(John's ACQUIREc therapist helps him use his right hand to take a drink; John just looks up at Mom)
The short version: If your child has hemiparesis/hemiplegia (weakness/lack of function on one side of the body), please contact the Sparks Clinic in Birmingham, AL for ACQUIREc Therapy (Pediatric Constraint-Induced Therapy). It's fantastic! In the first week, my son went from not using his right arm or hand in any functional way to feeding himself with a spoon! We're going into the second week now and can only imagine what life-changing progress the next three weeks will bring. In our experience, the standard once-a-week 45-minute OT sessions are useless--John didn't make significant progress until we did this intensive program (21 days of in-home therapy, 6 hours a day).
Some things that were helpful before ACQUIREc therapy:
-sensory brushing (any OT should be able to give you a brushing protocol)
-mini-constraint sessions. A few times a day I would place a sock over John's good hand and block him from using it (not restrain him, just put my arm in front of his to block it), then present him with his favorite toys and encourage him to use his affected hand. Sometimes these sessions only lasted a few minutes, but we saw big progress.
