Cover

The 6th Permanent Training Course on Neurorehabilitation in Developmental Age, organized by the Italian Group for Childhood Cerebral Palsy (Gruppo Italiano Paralisi Cerebrali Infantili, GIPCI), with the cooperation of the Mariani foundation, proposes an in-depth analysis and discussion intended for all rehabilitation providers on the problems faced by school-age children with cerebral palsy, from 6 to 12 years old, i.e. their learning at school, their participation in activities typical of their age group, and gaining their independence. These topics demand an involvement not only of physicians and therapists, but also of families and all the figures rotating around the child in the educational and social settings, e.g. teachers, psychologists, education experts, and educators.

On the first day of the course, the focus will be on learning problems and integration in the world of mandatory school for the various clinical pictures of cerebral palsy. In particular, the analyses will concentrate on the need to reconsider the patients’ rehabilitation projects, adapting them to the new needs of the children and their families, and on the methods for ensuring the children’s integration at school in relation to their cognitive profiles and any communication difficulties they may have.

The second day will be spent on the topic of participation and the quality of life of school-age children and their families. There will be presentations on experiences of integration at school and cooperation with the teachers, with the participation of an Australian group and an Italian group, leading up to a discussion of the ways in which cooperation with the families, aids and free-time activities can improve these children’s quality of life. The third day will be dedicated to presentations on the updating and analytical activities of several Gipci groups over the last two years, which deal with topics of considerable interest to the rehabilitation professional, such as: augmentative communication; the role of games and exercise in rehabilitation; emotional-affective issues and how they influence the interactions between the child, the therapist and the family; the organization of services and family-centered therapy; and the use of the ICF in the preparation of a rehabilitation project.

As in the previous courses, there will be frontal lessons dedicated to theoretical contributions and their implications in therapeutic practice in the morning, while the afternoons will be used for the presentation and discussion of video-recorded clinical cases, arranged in the form of workgroups. These practical sessions demand the active involvement of the course attendees, so for the afternoon sessions the numbers will be limited to 200 participants.