MAES Therapy Yorkshire

The MAES therapy model has been developed by Jean-Pierre Maes following 20 years of experience working within the field of cerebral palsy (CP) and other similar neurological conditions.  The MAES therapy model is a new approach to treating children and adults with movement disorders which aims to modify the environment and focus on developing and building the skills a child / adult needs to achieve better functional outcomes.

The treatment and management of neurological conditions has been around working on changing the tone and atypical patterns of movement which are seen externally as a result of the brain lesion / damage (as it see’s these external symptoms as the problem).  

This traditional approach places children in symmetrical positions for all activities to prevent deformities and contractures, but due to this they are missing out on opportunities to be asymmetrical and build on a repertoire / combinations of movements.

The difficulty lies in that we are starting to realise that the traditional approach is not having the results we expect it should be.  What we are seeing with this approach is that over time children with CP do progress and are engaging with complex tasks, however, they are not developing better means or ‘tools’ and plateau with their development. 

Children with CP have preferred asymmetry and MAES aims to promote a range of asymmetries to build a large repertoire of movements so when they coordinate and move their body it has the skills  / larger combinations to enable them to complete tasks of higher complexities without the introduction of atypical symptoms.

References

Bobath Centre, (2018). The Bobath Concept. [Online]. Available at; https://www.bobath.org.uk/content/bobath-concept-0. [Accessed 01 June 2018].

J.P. Maes. (2013). Definition of cerebral palsy. MAES therapy Course handbook, Somerset (2018).