Finally the Bday Pics are Here

Welcome to Mendele's Birthday Party!

That's me!

and my friend.

Here are my cousins.

We passed around the Pushka (Charity Box) at the party and I gave Tzedakah!

My Hachlata (resolution) is to kiss the Mezuzah every night before going to bed.

We three were born within 2 days of each other. We heard a story, took turnes saying the 12 Pesukim (Torah Passages) and played a game with my Tatty.
More Tzedakkah fun.
Der Gantzer Mishpacha.
( Being that this picture ended up here....this is Mendele and his new therapist who does Feldenkrais with him.)

Thanks for joining my birthday party! Happy Birthday!

Choosing the best theory - Our experience with Medek

Disclaimer: We do not endorse Medek.

We were given the opportunity to try Medek with Mendele as a demonstrator. Ramon was giving a course to learning therapists who were to be certified in Medek. There are 3 levels to Medek, this course was level 1. The course was a week long. We were asked to come in for 3 sessions plus the evaluation. It was very interesting to hear how Medek was created from Ramon himself. He explained each exercise, than took turns with the different children demonstrating the exercises.

Medek has a reputation of children crying throughout the session, or having some dangerous moves. Medek done by an experienced therapist is not dangerous and does not cause the child to cry. If the child is crying, the exercise is not being done correctly. Medek exercises are very specific. The exact location on the child's body will ensure if the exercise is being done properly or not. If the therapist or parent doing the exercise is even 1/4 inch off, the exercise will not work. Some children handled it well. Mendele did not enjoy it too much. Once evaluated and given the exercises Mendele was able to keep up with those allotted to him. Medek re-evaluates after each session and gives parents exercises to work on with their children.

Choosing the best theory.
Rule # 1: Know your child and what works well for your child.
Rule # 2: Look for what will be most affective for your child.
Rule # 3: Think of the long-short way vs. short-long way.
Rule # 4: Give at least 4 months for new method to take affect.

Ms. MEDEK (not related to Mr. MEDEK)

Of all the Medek therapists in North America Esther Fink is certainly the most well known.

This is Dr. Esther Fink:

Fink is the owner of the Canadian MEDEK CentreTM. She has more than twenty years experience in the treatment of children with orthopaedic and neurological dysfunction. She has been in the executive of several professional associations including serving as the Eastern Canadian chairperson for the American Neurodevelopmental Treatment Association. She is also the head of the Physical Therapy Department at the Zareinu Educational and Treatment Centre.


Ester Fink introduced the MEDEK approach to North America and Israel. She is a MEDEK instructor and teaches clinical skills to students and professionals. At Zareinu she is the clinical coordinator for the clinical education of physical therapy students from the University of Toronto.


Fink received her physiotherapy education in Israel and a degree in physiotherapy from McMaster University. She has completed many courses in Canada, the United States, South America and Israel. She is certified in MEDEK as both a therapist and instructor by Ramon Cuevas, the originator of the MEDEK intervention system.

All of the info and pictures are straight from Esther Fink's WebSite: http://www.medek.ca/

Mr. MEDEK

This is Mr. Ramon Cuevas:

Ramon Cuevas developed the CME approach (formerly MEDEK) in the early 1970’s. He has more than thirty five years of experience in the treatment of children with neurological and musculoskeletal dysfunction. Cuevas teaches students and professionals around the world and has participated in conferences in South America and USA. He can be reached at (56-2) 4265334, (56-2) 4329050 or by e-mail: cme@cuevasmedek.com. Visit his website at http://www.cuevasmedek.com/

To see Mr. Cuevas in action you can visit http://www.yussuf.org/, a site which chronicles the amazing work of CME on one child.
Also see http://www.cnsfoundation.org/site/News2?news_iv_ctrl=-1&page=NewsArticle&id=6699 for an article by Mr. Cuevas about his creation.

Interview with Mr. MEDEK Part I

The following article was published in the September issue of the Building Blocks magazine, a supplement to the Jewish Press.

Interview With MEDEK Founder Ramon Cuevas

By Perel Grossman

A few moments with the originator of the CME/MEDEK program is enough to make one realize that this dynamic individual is no ordinary therapist. Ramon J. Cuevas is obviously fired with determination, dedication to a cause, and gratefulness for G-d’s role it all.

The story begins in 1969, when Ramon Cuevas graduated from the University of Chile with a degree in Physical Therapy. Like others in his field, Cuevas started his career by providing traditional physical therapy to his patients. However, after a while, Ramon became increasingly frustrated with his efforts, after noting only minimal progress in his patients. Somehow, he knew, there was more that could be accomplished.

In 1971, he began his research, and with the permission of parents eager to see their children advance their motor skills, Ramon initiated experimentation with new techniques of his own device. Working with babies 3 - 4 months of age, his research entailed placing them in various positions, using manual exercise to incite progress (all the while carefully monitored the infants to ensure that the movements were not causing them any harm). By this method, Mr. Cuevas discovered that placing his small patients in certain positions caused the brain to react, thus triggering the automatic motor responses pre-programmed in the child’s brain. (In a healthy child, the aging process automatically causes these responses to kick in.)

This research led to the development of Cuevas’s original method of physical therapy known as “MEDEK” or CME (Cuevas Medek Exercise). CME is a therapeutic approach based on manual exercise, developed to treat children with motor development issues. MEDEK can be applied to youngsters and babies with Cerebral Palsy, Downs Syndrome, Spina Bifida, various orthopedic conditions, and low muscle tone. (MEDEK is not appropriate for any progressive degenerative neuromuscular disease.)

HOW DOES MEDEK/CME WORK?

As Mr. Cuevas points out, MEDEK or CME works very differently from traditional therapy. “Where traditional therapy facilitates patients to do things, CME provokes progress- literally forces the brain to react.”

The idea is to expose the child’s body to extreme situations, thus producing a reaction. This experience creates new connections in the brain, also known as synapses. Ironically, the “plasticity” of the brain - its amazing ability to create new pathways and thus new capabilities – has become a very hot topic in the world of science today.

Yet, Mr. Cuevas stumbled upon this discovery 35 years ago, purely by instinct. Only recently has the scientific world borne witness to this incredible phenomenon through various laboratory experiments and the like. Ramon explains that “any child that enjoyed progress through my therapy already had the recovery potential.” It is just a matter of provoking, using and enriching the brain’s capabilities.

GOOD NEWS TRAVELS FAST

Mr. Cuevas’ reputation began to spread via word of mouth, and the start of international acclaim came as a result of treating the children of two families in Toronto, Canada. The extremely satisfied parents recommended CME to other families desperately searching for help for their developmentally delayed youngsters.

Although Mr. Cuevas began his work with infants and children up to the age of three, who could be manipulated most easily due to their small stature and low weights, parents who heard of his work soon arrived at his door, begging him to intervene with their older children. This required a tremendous amount of strength in his arms, and particularly thumbs, as oftentimes the child’s entire body weight has to be supported solely by the therapist at ankle level.

Still here, CME seemed to help and even produce astounding results in the children who were brought to him from all over the world.

One child arrived at his doorstep, capable only of walking completely bent forward, while grasping a parent’s hand on both sides. After just three days of intense therapy, the child was walking freely. Ramon even took on a twenty-year-old patient, which was an extreme challenge (CME is only designed for children). The young man was getting around with great difficulty, with the aid of two canes. Within a year, this boy’s life was transformed, as he gained the ability to walk freely.

Ramon Cuevas developed the CME approach (formerly MEDEK) in the early 1970’s. He has more than thirty five years of experience in the treatment of children with neurological and musculoskeletal dysfunction. Cuevas teaches students and professionals around the world and has participated in conferences in South America and USA. He can be reached at (56-2) 4265334, (56-2) 4329050 or by e-mail: cme@cuevasmedek.com. Visit his website at http://www.cuevasmedek.com/

An Interview with Mr. MEDEK Part II

The following article was published in the September issue of the Building Blocks magazine, a supplement to the Jewish Press.

Interview With MEDEK Founder Ramon Cuevas

By Perel Grossman

IS CME FOR EVERYONE?

“We have a 75% success rate,” explains Mr. Cuevas. ”This is not a miracle,” he warns, as not every child with motor issues will progress through CME. He is very forthright with parents who come to seek his help. He generally suggests an eight-week trial period with a new patient, by which time he hopes to help the child achieve three new functions. If he does not achieve these goals, he suggests that the parents seek other forms of help.

CME is not easy on the practitioner or the child. At the end of a CME session, both practitioner and child can be covered in sweat from the efforts and exertions. Yet the thrill of independence and the impact it has on the patient’s future is inestimable.

The typical program for a patient traveling to see Mr. Cuevas is a 24 session course of treatment, carried out in two weeks’ time. For the first twenty sessions, Mr. Cuevas pushes the child to the maximum of her potential at the time, and devotes the last four sessions to selecting simple therapies to teach the parents, and more difficult ones for a local therapist to carry out when they return to their homes. A video of the exercises is typically produced to help the parents in their new role. After a few months, the parents might bring the child back for more CME treatment, obtained directly from Mr. Cuevas.

While some parents travel to Chile for treatment, Mr. Cuevas does spend a few weeks each year in the New York/New Jersey area (particularly Monsey and Lakewood) and in Canada treating patients. Rumor has it that community rabbis in some of these areas had to decree that time slots be evenly apportioned, so as to meet the needs of the many frantic parents anxious to make sure their children were attended to.

SPREADING CME

Ramon has only 24 hours in his day, and can only be physically present in one location at a time. Therefore, he has embarked upon an ambitious plan to spread the practice of CME to others. He began instructing physical therapists, occupational therapists, and physicians in the implementation of his program.

In the year 2000, The Cuevas Medek Exercise Continuing Education Program was conceived to enhance the quality of CME teaching. The Cuevas Medek Exercises Therapy Continuing Education Program offers four levels of learning in four locations: New York, Montreal, Toronto, and Jerusalem.

WHAT’S HE REALLY LIKE?

You might think that someone as successful as Ramon Cuevas might consider himself to be a pretty fantastic guy- ambitious, money-hungry, and egotistical. Yet you’d be very wrong, because Mr. Cuevas believes he was inspired, and he attributes this inspiration to G-d.

He feels it is his mission to help children and that G-d gifted him with unusual dexterity and the discovery of a new method with which to achieve this goal.

He relates the following story:

On a Saturday in Antwerp, he used a copy machine in a local store and upon returning to his hotel room, discovered amongst his copies a rather strange sheet of paper. He recognized the letters as Hebrew, and asked a rabbi that he knew to interpret it for him. It turned out to be a copy of chapter 127 from Tehillim [Psalms]. He was most moved by the passage “Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of youth.”

Ramon feels that this was a message to him, depicting him as that warrior who launches his young patients like arrows, allowing them to move with new freedom and gain the mobility that they had never known before.

Not satisfied with all of the aforementioned activities that fill his life, Mr. Cuevas just produced his first English language book, a CME manual that offers an understanding of CME therapy, devoting for the first time a great deal of space to its genesis, theory, cases and exercise practice.

The author insists that the book is not a commercial effort, but written purely with the intention of promoting his techniques to benefit the children. “I have everything,” he assures me with a grateful smile, “I have a wife and four children.”

And, indeed, for Ramon Cuevas, it is all about the children.

Ramon Cuevas developed the CME approach (formerly MEDEK) in the early 1970’s. He has more than thirty five years of experience in the treatment of children with neurological and musculoskeletal dysfunction. Cuevas teaches students and professionals around the world and has participated in conferences in South America and USA. He can be reached at (56-2) 4265334, (56-2) 4329050 or by e-mail: cme@cuevasmedek.com. Visit his website at www.cuevasmedek.com

Ba-ba-ba-budy

Hello there,

We once heard that beets are good for the digestive system. Well, Mendele got a full serving of 'em!

He really enjoyed that activity...

...but when he realized how messy the stuff was...

...and that he was covered from head to toe...

...he was grossed out!
So he demanded a bath.

Ahh. much better.
In all seriousness bath time is a great learning experience for Mendele. The truth is that every everyday activity can be a language experience for babies, as they have their learning radars way up.

Our wonderful speech and special ed. therapists have instructed us to turn every routine into a consistent, systematic exercise. Even saying goodbye has become a learning experience. It begins with walking the guest to the door, waving goodbye ("bye-bye"), closing the door and shutting the hallway light.

Every action should be accompanied by some word or sound. Shutting the lights- "Off!". Closing the door, "Closed!". Splashing around in the bath, "Splash!" and blowing bubbles, "Bubble, Bubble".

---ta ta.