Sunday, July 31, 2011

Motor deficits beware: Wolf on the hunt.

Okay, I'm a "stroke recovery nerd". But this is cool... so Stephen Wolf, the PT PhD that ran the big constraint induced trial back in 2005 has a really cool trial going on...

Of course, there's the whole repetitive task specific thing -- just like constraint induced. But what I really like about this is the focus on the survivor figuring out what the next step in motor learning is. That is, the survivor is the most important part in the process of recovery. And to his credit this is something Wolf has been promoting for a really long time. Even constraint induced, really, is all about the survivor driving their own nervous system towards recovery.



A couple of funny things about this video; the fact that he did it not in some sort of sterile looking environment but in an area that's typical of an OT workspace. Tons of stuff, vaguely categorized, piled on top of each other. A thing of beauty if you appreciate it. The other thing that pops is the level of movement he's suggesting. Have you tried to take the cap off of meds lately? I'm not hemiparetic but I struggle a lot with those safety bottles. And then he suggests that the stroke survivor would use a very delicate "three jaw chuck" grasp to pick up pills... that's just about the highest level of motor recovery that you could pretty much possibly have. "Enough finite movement" indeed!

Of course, they would probably tell me that they are making sure that tasks are within the ability of even their lowest level participants.



~

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Huge in Malaysia

Big news: Stronger After Stroke has been translated into Malay, the language of Malaysia and Indonesia. It costs Harga: Rp 53.000,- but its worth it, because, as it says on the front cover, "Untuk para pasien stroke, terapis serta orang-orang terkasih mereka, Stronger After Stroke menyajikan filosofi perawatan yang baru, lebih efektif, dan sangat sederhana."

And that's gotta be worth something.

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