Adik, Learn to Trust Your Left Hand!

Hemiplegia or hemiparesis? Adik's problem is the latter, which means weakness on one side of the body. Hemiplegia is total paralysis of arm, leg and trunk on the same side of the body.

As the children with either hemiplegia or hemiparesis grow, they tend to favor the unaffected limb more over the time, effectively worsening their physical disability. It's very true for adik's case. Adik semacam neglect his left hand. Kaki tak bermasalah sangat since adik memang terpaksa menggunakannya untuk berjalan dan bergerak ke mana-mana. Berbeza dengan tangan, adik can still use the other hand or other parts of the body to assist his right hand. Mulut ke kaki ke dada ke, boleh aje.. Yang penting he gets what he wants..

Yet, hal ini tak boleh dibiarkan. Nanti adik terpaksa struggle lebih to learn age-appropriate play and can have difficulty acquiring life skills. Bandingkan aje waktu main gelongsor dengan Najla, who is of the same age. Even though adik manage to climb, boleh juga gelongsor, yet adik got to put more effort since he used only his right hand. This is only one example. There will be more things in life that require adik to use both hands.

Nak tak nak, ummi dan abah terpaksa cari jalan juga untuk menggalakkan adik menggunakan his left hand.

1. Adik nak kena sedar yang dia ada 2 tangan. Yang ni rasanya adik dah tahu. Cuma adik juga tahu yang tangan kiri adik lemah. Yet, ummi, abah, abang dan kakak kena selalu ingatkan adik pasal tangan kiri. Perhaps talking to his subconscious will help. It can be done waktu adik hampir-hampir nak tidur atau waktu adik sedang tidur.

2. Teach adik to trust his left hand. Appraisal seems to be very important for adik. That motivated adik sewaktu dia berusaha untuk berdiri dan berjalan sendiri. Remember how proud and happy adik was when all, even tok mok clapped their hands and cheered at the time adik showed even slight improvements day by day. Bila macam tu adik jadi tambah bersemangat dan buat berkali-kali tanpa disuruh. Ni yang ummi dan abah kena beri perhatian. The hows, yang tu kena be creative.. But the environment kena ada. Environment yang sentiasa memberi galakan dan semangat to support him to show the improvements. Kakak and abang may help.