Physical therapists are health professionals who help in restoring function, relieving pain, and improving the mobility of the persons with disabilities. They treat accident victims and patients with disabling conditions such as arthritis, fractures, low-back pain, head injuries, heart diseases, cerebral palsy and more. Physical therapy specialists advice several exercise programs to increase the strength, balance, flexibility, endurance, coordination and range of motion of the disabled individual. What is more satisfying than bringing back a disabled person to his normal life style?

To become a physical therapist, one must have a masters degree in physical therapy from an accredited institute and a state license. Moreover, he should possess strong interpersonal skills so as to communicate with the patient and his family. The physical therapy job demands scores of patience from the practitioner.

Physical therapist jobs are gratifying in the sense that board certified physical therapists can practice in hospitals, rehabilitation clinics, long term care centers, acute care hospitals, nursing facilities, outpatient clinics, assisted living facilities, home health agencies, educational institutions, and more. One of the advantages of becoming a physical therapist is that you can opt for temporary, travel, per diem, contract, part-time, full-time or permanent placements.

Another advantage of becoming a physical therapist is that you get to know more people of different age groups, values, cultures, and faiths. The advantages of becoming physical therapist do not end there; qualified and skilled physical therapy professionals receive competitive salaries and excellent benefits as well.

Physical therapy improves the health and fitness of the patient. A physical therapist plays an important role in enhancing the quality of life of disabled people by developing their strength and lifting up their spirit. As the opportunities for physical therapy jobs are expected to rise, it is definitely a lucrative career option.

Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disease. This disease can completely change the life of the patient if not treated well. Peoples with this disease can completely lose the touch with the real world. The suicide and violence rate in schizophrenic patients is very high. Early treatment can help in the recovery of the patient.

Following symptoms can be found in schizophrenic patients.

Symptoms

.The patient will hear voices in his mind. He will start talking with himself just like he is talking with someone.

.Patient will tell his guardian that someone is ordering him.

.Patient may report seeing something unusual like that is not possible in the real world.

.The patient will feel an unusual type of taste, smell.

.Will believe someone special is in touch with him.

.Mayreport someone is giving him a message through Tv or phone.

.The patient will tell someone is after him for something or he is being followed.

.Schizophrenic may consider his thoughts are being controlled. Someone can know what he is thinking and he can transfer his thoughts to another person.

.Will believe, through his thoughts he can control the peoples or world.

.Maybelieve himself a special person or a messenger of God.

.Patient may strictly believe in false beliefs.

.The patient may start smiling or crying without any reason

.Schizophrenictake high stress and tension on tiny matters.

.A patient talking and thinking behavior will change. He will talk and think differently. When he will talk about something then abruptly he will change the topic and will mix his speech with different topics. Like this patient who was observed by Nancy C. Andreasen “The next day when I’d be going out you know, I took control, like uh, I put bleach on my hair in California.”

.The patient will ignore peoples. His social activities will decrease and he will like solitary. He will spend most of his time at home and will avoid going out to meet peoples.

.The patient will become emotionless. He may not react to the circumstance that can evoke emotions in others.

.The patient’s thinking capability will decrease and he will not be able to deliver the right answer.

.The patients will become depressed and their ability to feel pleasure will decrease.

.Patient will get sleep problemslike severe insomnia.

Causes

Genetics, environment, substance use is mostly considered a risk factor but precise causes are not clear. If a family has schizophrenic patients then in this family newborns are at risk of developing this disease. Malnutrition or infection during pregnancy can also become a cause. Stress can also play a role in developing this disease. Cannabis use can become a contributing factor in developing schizophrenia.

Treatment

Antipsychotics medicines are used to treat these patients. These medicines have disturbing side effects. Like blood pressure and diabetes patients schizophrenic patients are required to take these medicines for remaining life but the American Psychiatric Association(APA),advises doctors to stop recommending antipsychotics to those patients who have no symptoms for the last one or two years. Most schizophrenic patients start living a normal life with good treatment. Some of them also recover completely. These patients also required good social support to recover.

Does it disturb your child when you stroke her face? Does your son need to have all the labels removed from his clothing before he will wear them? Does your child refuse to wear wool because it scratches him? Do you have to battle with your daughter in order to brush her hair?

It could be that your child has a sensory motor integration deficit known as tactile defensiveness or touch sensitivity.

What is Touch Sensitivity?

The sense of touch is essential for normal social and emotional development. It is this system that allows us to make the deepest connections with others. It is through touch that the mother and child bond to each other. We connect most closely with our spouses through touch.

Touch also serves a protective function. It is through tactile discomfort or pain that we realize that things like fire are dangerous. Painful or unpleasant touch experiences tell us to prepare for a physical threat that might require a need to run away or retaliate.

In some people this tactile sensory system is not functioning properly. These people experience pain or distress from touch sensations that other people find non-threatening or even pleasant. These people have sensory integration disorder known as tactile defensiveness or touch sensitivity.

Children with touch sensitivity are often in the state of “red alert”. These children are threatened by sensations that others would see as meaningless. Children with touch sensitivity also experience tactile sensations differently than others. A sensation that we would experience as soft may be painful to them. The result is that often their behavior is affected. Casual contact can cause what others view as extreme and inappropriate reactions. These children may whine cling lash out or run away as a result of normal things in their environment.

Sensory motor integration deficits need not affect a child’s learning ability, but the resulting reaction often does. A child with touch sensitivity is constantly on the defense. He can be emotionally insecure and extremely distractible. This is one of the ways that tactile defensiveness differs from ADD ADHD. ADHD children have difficulty sustaining attention, but they are not more easily distracted than other children. Small stimuli that would not affect an ADHD child who is engaged in an activity, may cause disturb a touch sensitive child.

To give you an idea of how these children experience the world, imagine the feeling you have when someone scrapes his nails along a blackboard, or the feeling you have when you cut your nails too short. This is how a touch sensitive child might experience a warm caress. There is a difference, however. When you cut your nails too short, it bothers you for a while, but the discomfort goes away. If a child is touch sensitive, the discomfort never goes away.

The child may not be able to wear his dress pants because the feel of wool is too uncomfortable to bear. He may not be able to concentrate in school because he is enduring the hardness of the chair or the rush of air blowing on him from the ventilation system. He may be quick to lash out when another child bumps him, because of the perceived attack by the other child. He may be unable to make friends because of the fear of being bumped prevents him from interacting in a normal fashion.

Adults with a sensory integration disorder may have problems in their relationships with their spouses. Normal daily contact may disturb them, and they may avoid physical contact with their spouses even when such contact is appropriate. This desire not to be touched can have a seriously negative impact on a marriage.

What You Might See

Here are some of the things that may indicate that your child is touch sensitive. Your child may be touch sensitive if he:

Reacts strongly to sensations that most people don’t notice.

Tries to avoid tactile experiences.

Is easily distracted because things are touching him.

Insists on having certain textures of clothing.

Makes you cut all the tags and labels out of his clothing.

Won’t eat certain foods because of their texture.

Craves certain sensations the he finds calming, like rocking or firm pressure.

Fights irrationally when you are combing or shampooing his hair, cutting his fingernails, or brushing his teeth.

In adults and children with sensory motor integration deficits the palms of the hands, soles of feet, mouth and tongue are usually most sensitive areas.

Coexisting Disorders

Touch sensitivity is a sensory integration problem. Although this disorder can exist by itself, more often it is part of a constellation of other problems that children have. Children with touch sensitivity often have the following other disorders:

Motor coordination problems

Bed-wetting

Speech and language delays

Hand-eye coordination difficulties

Motor planning difficulties

Allergies

Frequent ear infections

Poor eating habits

Problems with digestion & elimination

Sleep irregularities

High anxiety and emotional insecurity

In addition there are a number of medical disorders that commonly have touch sensitivity as a component. These include: Asperger’s Syndrome

Autism

ADHD

Bipolar Disorder

Down Syndrome

Dyslexia Fetal alcohol syndrome

Fragile X

Learning Disabilities

Obsessive compulsive disorder

Pervasive developmental delay

Selective mutism

Causes

Like so many other disorders of the brain and complex neurological function, we do not know why children and adults have sensory integration disorders. In medicine, when we don’t know the cause of something we like to say that the cause is idiopathic. This is a term which is a term derived from Greek or Latin or some other dead language, which means “we don’t know.”

However as scientists, not knowing something makes us very uncomfortable. Therefore there a number of theories on what causes disturbances in sensory processing. There are at least five competing hypotheses. The most recent research suggests that the abnormality may lie in the cerebellum, the part of the brain that modulates sensory motor activity. There might be something to these theories. However, based upon the review of current literature it seems to me clearly, that the cause of touch sensitivity is idiopathic.

What Should You Do Next?

Touch sensitivity is a sensory motor integration deficit. The goal of treatment is to repair the sensory processing disorder by giving the child a means to develop his or her sensory integration. The goal of therapy is to normalize sensory integration and motor planning by improving the way the nervous system registers and interprets tactile information.

Treatment of touch sensitivity is usually done under the auspices of an occupational therapist. If you feel that your child may have touch sensitivity you should first try to confirm the diagnosis by going to someone who is trained in diagnosing sensory integration problems. You should first consult your pediatrician with your concern and try to get a referral to a Pediatric Occupational Therapy Service for diagnosis and treatment. They will manage your child’s treatment plan and teach you what you can do at home to help your child.

Conclusion

Touch sensitivity is one of a number of sensory motor integration deficits that affect children. It often accompanies other disorders such as ADHD, Bipolar disorder, and other developmental childhood disorders.

I have not seen any statistics, but it seems that sensory integration disorders are fairly common. This condition can be severely handicapping. However, it is possible to treat. If you feel that your child may have this condition, it is definitely in your child’s best interest to have a thorough evaluation by an Occupational therapist trained in sensory integration and motor planning.

Stuttering (or stammering) is a voice disfluency, a speech disorder. When a person stutters, the normal flow of speech is disrupted by repetitions and/or prolongations of voice sounds. Frequently, an individual is also unable to start a word.

Child stuttering, toddler stuttering and adult stuttering are themes being studied by many scientists and speech specialists all around the world. The Stuttering Foundation of America, the National Stuttering Association, the National Center for Stuttering and individual speech therapists in general are all investigating why people stutter and finding effective and fast speech therapies.

Nevertheless, even though scientists have several theories and suspect a variety of causes for stuttering, the precise mechanisms causing this disability (also called stammering) are not understood. Some believe that many forms have genetic origins.

A common form of stuttering is neurogenic. Neurogenic stuttering arise from signal problems between the brain and nerves or muscles. In neurogenic stuttering, the brain is unable to adequately coordinate the different components of speech mechanism.

The disruptions of speech may be accompanied by tremors of the lips and/or jaw, rapid eye blinks and other movements. This disorder commonly becomes more severe when speaking in front of a group of people or on the phone. On the other hand, speaking alone and singing might generally improve it or disappear completely.

Over three million Americans stutter. Stuttering affects all ages, but most frequently, children between the ages of 2 and 6 are the most affected. Preschool and toddler stuttering are especially affected while they are developing their language. When they grow up, most of them improve or cure. One percent or less of adults stutters.

Many famous people stutter. Marilyn Monroe, Bruce Willis, Winston Churchill and Mel Tillis are only a few whose success was not impeded by stuttering. Their speech language issue did not stop them to excel and express themselves magnificently.

With these encoraging news about famous people succeeding in spite of their common issue, I end part 1 of these series of articles. Much more information can be found at a site dedicated to stuttering problems and resources, as well as a library of speech language pathology.

This is the end of Part 1 of Stuttering and speech therapy ideas. On next chapters I will be writing about different and effective therapies developed lately by researchers on the field of stammering or speech language pathology.