Monday 2 April 2012

Knee-block chair and group

This chair was designed to be slightly higher as the girl who needed it has athetosis and a strong dystonic spasm with her right arm. She is usually in a wheelchair but lies in it with her right arm tied back to stop the spasms. She pushes herself with her feet but this exacerbates the extended position. Instead we wanted her to sit so she can do her school work with her arms on the desk or tray and able to see what her hands are doing. We were not sure if she would still push if her feet were on the floor so we made the chair higher so her feet could hang or we could add a footstool.
 Starting with the first cut pieces
Pasting back the 'fingers' from the tension rods
 Making a ramp so the chair can be tipped forward so gravity can help the girl to stabilise herself
Pasting in the supports for ramp

Trial day - checking the chair.
She needed a pelvic support and support behind her left side where she leant sideways
 We also discovered that she instead of extending with her feet touching something,
the footrest helped her fix herself
A quick test with her before she left-
the extra support helped her practise her writing much to the group's delight.

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