Article published in Cerebral Palsy Magazine in 2004, written by Jo-Anne Weltman PT, certified CME III practitioner:

“When my child has regular physical therapy it is like the therapist is just playing with her, whereas when my child has CME therapy she is truly working.” I hear this statement from parents again and again. Especially from parents whose children have tried all kind of therapy in order to develop their gross motor skills.

Let me give you some personal background before continuing to tell you the true wonders of CME therapy and is creator, Ramon Cuevas.

I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Physiotherapy in Johannesburg, South Africa and practiced there for several years using a “traditional” NDT type approach in treatment. My husband and I moved to and stayed in San Diego, California for a year where I started learning about Sensory Integration therapy and its importance in children with special needs. We soon moved onto Auckland, New Zealand where I was fortunate enough to spend two years working in a cerebral palsy school that used Conductive Education as its main focus in helping children. Family pulled us to Toronto, Canada and this is where I first saw CME while searching for a job in pediatrics.

You only need to see CME once to know that it is special, and you only need to see Ramon Cuevas working with a child once to know that he truly is a genius to invent these exercises. He intricately understands the motor development of children with special needs and understands how to make the brain react correctly to various inputs. The response and movement must come from the brain and the muscles, otherwise over time the results will be lost.

After spending many years in government-run services and other private practices, I know have my own private practice. I see many children with various physical needs and concerns, and use CME on children with many diagnoses (e.g. children with all types of cerebral palsy, Down syndrome, spina bifida, various chromosomal abnormalities etc). I even use CME on children with orthopaedics concerns, such as torticollis and toe walkers. Walkers, orthotics and other artificial external devices are not used in this therapy. Often children never have to use any of these devices when completing their therapy as they are able to walk freely.

Parents with children with special needs in Toronto, Canada sooner or later come across MEDEK, as it is commonly referred to by doctors and therapists in the leading children’s hospitals and treatment centers. All pediatric therapists know of CME here. Many parents who have seen the results of others are seeking it out.

So what is CME therapy? Basically the mains points of CME are that you want the child to move strongly against  gravity with your control points are as distal as possible for each exercise, allowing the child to do as much of the movement as possible. A lot of vestibular and righting reflexes are used to promote movement. For example we use a sitting exercise. The child lies on a table with legs hanging over the edge at the knees. You sit in front and place your hands on either side of the pelvis.

You turn the child to one side with pressure down through the up most hip, wait for the child to respond to stimulus of the head positioned free in space at 45 degrees and thus complete the movement to sit up. The progression then is to hold the thighs and repeat, then the shins, then the ankles (this all takes time for the progression to occur). These are two very simple examples from more than 500 more complicated exercises designed by Ramon.

Ramon says that all we have the same underlying blueprint. Even though there is damage, the blueprint is still there. We can achieve the same response if you demand it and help the synapses form. You don’t work on tone or positioning directly, but tone, movements and body postures improve when doing these exercises. Progress is so much faster than with other therapies. CME has a strong impact on the child’s sensory system helping normalize the system through exercise that send strong messages to the brain to regulate the tactile, proprioceptive and vestibular components. For example, the child stands on the side of a board less than an inch thick with shoes on while you hold him at his ankles. He has to balance his body as he receives strong gravitational signals through the vestibular system while his ankles are challenged to find a secure position due to the narrow support.

Ramon has spent over 30 years developing and perfecting the exercises. He teaches and see children in and from many countries and cities, including Montreal, Toronto, New York, Belgium, London, Venezuela, Argentina, Mexico and Chile to name a few. Parents fly to various locations just to get as much of his intensive therapy as they can for their children. It is intense only because it sends such strong sensory messages to the brain so that it knows where the body is in the space and can send an automatic correct response. It is not intense in that it takes up much time, so parents only have to do the exercises twice a day. Then they can get on with the rest of their day and enjoy just playing with their child, or get others daily chores done.

The equipment used for CME therapy is simple, yet complicated. It is made up of a set of wooden boxes, boards and beams, as well as the now famous “Schmata” a piece of nonslip material. It is simple enough for me to carry in to my treatments and complex in that boxes are used for over 500 different exercises.

So why have you not heard about CME therapy? Ramon only teaches small groups at a time, as the technique takes time and practice to learn. Currently, he also does all the teaching himself. He wants the exercises taught properly so that the correct response is achieved from each child and the technique does not loose its impact. He has not yet much spare time to promote and advertise CME, as he is busy helping many children. Ramon is trying to complete a book illustrating all this exercises so that he can educated many about CME, and give many more an understanding about this technique. You will not see big colorful advertisements to promote CME, as many other therapies and institutes are able to use. However, this therapy should not be overlooked because of this. The results are far superior to most techniques available to children with motor delay. CME’s advertising is in its results.

Jo-Anne Weltman PT