Cerebral palsy (CP) covers a group of disorders that affects a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. It’s the most diagnosed childhood motor disability in the United States and Canada. About 10,000 American babies are born annually with CP, while each year 1,200-1,500 school-aged children are diagnosed with the disorder.

There are nearly 1,500 American babies born each year with the spinal birth defect spina bifida. Most of them have trouble moving and face disabilities ranging from mild to severe.

Crouch gait, the abnormal walking pattern often seen in children with cerebral palsy and other knee-extension-deficiency disorders, is not only painful but can often lead to worse issues as a child ages—bony deformities, degenerative arthritis, joint abnormalities. It’s best, then, to treat it early.

If you’re reading this, you might be the parent of a child with cerebral palsy. Or spina bifida, muscular dystrophy, or some kind of incomplete spinal cord injury or knee-extension-deficiency disorder. Something that has somehow compromised your child’s ability to stand, walk, and move with ease, purpose, and joy.