Zoe, A Young Girl With Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy

We each come into this world with potential. This is unique to each of us. Zoe is one of the more challenged children and so her learning is slower, but learn she does. I have been working with her for a few hears now. Zoe has a joy that is contagious. She has a smile for everyone and always ready to laugh. Following is an article that appeared in Ode Magazine, in August, 2012:

Feldenkrais may even be able to help those who have never experienced normal motor function at all. Kathy Yates, a certified FM practitioner from New York, helps youngsters suffering from neurological disorders like cerebral palsy discover parts of their bodies they have never actually felt, then to use them and, finally, to slowly gain more mobility and independence.

Before she started weekly sessions with Yates about two and a half years ago, Zoe Petrou, 9, from Nyack, New York, could “only scoot on the floor and barely sit up or walk in a walker a few steps,” says her mother, Karin, a 45-year-old restaurant worker. Zoe has dyskinetic cerebral palsy, a rare form of the disease with particularly disabling symptoms. Despite undergoing traditional physical therapy from the day she was born, Zoe’s condition did not improve.

Then Yates started working with her. Incrementally, she moved Zoe’s body in various directions and into various positions the girl couldn’t achieve on her own. In that fashion, she slowly managed to teach the child’s brain “to recognize, and then develop an image of, parts of her body that previously didn’t exist for it and therefore could not be used,” explains Yates.

Today, Zoe is able to roll over from her belly onto her back, something she had not been able to do before. When lying down, her mom reports, “She can pull herself up and then sit unaided.” And, to her family’s delight and her own, she can now also grasp things with her right hand.

- See more at: http://odewire.com/poetryinmotion#sthash.36hq6UlD.dpuf

September, 2013: Zoe continues to develop skills and organization. She is using her hands more, holding toys longer, and in gross motor activities like shifting in sitting on the floor. As she is going through puberty and growth spurts, there is confusion and insecurity as any young person would have, but it shows in different ways for Zoe who is very sensitive. So she folds over more when walking, though lately there are days when she is more upright than ever before. Though her speech is limited, we hear new vocabulary emerge.