Northern California Teen Shares Cerebral Palsy and Scoliosis Care Journey

For as long as Tessa can remember, she has been a Shriners Children’s Northern California patient. Tessa was born premature at 27 weeks.

Doctors kept a close eye on her development. When she was a toddler, her pediatrician observed that she was not meeting her developmental milestones and was slow to walk. Tessa's pediatrician referred her to Shriner's Children's, concerned that some of the signs she was showing indicated cerebral palsy (CP).

Cerebral palsy is a general term applied to many conditions that can result from a disturbance to the developing brain. CP affects muscle tone, movement and coordination. For Tessa, this made it difficult to control some of the movements of her body. Her feet pointed inward, making it difficult to walk. Common activities like speaking, standing or sitting can be challenging for children with CP, and can have associated health conditions related to cognition, speech, vision, hearing, breathing issues or difficulty eating and swallowing.

Seeking Support

Shriners Children’s began working with Tessa right away. To assist with walking, she started out with shoe inserts, then a leg brace, and finally had leg surgery in fifth grade. After her surgery, Tessa had to practice walking with the help of physical therapy (PT). She loved PT for the challenges, both good and bad.

“Physical therapists work with me and always talked me through the process, going at my own pace, and getting me to do things that might be painful,” she said. “I don’t think I could have any better treatment than what they’ve given me.”

Motion Analysis

An additional aspect of Tessa’s treatment plan involved a gait motion analysis study to analyze her walking.

During a motion analysis study, engineers collect data related to a child’s movement, their muscle activity, and the forces their body uses to move. The use of infrared cameras mounted around a large room allows movements to be tracked and displayed virtually as patients walk down a runway, and walk or stand on a special force platform. The information is gathered and translated to a 3-D animation, which allows the team to analyze the patient’s movement.