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Four-year-old Tara Ingerson from Brisbane QLD was born missing a fundamental
part of her brain, the thick band of nerves called the corpus callosum, connecting
the two hemispheres. The corpus callosum is the super highway that connects the
two different sides of the brain i.e. 200 million nerve cells connect the right
and left hemispheres of the brain, it allows you to control, balance and coordination
and is critical for simple things like walking or catching a ball.
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A lot of the children with Agenesis of the corpus callosum’ (ACC) also have autism
spectrum disorders, behavioural problems and many suffer from epileptic seizures.
Kim Peak the ‘Rain Man’ from the movie of the same name has ACC; he has an amazing
memory and mastery of history facts. In spite of those amazing skills he can't even
get himself dressed in the morning, he can't make himself breakfast and couldn't
even take a bus to get himself to a job. He travels worldwide with his father showing
his amazing gift for memorizing facts.
Tara & Wendy
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Tara attends Arundel Park, Riding for Disabled Inc for Hippotherapy treatment sessions
with a registered physiotherapist, a horse handler, 2 side walkers and Daisy the horse. ‘Hippotherapy’
comes from the Greek word hippos, meaning horse; the term literally means “treatment
with the help of a horse” and refers to the horse’s movement as a treatment tool
to improve neuromuscular function.
“The horse's movement puts stimulus up through Tara’s body. Tara’s body reacts
as though she is walking so she is working on all the muscles that she needs to
use when she's walking.
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I can treat all sorts of kids that don't respond to a lot of clinical treatment...
with this therapy, the horse is doing the treatment, basically, and the kids are
there having fun and not even knowing that they're working.
At present, Tara can not walk and can't weight-bear without specialised equipment,
she needs constant support. Before Tara started with hippotherapy she could barely hold
her head up, certainly not sit up by herself, now she can.
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Daisy at work
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“Using the movement of the horse to relax her muscles, Tara can stretch her legs
down, sit up nice and tall and when she’s ready, tell Daisy to go! Getting up on
the horses back on her hands and knees Tara is developing her shoulder girdle muscles so she can actually get up on the floor and crawl
at home. Each week she gets better and better and every week we're doing something
new.” When you see the results you just know it works.”
Wendy Mungomery, Physiotherapist
Today’s medicine and science increasingly understands the brain to be a much
more plastic organ than originally thought. With the right stimulation and training
the brain can adapt to missing parts, build new connections to missing or damaged
parts allowing them to do things that were originally thought to be impossible for
them.
At present there is not enough support for children like Tara who have multiple
disabilities. If these children are helped while they're young then we know the
outcome for these children is much better, this means that things are also far better
as they increase in age. Sadly very few suitable and proven ‘early intervention
programs’ for children with multiple disabilities really exist in any true form,
certainly one with such a well proven record worldwide.
Riding for the Disabled provides early intervention programs for these children
through ‘hippotherapy’. If you would like to support the work of RDA and its vital
programs please contact us on 03 9731 7388; visit your local centre or donate online.
This article was adapted from ‘All in the Mind’ ABC Radio National, Natasha Mitchell
2008 Summer Season http://www.abc.net.au/rn/allinthemind/stories/2009/2435760.htm
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