Adaptive standing

The Posture and Postural Ability Scale or P-PAS is a tool that can be used to assess posture, postural ability and the quality of posture in prone, supine, sitting and standing positions. Posture, in this context, refers to the anatomical alignment of body parts in relationship to each other and the environment.

SATCo is a valuable tool to help clinicians determine just where a client needs trunk support in order to engage in a task or activity. The work of Butler et al. demonstrated the validity of the tool and its ability to detect trunk weakness and postural control challenges. This approach to assessing the trunk is a paradigm shift.

While many in the therapy community have not heard (yet) about SATCo, it’s a valuable new assessment that looks at trunk control. SATCo stands for Segmental Assessment of Trunk Control and it is a specific method of determining the level at which an individual loses postural control. We speak of “segmental assessment” because during evaluation we progressively change the level of trunk support at seven distinct levels.

When using adaptive equipment it is important to have high standards for goal writing and data collection. Adaptive equipment spans a huge range from gait trainers to pencil grips. How many times have you seen adaptive equipment that was recommended for a student not being used properly or to its full potential? It is important to establish SMART goals for adaptive equipment the moment it is put into use...