Cuevas Medek Exercises (CME)
CME is a psychomotor therapy designed to facilitate the development of gross motor skills in children with neurological, genetic, and developmental disorders.
CME therapy provides children with the opportunity to learn body movement and control and how to operate in a more biomechanically effective and efficient manner.
How Does CME Work?
The foundation of CME is built upon helping children with impaired motor skills develop postural control and adjustments. The ability to control posture and make adjustments in response to gravity, movement and the external environment, is critical throughout development and is an essential physical characteristic needed perform gross motor skills such as crawling, sitting, standing, and walking. Postural control correlates to proximal stability (trunk stability). With proximal stability, the body can functionally maintain its position to allow more distal segments (such as the arms and hands) to perform fine motor skills.
CME therapy involves physical manipulations of body segments to provoke postural adjustments in response to gravity.
By varying the level of support given to a child, in conjunction with dynamic and challenging tasks, new stimulus and sensations are provided to the child (challenging proprioception and the vestibular system) in which they must make postural adjustments to maintain an upright position.
Through repetition, neurological connections are consolidated and a child’s postural response to an exercise may become autonomous, thereby maintaining stability and balance.
CME therapy can be enjoyable for children as it often resembles movements and activities experienced during play.
"Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much"
– Helen Keller
