Symptoms
Respiratory circulatory factors may be involved in all the following symptoms:
- Spasticity
- Abnormal movements
- Weak stiff limbs
- Weak trunk
- Abnormal posture
- Tremor
- Effortful movement
- Poor head control
- Emotional problems
- Speech problems
- Visual problems
- Difficulty understanding speech
- Memory problems
- Stammer
- Poor balance
- Scoliosis
- Low energy
- Digestive problems
- Problems chewing and swallowing
Causes
- All neurological problems affect breathing. This is of crucial importance since blood supply and oxygen delivery to brain cells is closely involved with learning and brain growth.
- Thus, when breathing becomes abnormal as a result of a neurological problem the child’s abnormal breathing cannot provide the support needed for restorative processes to be optimised.
- A vicious cycle is then produced whereby abnormal neurology creates abnormal breathing and abnormal breathing helps maintain the abnormal neurological state.
- The muscles used for breathing play a major role in controlling heart rate, blood circulation, balance, posture and speech. Correct breathing is important for respiratory health, sleep, relaxation, learning, emotional stability, digestion and elimination and muscular control.
It is therefore easy to see why breathing quality matters to children with neurological problems.
Effects
- Treating breathing with TST ‘massage’ therapy enhances a child’s respiratory capability so that all the physical and physiological systems in which breathing and the work of breathing muscles are involved can improve.
- Furthermore, there is a dynamic interaction between these systems which means that as the child’s breathing improves there will be a further overall developmental advantage.
Do read our Parents’ stories in which parents report on the value of TST to children with very diverse neurological conditions.