Neurodevelopmental Therapy

Abstract

In the 1960s and early 1970s, pediatric therapists for CP appeared distinct from therapists who trained on poliomyelitis cases and from there quickly developed a cadre of therapists who practiced neurodevelopmental therapy (NDT). Neurodevelopmental treatment has gone through a long evolution over the years. Time has forced it to become more eclectic and become one of the most commonly used intervention strategies for children from infancy through adulthood with CP.1 Since the conception of NDT by Dr. Karl and Mrs. Berta Bobath in the 1940s, the scientific community’s understanding of the brain and the conceptual framework of NDT has evolved. As our understanding of how the brain inspires and controls movement evolves, so does the theory of NDT into what is currently accepted as the Dynamic Systems Theory. In this way NDT is a “living concept.”2 It adapts and grows as knowledge of the brain’s function is revealed.