ADAPTATION: the process of adapting to something such as environmental
conditions.
ADAPTIVE OR ADAPTATIVE: having a capacity of adaptation.
ADAPTATIVE MOTOR CONTROL: classic definition from N. Bailey and A. Gessell, for developmental manual activities.
ANOXIA: Absence of oxygen in arterial blood or in the tissues.
ASSUMPTION: An Idea or statement assumed to be true without proof.
ATAXIA: Inability to coordinate voluntary muscle movements, unsteady movements and staggering gait.
AXON: nerve fiber that conducts impulses away from the body of a nerve cell.
BALANCE: equality of distribution.
BALANCE BAR: narrow piece of wood.
BALANCE BOARD: square flat piece of wood with a central cube.
BIOMECHANICS: the functional aspect of an activity.
BUFFER: device to reduce the shock due to contact
CENTIMETER: a metric unit of length equal to one hundredth of a meter.
CEREBRAL PALSY (*): group of chronic (non degenerative) conditions affecting the body movements and muscle coordination. Is caused by damage to one or more specific areas of the brain occurring during the pre, peri or post natal period.
CME: abbreviation of Cuevas Medek Exercises
COLLAPSE: the act of throwing yourself down, abrupt failure of function.
CONSCIOUS: having awareness of sensations and thoughts.
DENDRITE: the branching portion of a nerve cell that carries impulses toward the cell body.
DEVELOPMENTAL MOTOR DELAY: slow acquisition of motor functions.
DISTAL: directed away from fulcrum point.
DOWN SYNDROME: chromosomal abnormality, (produce global developmental delay) also call trisomy 21.
ECLECTIC: selecting what seems best of various styles or ideas.
ENCEPHALITIS: Inflammation of the brain usually caused by a virus.
EQUILIBRIUM: a sensory system located in structures of the inner ear that registers the orientation of the head.
FACILITATE: make easier.
FINE MOTOR CONTROL: archaic definition for functions involving manual activities.
FOUR POINTS: crawling position
FULCRUM: the pivot about which a lever turns.
FUNCTIONAL: performing or capable of performing
GLIA: Star-shaped cells that provide physical and nutritional support for neuron.
GRAVITY FORCE: attraction of the earth’s mass.
GROSS MOTOR CONTROL: archaic definition for postural motor functions.
(CME concept: Indeed is no “gross motor functions” in human motor behavior and is a big mistake to titled the postural- functional activities with such name. For instance, to stand and walk required the complex interaction of many systems to cope with the
biomechanical challenge to control the body vertical and functional using a reduced base of support as is the feet surface relate to the size of the body. Is no specie on earth matching the biomechanical characteristics of the human standing posture. Examples of the complex nature of standing and walking can be easily found in the technological field of robotics. For decades are available robots in the automotive industry (painting, soldering, assembling etc.), so manual activities can be replaced easily, but walking activities are only recently achieve in a very basic level by a robot made in Japan in 2000.
Other example is the technology available for quadriplegic persons which allowed them to manage the motorized wheel chair by a device working with air pressure that the person apply with the mouth through a plastic tube. To name postural motor responses as “gross activities” and manual activities as “fine ones” does not honoured the truth).
HIGH RISK CONDITION: expose to a chance of damage.
HORIZONTAL: parallel to or in the plane of the horizon.
HYPERTONUS: abnormal high muscle tension to palpation or / and to stretching.
HYPOTONUS: abnormal low muscle tension to palpation and or to stretching.
IDIOPATHIC: arising from an unknown cause.
LATENT: potentially existing but not presently evident or realized.
LOCK A JOINT: to immobilize a joint to restrain flexion.
LOTUS POSITION: sitting position on the floor with legs crossed.
MATURATION: biological unfolding of events involved in an organism changing gradually from simple to more complex level of function.
MATURITY: state to being mature, full development.
MEDEK: Spanish acronym meaning Metodo Dinámico de Estimulación Kinésica, (Dynamic Method of Kinetic Stimulation).
MENINGITIS: Infectious disease characterized by inflammation of the meninges (the membranous tissues that surround the brain).
MIMIC: to imitate closely
MOTOR CONTROL: is the ability to regulate or direct the mechanisms essential to posture and movement.
MOTOR-POSTURAL ASSESSMENT: the act of evaluate the motor-postural
reaction of a child, related to the chronological age.
MUSCLE TONE: the elastic tension of the resting muscle.
NEONATAL: related to the infant during the first month after birth.
NEURONE: any of the cells of nerve tissue, consisting of main portion or cell body and short fibers conducting impulses toward the cell, and one long fiber conducting the impulses away from the cell.
ORGANIZATION: is the neuro-physiological process essential to achieve developmental evolution.
PIVOT: the act of turning,
PER SE: intrinsically, with respect to its inherent nature.
POLICY: a plan of action adopted by an individual or social group.
POSTURE: position or arrangement of the body and the limbs
POTENTIAL: the inherent capacity for coming into being.
PREMATURE: born after a gestation period of less than the normal time.
PRONE: lying face downward.
PROGNOSIS: A prediction of the course of a disease.
PROGRESSIVE DISEASE: gradually advancing in severity.
PROPRIOCEPTION: The ability to sense the position, location, orientation and movement of the body and its parts.
PROVOKE: to incite to action.
PROXIMAL: situated nearest to fulcrum point.
ROBOT: a mechanism that can move automatically.
ROBOTICS: discipline concerned with the practical use of robots.
SANDWICH (by): position of hands, one in front of the other, containing the child’s body in between.
SPECTRUM: broad range of related values or qualities or ideas or activities.
STABILITY: the quality or attribute of being firm and stable.
STIMULUS: acts to arouse action.
STROKE: A sudden loss of consciousness resulting when the rupture or occlusion of a blood vessel leads to oxygen lack in the brain.
SUPINE: lying face upward.
SYNAPTIC CONTACT: the point at which a nervous impulse is transmitted from an axon of one neuron to the dendrite of another.
TRAPEZE: a short horizontal bar suspended from 2 parallel ropes.
VECTOR: a straight line segment whose orientation in space is direction.
VERTICAL: at right angle to the plane of the horizon. |
