The Role Of Medical Rehabilitation In Children With Disabilities

Illustration (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Disability or functional impairment that causes a person to be unable to carry out daily activities, one of which can occur in children in terms of development.

Developmental disabilities are defined as a group of conditions due to impairments in physical, learning, language, or behavioral abilities. This condition begins during a child's developmental period and can affect daily functioning and usually lasts throughout a child's life.

Launching Antara, it is currently reported that there are more than 1 billion people in the world who are estimated to have disabilities. This amounts to about 15 percent of the world's population, with 190 million or 3.8% of people aged 15 years and over experiencing significant difficulties with their activities and often needing health services.

Specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation (KFR) at the University of Indonesia Hospital, dr. Amien Suharti, Sp.KFR said, in handling disability problems, doctors will conduct an assessment of whether there is a communication function disorder or functional impairment in daily activities.

After the assessment, the doctor will determine what interventions can be given to the patient, which can be promotive, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative in accordance with the condition of each patient.

One of the therapies performed on children with developmental delays is integrated sensory therapy. Sensory integration therapy can make a real difference by helping children to manage their sensitivities and desires.

In handling children's growth and development disorders, the principle of medical rehabilitation management is optimizing the individual's ability to maintain and achieve a better level of physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual function so that there is an increase in the quality of life.

According to Amien, in optimizing this, stimulation is very important. Stimulation is the process of continuously stimulating the relationship between brain cells from an early age, which can develop various abilities of children through the formation of brain circuits.

"With sufficient stimulation and good nutrition, synapses will develop rapidly and the neural network will be wider, which in turn plays a role in increasing children's intelligence," he said.

Meanwhile, in handling sensory processing disorders in children, the focus of therapy in medical rehabilitation is to motivate children to play interactively and meaningfully so that the active participation of patients being treated is also very important.

Amien said, handling disability in children with proper management can restore the functional ability and participation of children according to age.

Physiotherapist at the University of Indonesia Hospital (RSUI), Mahasin Amaliyah, Amd.OT said, parents can observe children's motor development through the Early Detection of Child Growth and Development (DDTK) cards which can help monitor the normal development of children based on age.

He said, children with normal sensory can display normal behavior. Meanwhile, for those who experience sensory disturbances, hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity can occur which is characterized by several behaviors such as avoiding, being uncomfortable, easily tired, or afraid, and reacting excessively to the stimulus received.

Meanwhile, hyposensitivity is the behavior of being busy looking for a stimulus in excess, unable to stay still or moving a lot, and or not responding to the stimulus received.

"If the child's basic sensory is not optimal, then the child will misinterpret the sensory process received, resulting in inappropriate behavior, for example, children are excessively afraid when they hear the sound of a blender," said Mahasin.

According to him, this non-optimality affects children's ability to pay attention and self-confidence. On the other hand, sleeping patterns that are too late can affect a child's metabolic ability and inhibit the plasticity process of a child's brain which is in the process of growing and developing.

Mahasin reiterated that parents need to recognize their child's sensory profile if they feel they have a problem and get help from a health professional as soon as possible.

Early identification and intervention in the form of therapy can have a significant impact on a child's ability to learn new skills, and reduce the need for expensive interventions over time.

More specifically about optimizing children's sensory functions, Mahasin provides some tips. According to him, one of the tips is that parents give their children the opportunity to explore their environment.

"Facilitate them when playing and learning by involving all the sensory components of children, don't ban children too often, but make sure the environment is safe and supervised," he said.

The next tip, parents need to regulate their child's sleep patterns so that they are not too late, limiting foods that contain high sugar, especially in hyperactive children.

Meanwhile, children with autism are advised to follow a controlled diet, either a sensory diet or a certain food diet as directed by a doctor.

Parents are advised not to give gadgets to children under 2 years old. Meanwhile, for children aged 2 years, gadgets can be provided, but there needs to be a screen time limit in a day, which is a maximum of 1 hour with assistance.

This is so that children's sensory development is not neglected, because according to Mahasin many developments are neglected if children watch gadgets.

In addition, parents need to spend at least 10 minutes playing time with their children at home every day without gadgets and other distractions, regularly monitor the child's development and if the child's metastases have a problem, then immediately consult a growth and development clinic and medical rehabilitation to get the right treatment.