Adaptive Mobility and Positioning Blog

As professionals who have worked with children with poor motor control, we have no doubt about the importance of a gait trainer. Using gait trainers for upright positioning and ambulation practice for children unable to walk independently has been a long-standing intervention in clinics, schools and homes. But we’ve all lamented the dearth of solid clinical research to support what we’ve...

There has been a great deal of interest in recent years in the study of plasticity in the nervous system. Plasticity simply means the capacity of the central nervous system to adapt and change. Changes in the structure and function of the nervous system accompany improvements in motor skills that happen with learning and with rehabilitation after neurological damage. Although much of the work on neural...

Today’s post concludes our discussion on Motor Learning and Practice. The introductory post defined motor learning terminology, discussed the MOVE Curriculum (as an example of applied motor learning) and emphasized the importance of practice.  The second post looked at transfer-appropriate training and practice scheduling and leads into today’s evidence-based discussion on the difficulty...

This post continues our discussion begun last week, Motor Skills Learning & Practice part I, where we defined motor learning terminology, discussed the MOVE Curriculum (as an example of applied motor learning) and emphasized the importance of practice.   Transfer-Appropriate Training One question that we must address is, “What should we practice?” This question clearly relates to...

Today’s post is the first in a series of articles on motor learning and practice. You’ll notice that I make frequent reference to the MOVE Curriculum. For those unfamiliar with this, MOVE is an activity-based program designed to teach children with severe disabilities the functional motor skills needed to sit, stand, and walk as independently as possible. There’s a great video...