Topic: Joshua - three year old user LOBPI (Read 515 times)
katep Administrator; mom to OBPI sEMG user member is offline
Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 144
Re: Joshua - three year old user LOBPI « Reply #15 on Nov 17, 2007, 10:52pm »
Well, I broke down and am renting a two-channel Pathways for Joshua. If we end up buying it, I want to wait until after Jan 1 as we will have new flex money to cover it at that point. We are - again - all used up this year yuck another expensive medical year!
I have had the unit for nearly 2 weeks and JUST used it on Joshua yesterday. It's been crazy in our house the last few weeks and terrible as that sounds, Joshua's new toy really was on the backburner. But now that I've used it, I really like it!!
I was a little worried about how the two-channels was going to work with a toddler and if it would just be too much. But it's pretty neat how you can work the two-channels for feedback. Basically, you can set a "goal" for each channel - no audio feedback, a tone if you go above a set goal, and a tone if you go below. If you have goals set for both channels, then whenever *both* goals are met, you get a tone. Which is pretty cool and really useful. It isn't a proportional tone like on the myotrac, it is just "yes" or "no" but so far, I like it. We do two different exercises. Flexing arm without moving shoulder (biceps without deltoids) and raising a straight arm (deltoid without biceps). I really think it's going to help him, and it is especially helpful for me to see what sort of manipulations I can do to help him relax his deltoids, for instance, while he's flexing his elbow. I now am 100% sure that his winging is caused by his deltoid co-contraction, and when I help reposition his scapula and/or hold his arm in a more internal position, it is easier for him to shut off his deltoids while still doing biceps. And his biceps definitely come on when he's struggling to raise his arm up past 90 degrees, and it is really good feedback to say "ok, straighten your arm" and the second he does he gets a beep! Right now I have those goals set pretty close together so he only really needs to use a little more of one muscle than the other to get a beep. I think as he gets better at it I will be able to gradually separate the goal points for each muscle further and further, so that he will need to contract biceps even stronger while relaxing deltoids even more.
So we are having a slow start but I think a good one. And I think my newfound laidbackness will help keep the pressure of Joshua and keep him from getting burned out on this new "toy".
Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect. -- Vince Lombardi
katep Administrator; mom to OBPI sEMG user member is offline
Joined: Sept 2007 Gender: Female Posts: 144
Re: Joshua - three year old user LOBPI « Reply #16 on May 19, 2008, 11:09am »
I got our 1-channel Myotrac back to use with Joshua again. I had bought a 2-channel Pathways, but I think it is just too complicated to use for a toddler. I'm not sure about an adult. The Myotrac really has such nice, sensitive, SIMPLE feedback! And the electrodes are much less sticky than with the Pathways (which are a very sitcky gel) and Joshua just would not tolerate them. I "de-stick" the Myotrac electrodes a little before we start, by applying them to my arm and pulling them off a couple of times. They can also be wrapped on, the adhesive is only for holding the little metal pickups in place.
So this time I wanted to try the Myotrac to see if I could help Joshua 'get in touch' with his abdominal muscles. Joshua is 4 years old and has never been able to do a sit-up. All his therapists have worked on this with him, but he really never seems to strengthen in this area. His current therapist has been making it "easier" for him by propping him up on a wedge or pillows to help him get started, on the theory that a partial rep will help the muscles strengthen to eventually do it from fully lying flat.
So Joshua can sit up if he is propped up partially to start with. But if he isn't propped up leans to the right and pushes himself up with his non-BPI arm. Well, I was suspicious of this and eager to get back to using the Myo with him. I figured since diaphragm muscles are often impacted, what about those upper abdominals? I didn't actually look up the nerves on that one, so that might be completely wrong. But regardless of the reason, I've developed a strong suspicion he wasn't using his upper abs at all. For one, he tries to do sit-ups with his head tilted backwards in sort of a "reverse crunch" position. Not comfortable... and really making it impossible to get started from lying flat.
So I put the myotrac pick-up right below his breastbone on the very upper abs and let him play with it while he was doing situps. He would start to activate those muscles but when he partially rolled to push himself up with his arm, they turned right off! And if he starts from being propped they barely come on at all. So his compensation - or being partially started - means he never exercises those upper abs. So of course they won't get stronger!
With the Myotrac I can change his focus to getting the yellow light instead of just getting into a sitting position by whatever means available. So he was able to get some negative feedback from rolling to push himself up with his arm (turns down the myotrac) and lead him to concentrate on getting the yellow light, which made him slow down and really "push" the muscles. We were able to end the first session with 5 "maintain the yellow light" crunches, and his form looked great and he was really holding the "crunch".
I think this is going to really help. His core strength has always been such a problem, and now I really have something to focus in and get that helped!
![[Home]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/home.gif)
![[Help]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/help.gif)
![[Search]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/search.gif)
![[Login]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/login.gif)
![[Register]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/menu/register.gif)
![[Search This Thread]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s1.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Author
Logged