Children with cerebral palsy can face extraordinary challenges learning to master basic motor skills and physical movements. While scientists have spent years developing new techniques to teach children with cerebral palsy how to better control their bodies, a growing body of literature suggests that hippotherapy for cerebral palsy can work wonders in teaching disabled children how to walk and maintain better posture.
Hippotherapy for Cerebral Palsy in Children
“Hippotherapy” might sound strange, but it is simpler than its name suggests. Fortunately, hippotherapy has nothing to do with hippopotamuses: instead, it is a recently developed form of therapy that uses horses to teach children and adults with disabilities to refine their motor skills.
Hippotherapy for cerebral palsy in children can be an especially useful tool because equine movement has been shown to stimulate neuromotor inputs. For example, when a person with cerebral palsy spends just five minutes atop a moving horse, they receive more than 500 unique neuromotor inputs. A typical hippotherapy session lasts between 15 and 25 minutes, so a single hippotherapy session can yield between 1500 and 2000 neuromotor inputs.
The neuromotor inputs received from repeated hippotherapy sessions can help the body naturally adapt to everyday movements and tasks.
The Benefits of Hippotherapy
Since a walking horse’s gait mimics that of a human, spending time atop a horse may help people with cerebral palsy’s neuromuscular systems adapt to walking. Hippotherapy may also enhance:
- Strength
- Control
- Balance
- Posture
- Coordination
The benefits of hippotherapy could help people with cerebral palsy not only walk independently but also:
- Control their arms and legs
- Reduce abnormal muscle tone
- Enhance their attention spans
- Improve their ability to better express and understand emotions
Children with cerebral palsy may also benefit from visiting new and visually stimulating places. And—perhaps needless to say—they often enjoy interacting with the friendly and specially trained horses.
Paying for Hippotherapy for Cerebral Palsy
Hippotherapy has shown great promise in alleviating some of the physical and cognitive challenges associated with cerebral palsy. However, hippotherapy is not free. While every hippotherapy provider sets their own fee, individual sessions usually cost anywhere between $80 and $300. You may be able to pay for hippotherapy:
- Out of pocket
- Through your private health insurance carrier
- With Medicaid
- Veterans’ and veterans’ family benefits
Help Beyond Hippotherapy
Hippotherapy could help your child lead a more independent and fulfilling life. Of course, cerebral palsy is a complex and often debilitating condition: while hippotherapy might be able to improve a child’s motor abilities, they will almost certainly need additional care and resources. You might, for instance, need to pay for:
- Other forms of physical and cognitive therapy
- An in-home caretaker, assistant, or aide
- An assisted living facility
- Special education services
- Other medical and lifestyle expenses associated with cerebral palsy
How a Kentucky Cerebral Palsy Birth Injury Attorney Can Help You
If your child has cerebral palsy, you might be committed to ensuring their well-being but uncertain as to whether you can muster the finances needed to give your loved one the support they deserve. After all: experts estimate that the lifetime cost of caring for a person with cerebral palsy often exceeds $1 million.
However, you may have options beyond driving yourself into debt. If your loved one’s cerebral palsy was caused by medical malpractice, you could be entitled to significant compensation. A Kentuckycerebral palsy birth injury attorney could help you:
- Investigate your child’s cerebral palsy injury to determine if you have a strong medical malpractice case
- Collect, gather, and analyze evidence demonstrating that a medical professional is liable for the cerebral palsy injury
- Calculate the net value of your case by considering your past, present, and future medical expenses, plus your family’s emotional pain and suffering, lost income opportunities, and diminished enjoyment
- Negotiate with an insurance company for a fair and equitable settlement. If the insurance company is not willing to negotiate in good faith, we could take them—along with the liable medical practitioner—to court
Kentucky, unlike most other states, does not have a cap on the damages that could be awarded in a medical malpractice case. That means that you could receive as much money as you need to take care of your loved one for life.
Contact Us Today
Even open-and-shut malpractice cases can be difficult. Even though physicians have to purchase expensive medical malpractice coverage, the companies that offer these policies will do everything they can to devalue your case. When you are taking on a medical malpractice insurer, you need an attorney who understands their tactics and knows how to prove negligence to a Kentucky insurance company, judge, or jury.
Gray & White Law has decades of experience serving the victims of negligence and medical malpractice in Louisville and across Kentucky. Send us a message online to schedule your free, no-cost consultation today.