Young People’s Attitudes About Standing Frames

Young People’s Attitudes About Standing Frames

As therapists, we frequently recommend standing frames for children with cerebral palsy or other developmental disorders.  A question to ask yourself is do you frequently check for ease and comfort of use with the client? This is a question that needs to be asked over and over again. Children grow and change so rapidly. Comfort and ease of use for any device (be it a computer, stander, wheelchair, adapted toilet, etc) needs to be constantly assessed.

Child: Care, Health and Development published research on a semistructured interview with 12 young people with cerebral palsy regarding the positive and negative experiences regarding standing frame use.  The interviews revealed that some young people:

• reported that although standing frames can be painful, it should be endured to improve their body structure and function.
• feel excluded from their peers, and others feeling as though standing frames helped them “fit in.”
• are not offered a choice about how and when they use their standing frame.
• that there are challenges to standing frame use such as manual handling, interference from siblings, and the lack of aesthetically pleasing standing frame designs.

The researchers recommend an exploration of each young person’s personal goals and experiences as well as therapeutic outcomes is necessary when prescribing standing frames.

Remember not to just ask the parent, teacher or caregiver but check with the clients themselves.

Reference:  Goodwin, J., Lecouturier, J., Crombie, S., Smith, J., Basu, A., Colver, A., … & Roberts, A. (2017). Understanding frames: A qualitative study of young people’s experiences of using standing frames as part of postural management for cerebral palsy. Child: Care, Health and Development.

Read more on standing frames:

Dosing for Standing Programs

Standing Program and Cerebral Palsy

Effects of Standing Programs on Walking in Children with Cerebral Palsy

More resources for children with cerebral palsy:

Teaching Motor Skills to Children with Cerebral Palsy and Similar Movement Disorders: The ELECTRONIC version of Teaching Motor Skills is a must-have reference for all therapists who work with children with cerebral palsy.   Whether you are a beginner or experienced therapist you will find the information concise, informative and very helpful to carry out everyday functional tasks including stretching with children with cerebral palsy. The book provides activity suggestions throughout the developmental sequence such as head control, tummy time, sitting, transitions, walking and beyond.  There is also great information that reviews additional interventions for children with cerebral palsy such as bracing, surgical and medical management.  The author, Sieglinde Martin, is an experienced PT and a mother of a child with cerebral palsy. FIND OUT MORE.

Therapeutic Play Activities for Children digital download includes 100 play activity pages and 12 tip sheets. The play activities encourage the development of fine motor skills, bimanual skills, rolling, crawling, tall kneeling, standing balance and cruising with a strong focus on children with cerebral palsy.  FIND OUT MORE INFORMATION.

 

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Walking and Social Interactions

Infant Behavior and Development published interesting research on walking and social interactions. Research has already indicated that crawling is a motor as well as a cognitive milestone. In this study there were three experiments and the results were the following:

1. social and exploratory behaviors were the same in crawling infants whether crawling or in a baby walker
   
2. independently walking infants spent significantly more time interacting with toys and mothers, made more vocalizations and directed gestures than age matched, crawling peers in a baby walker
3. when infants progress from crawling to walking increased interaction with mothers and more sophisticated social interactions were observed (even when controlled for age)
   

The researchers concluded that there is a developmental progression that links social interactions with developmental milestones in locomotor skills. You can read the full study here.

For non ambulatory young children, this may be appropriate to reference when justifying a need for powered mobility or mobile standing frames.

Reference: Melissa W. Clearfield Learning to walk changes infants’ social interactions. Infant Behavior and Development Volume 34, Issue 1, February 2011, Pages 15-25