter, including orthopedic concerns, mobility and equipment needs, cognition and sensory impairment, difficult behaviors, seizures, respiratory complications and nutritional challenges, among many others. Summary points at the end of each chapter provide at-a-glance access to key recommendations. In addition, an Appendix provides adaptable care tools to guide clinicians in evaluation, preventive care and crisis management. Importantly, the book includes contributions from parents of children with cerebral palsy and youth with cerebral palsy, providing unique and critical wisdom for family-centred care. Parents and families of children and youth with complex cerebral palsy will particularly appreciate the inclusion of chapters on adolescence, transition to adulthood, and growing up, growing well with cerebral palsy.

Decades of research have demonstrated that the parent-child dyad and the environment of the familyâ€"which includes all primary caregiversâ€"are at the foundation of children's well- being and healthy development. From birth, children are learning and rely on parents and the other caregivers in their lives to protect and care for them. The impact of parents may never be greater than during the earliest years of life, when a child's brain is rapidly developing and when nearly all of her or his experiences are created and shaped by parents and the family environment. Parents help children build and refine their knowledge and skills, charting a trajectory for their health and well-being during childhood and beyond. The experience of parenting also impacts parents themselves. For instance, parenting can enrich and give focus to parents' lives; generate stress or calm; and create any number of emotions, including feelings of happiness, sadness, fulfillment, and anger. Parenting of young children today takes place in the context of significant ongoing developments. These include: a rapidly growing body of science on early childhood, increases in funding for programs and services for families, changing demographics of the U.S. population, and greater diversity of family structure. Additionally, parenting is increasingly being shaped by technology and increased access to information about parenting. Parenting Matters identifies parenting knowledge, attitudes, and practices associated with positive developmental outcomes in children ages 0-8; universal/preventive and targeted strategies used in a variety of settings that have been effective with parents of young children and that support the identified knowledge, attitudes, and practices; and barriers to and facilitators for parents' use of practices that lead to healthy child outcomes as well as their participation in effective programs and services. This report makes recommendations directed at an array of stakeholders, for promoting the wide-scale adoption of effective programs and services for parents and on areas that warrant further research to inform policy and practice. It is meant to serve as a roadmap for the future of parenting policy, research, and practice in the United States.

When a child has a health problem, parents want answers. But when a child has cerebral palsy, the answers don't come quickly. A diagnosis of this complex group of chronic conditions affecting movement and coordination is difficult to make and is typically delayed until the child is eighteen months old. Although the condition may be mild or severe, even general predictions about long-term prognosis seldom come before the child's second birthday. Written by a team of experts associated with the Cerebral Palsy Program at the Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, this authoritative resource provides parents and families with vital information that can help them cope with uncertainty. Thoroughly updated and revised to incorporate the latest medical advances, the second edition is a comprehensive guide to cerebral palsy. The book is organized into three parts. In the first, the authors describe specific patterns of involvement (hemiplegia, diplegia, quadriplegia), explain the medical and psychosocial implications of these conditions, and tell parents how to be effective advocates for their child. In the second part, the authors provide a wealth of practical advice about caregiving from nutrition to mobility. Part three features an extensive alphabetically arranged encyclopedia that defines and describes medical terms and diagnoses, medical and surgical procedures, and orthopedic and other assistive devices. Also included are lists of resources and recommended reading.

Have you ever Wondered how to deal with a family that repeatedly fails to keep clinic appointments? Disagreed with colleagues over a proposed course of treatment for a child? Considered ways to 'bump' a child on a waiting to speed up their assessment? These are a few of the scenarios faced by clinicians in neurodisability on a daily basis. Ethics in Child Health explores the ethical dimensions of these issues that have either been ignored or not recognised. Each chapter is built around a scenario familiar to clinicians and is discussed with respect to how ethical principles can be utilised to inform decision-making. Useful "Themes for Discussion" are provided at the end of each chapter to help professionals and students develop practical ethical thinking. Ethics in Child Health offers a set of principles that clinicians, social workers and policy-makers can utilise in their respective spheres of influence.

This manual is the highly recommended companion to CPRT: A 10-Session Filial Therapy Model. Accompanied by a CD-Rom of training materials, which allows for ease of reproduction and enhanced usability, the workbook will help the facilitator of the filial training and will provide a much needed educational outline to allow filial therapists to pass their knowledge on to parents. The Treatment Manual provides a comprehensive outline and detailed guidelines for each of the ten sessions, facilitating the training process for both the parents and the therapist. The book contains a designed structure for the therapy training described in the book, with child-centered play therapy principles and skills, such as reflective listening, recognizing and responding to children’s feelings, therapeutic limit setting, building children’s self-esteem, and structuring required weekly play sessions with their children using a special kit of selected toys. Bratton and her co-authors recommend teaching aids, course materials, and activities for each session, as well as worksheets for parents to complete between sessions. By using this workbook and CD-Rom to accompany the CPRT book, filial therapy leaders will have a complete package for use in training parents to act as therapeutic agents with their own children. They provide the therapist with a complete package for training parents to act as therapeutic agents with their own children.

Family-Centred Assessment and Intervention in Pediatric Rehabilitation analyzes the effectiveness of Family-Centred Services (FCS) for children with disabilities or chronic illnesses. This text provides you with the exact definition of FCS and offers proof that parent involvement in children's treatment greatly enhances therapy. You can use the suggestions and methods to integrate parents into therapy, maximizing the family's intervention experiences and making your work more successful and effective. Many clinicians agree that families play a crucial part in deciding what intervention strategies are best for their children. From this text, you will learn that listening to parents and valuing parental input will give you insight into the goals, needs, and ambitions families have for their children. This enables you to choose, with the parent, the interventions that best suit your patients’needs and the needs of their families. In addition to information on how to integrate parents and families into intervention, Family-Centred Assessment and Intervention in Pediatric Rehabilitation offers suggestions that will improve your existing FCS or help you implement a family- centred approach, including: performing therapy in natural settings, such as school or home, to make changes in the children's social and physical environments acknowledging the grieving and adaptation process of families while being compassionate and understanding letting parents describe what they would like their child to be able to do and accomplish in the future putting the parents’concerns and requests first, enabling parents to deal with caring for their child supporting parents and reinforcing them when they have innovative and helpful ideas informing parents on the progress of their children and educating parents on methodologies and strategies used in FCS Many of the suggestions derived from the analysis of current data and original research in Family-Centred Assessment and Intervention in Pediatric Rehabilitation have immediate clinical applicability, allowing you to quickly adapt methods into your intervention processes. This text also provides you with information on types of evaluative methods, such as Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC) and Family-Centred Program Rating Scale (Fam PRS), that will help you determine if your FCS program is working efficiently. Emphasizing the goal of parent interaction in FCS services, Family-Centred Assessment and Intervention in Pediatric Rehabilitation offers methods that will improve your work with families and patients, making services more beneficial and relevant to the child and to their families.