Introduction
Curriculum and monitoring system (CAMS) is a program that teaches caregivers mental and sensorimotor stimulation techniques. It is designed to be taught by health care professionals (e.g public health nurses) to caregivers in their home environment. There are five programs within the method: cognitive, language, motor, self-help, and social skills. The program outlines its strategies through 100 defined and illustrated cognitive, motor, and language activities which are intended to improve the development of children with suspected or confirmed brain injury from birth to 5 years.
Parent & Family Information
Curriculum and monitoring system (CAMS) is a set of activities that caregivers can administer themselves in their home with a child. It provides caregivers with activities to help stimulate the mental and sensorimotor skills of their child. Caregivers are usually guided by a health care professional to determine an individualized program. Once a plan is determined, caregivers practice activities with their child following visual and written examples from a manual. The frequency and duration of a program(for example, 20 minutes of activities once daily) is based on individual needs and the family’s preferences.
CAMS is an early intervention program, used to enhance the cognitive and sensorimotor development of children (birth-5 years) with suspected or confirmed brain injury. It can also be used to improve caregiver-child interactions and reduce caregiver stress.
No but the program is individualized based on the child and family’s needs and preferences.
There is no conclusive evidence that shows that CAMS is an effective program for treating cerebral palsy (CP). There is only one recent study that compared CAMS to a state funded early intervention program (in a Los Angeles Regional Center). The infants included in this study were suspected of having CP but were not yet diagnosed. The results of the study suggested that CAMS was not more effective in improving sensorimotor skills, nor was it better at reducing caregiver stress and improving mother-child relationships when compared to the state funded early intervention program (the details of this program were not presented).
You will likely start with an initial meeting with a health care professional (e.g. public health nurse) in your home. The initial meeting(s) will help to determine an individualized treatment plan that meets the needs of your child and your family. You will then be given specific activities from your manual to follow daily at home with your child. The frequency and duration of the activities will be determined based on your and your child’s needs and preferences.
A public health nurse can provide CAMS training and supervision to caregivers.
Treatment period can vary and programs can be individualized based on the progress of the child and the needs of the caregiver.
In the study reviewed, the stimulation activities were performed for approximately 20 minutes daily.
There are no known side effects to CAMS.
There has only been one study that examined the effectiveness of CAMS on a small group of infants with suspected brain injury. There is currently no scientific evidence that CAMS works for children with CP.
Definitions
A group of lifelong disorders affecting a person’s movement, coordination, and muscle tone and which are the result of damage to the brain before, during, or shortly after birth.
Sensory skills are those that allow us to receive information about our bodies and the environment through our five senses (vision, hearing, smell, taste, touch) as well as the vestibular sense (balance and one’s position in space) and the proprioception sense (feedback the brain receives from the movement of muscles). This sensory information is then used to produce a motor response (movements of smaller and larger muscles in the body). Motor skills include running, jumping, handwriting, and speaking.
