How do spinal cord injuries to children age 0-5 affect their development? - Sara Klaas, MSW

Young children under the age of five, when they sustain a spinal cord injury, do have their physical growth and development affected.  For the child, it depends on their level of injury, whether they sustain a spinal cord injury that results in paraplegia, or a spinal injury that results in all four limbs being involved, or tetraplegia.  For those children, their motor skills are affected and their ability to get around the environment.  What’s important for young children particularly, since their play is their work and how they get to all their developmental milestones successfully, is that they are allowed to be able to use adaptations to get around to play in a room, and access their environment appropriately.