Adaptive Mobility and Positioning Blog

As school-based therapists, we are frequently asked to provide input on seating, standing, and movement opportunities (including walking and gross motor participation). The school is a naturally supportive setting for children of all abilities to participate more.

Active sitting promotes trunk and head control and can improve a child’s posture and functional use of the arms and head. Learn how to position and adjust an adaptive chair to encourage active sitting.

The Activity Chair pelvic harness is more effective than a seatbelt or abductor for securing the pelvis and enabling functional sitting.

Beyond the comforts of the sofa or the academics of a classroom, sitting is a learning position – for motor skill building. For those with disabilities that limit standing and walking opportunities, this means engaging in seated postures and activities that challenge core stability, endurance, trunk and head control. And the start of the learning process always begins with transferring out of a...

We know that there are over fifteen body functions and body structures affected by the orientation of an adaptive seating system. So needless to say, when setting up such a seating system for a child with disabilities, it’s important to get it right. That task falls on the child’s therapist or ATP. Successful positioning and functional results depends on thoroughly understanding the...

Occupational therapist Michelle Lange recently conducted a survey on dynamic seating. Her questions focused on wheelchairs that have dynamic components integrated into or added to the design. Over 100 clinicians and suppliers responded and it’s clear that we’re seeing an increased appreciation for dynamic adaptive equipment for children and clients with unique positioning needs. Michelle...

By popular request we now have created a positioning checklist for the Rifton Activity chair. Therapists know how tough it can be to remember each client’s specific support prompts and settings, especially with an adaptive chair that is used between multiple clients.

From school classrooms to radiology departments to hospital feeding clinics, the Rifton Activity Chair meets a range of positioning needs in a variety of environments. Recently we learned of yet another clinical setting where the Activity Chair has found a niche: in the study of neurodevelopmental disorders at the UC Davis MIND Institute, an internationally respected research facility. Here, the...

Wheelchair seating and positioning is a frequent source of frustration for parents. I often hear that the wheelchair just doesn’t work well in the home. It is too low to use at the table for meals or homework but it sits too tall for their child to be at the same height as their friends. Or I hear complaints about maneuverability in the home. But perhaps the most important complaint I hear is this:...

As therapists we generally like to distinguish between active and passive sitting. Active sitting refers to dynamic positioning of the trunk and extremities over a stabilized pelvis for the purpose of completing a task. Active sitting is the posture we use for eating, learning and participation because it is a posture of alertness and purpose, relying heavily on the strength and sustained functioning of...