fun therapy

Hi all,
I have been seeing a 24 yo woman with Cerebellar Syndrome (her main impairment is ataxia) in neuro outpatients, twice a week for three weeks now. We have been doing mainly trunk stability, balance and gait work with her and although our sessions were different each time, I felt like the sessions were a bit boring and wanted to make them more interesting for her. I discussed this with my supervisor and he showed me some really good ideas for making core stability work interesting and fun for both me and my patient.
My favorite exercise was ‘the airplane’ which I’ve done with my kids at gymnastics quite a lot but would never have thought to do it with patients. The airplane involves the patient lying on a plinth with their knees bent up to their chest and their feet in the air. I stand on the plinth facing the pt and place the pt’s feet on my ASIS, then lean fwd and hold onto the cage/frame in front. The pt then straightens their legs to lift my feet off the plinth so that it looks like I’m flying (hence the name of the exercise). To make it hard for the pt you can let go of the cage and hold onto their hands, or move slightly form side to side to make their trunk work harder. My patient really liked this exercise as it was something different from what we normally did, and it made her have to work really hard.
Obviously this isn’t the sort of exercise you would do with everyone and you have to choose the pt’s you do it with very carefully. But for those pt’s that it is suitable for I think it is a great thing to do as it works whole body strength, stability and balance all at the same time… and its really good fun!! If anyone ever has a patient like this that is capable of doing this exercise, I really recommend giving it a go.

Tara