Children with cDRA - Treating and Assessing with Tape

Overview

Diastasis rectus abdominis (DRA) is the separation of the rectus abdominus muscles. Congenital diastasis rectus abdominis (cDRA) is the most common congenital abnormality of the abdominal wall. It consists of an upper midline protrusion of the abdominal wall between the right and left rectus abdominis muscles (Curran, 2013).

The skin is of great importance in therapy. The slightest of skin stimuli is enough to obtain a beneficial physical response. We have found that a hand position or stimulus in a certain direction results in a positive effect that can be mimicked with taping.

In her clinical practice, Esther De Ru has found the application of elastic therapeutic tape to be a very effective treatment of DRA (De Ru, 2016).

Learning objectives

In this online course, we will:

• Show an understanding of the important role of the linea alba and rectus abdominis muscle in force transmission.
• Learn more about elastic therapeutic tape, its properties, practices, methods and techniques of use. 
• Gain a full understanding of how tape reacts to different areas of skin mobility and why the effects of ligament- and muscle technique can differ or be the same.
• Understand how to use tape as an assessment tool.
• Gain full comprehension of tape applications and why we use less stretch.
• Be able to apply basic concepts of exercise sequencing to patients presenting with cDRA.
• Understand the need to study the skin and its physiological movement direction and gain knowledge of the Skin Rules (Fukui) that apply in these cases. 
• Apply knowledge of the physiological movement direction of the skin during trunk flexion, trunk rotation, and breathing and understand the effects of skin stretch when using tape.
• Describe the symptom(s) that make us intervene with tape and obtain sufficient insight to decide when to use tape for which goal, and which test we will need to use to test the effects of the tape application.
• Examples of both test-tape-retest-tape and tape frequencies and duration will be presented. 

Prerequisites

To fully understand the concepts and techniques taught in this course, participants are encouraged to take the previous cDRA courses taught by Esther de Ru on Embodia. This will ensure you maximize your learning experience and understand the principles of treatment and tape. You will be offered the option to purchase the additional two cDRA courses on checkout. If you'd like to read about the courses, please click on their titles below:

1. Congenital Diastasis Rectus Abdominis
2. Treatment Possibilities for Children with cDRA