Bulletin

Issue: May 2006

News

Training DVD for young people with a disability wins award

A La Trobe University training DVD to help young people with cerebral palsy has been voted the year’s best audiovisual product by the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine.

The DVD – which was also a finalist in the Victorian Department of Sport and Recreation’s ‘Go for Your Life’ awards – assists young people with cerebral palsy, their families, health professionals and fitness specialists to use strength training with weights to overcome muscle weakness.

The new exercise program follows four years of research by a team which included the Head of La Trobe’s School of Physiotherapy, Professor Karen Dodd, and senior lecturer,
Dr Nicholas Taylor.

The La Trobe researchers worked with Professor Kerr Graham, Director of the Hugh Williamson Gait Laboratory at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, to demonstrate for the first time the beneficial effects of strength training. Previously, physiotherapists had believed such treatment had no benefits.

The team published 15 research papers on various aspects of the research in peer-reviewed journals around the world. Professor Dodd says the new treatment has significantly changed thinking about the management of cerebral palsy.

A world authority on exercise treatment of people with injuries or sickness resulting from brain damage, Professor Dodd says the DVD provides ‘instructions about simple, effective workouts and valuable information which shows how strength training fits with current management of cerebral palsy.’

It was produced by La Trobe and made by the University’s multimedia production unit, COMET, with support from the Australian Barbell Company and the Clinical Centre for Research Excellence in Gait Rehabilitation.

Professor Dodd said the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine is the world’s leading research organisation dealing with cerebral palsy and chronic disabilities. She said the award will be presented at the Academy’s annual meeting to be held in Boston, USA, in September.

The DVD can be obtained from denise@australianbarbell.com.au