Tutors Afford Meaningful Physical Activity to CP Patients

Dr. Deborah Thorpe writes that sixty percent of persons with cerebral palsy (CP) in the United States are over the age of fifteen with life expectancies similar to those of the unaffected population but still strongly related to a degree of severity. Cooper et. al. in a study about physical activity and health among people with disabilities found that activity level was significantly correlated with years of survival in adults who had CP. Other investigators concluded that adults with cerebral palsy were probably not engaging in sufficient physical activity to produce the improvements in fitness that would be necessary to experience health benefits.
A few studies have addressed progressive strength training on land in adults with CP with significant improvements in muscle strength, walking speed, and gross motor movement. However water is being used as an optional exercise medium to land with this population. By utilizing the beneficial properties of water such as buoyancy, neutral warmth, and variable resistance and eliminating the negative effects of gravity, persons with CP can optimize their full movement potential in such an aquatic environment while maintaining joint integrity.
The TUTORS (HANDTUTOR, ARMTUTOR, LEGTUTOR and 3DTUTOR) afford such strength training as may be necessary to achieve normal movement ability.
The newly developed HANDTUTOR and its sister devices have become a key system in neuromuscular rehabilitation and physical therapy for CP, brain and spinal cord injury patients as well as a host of other joint disabling illnesses. These innovative devices implement an impairment based program with augmented feedback that encourages intensive practice and motor learning through active exercises. The exercises are challenging and motivating and allow for repetitive and intensive training tailored to the patient’s performance, motor, sensory and cognitive movement ability. Customized, simple but powerful rehabilitation software allows the physical and occupational therapist the ability to adjust the program and exercise difficulty to the patient’s movement ability. The system also includes objective quantitative evaluations that allow the physiotherapist and his occupational therapist colleagues to report on the patient’s exercise progress. Telerehabilitation features allow the HANDTUTOR, LEGTUTOR, ARMTUTOR and the 3DTUTOR to be supported by the physical rehabilitation team when the patient is at home. This ensures that the patient is motivated to do more practice between treatments by the therapists. The TUTOR system is suitable for children as well as adults. See WWW.HANDTUTOR.COM for more information.