Abstract
Background A person's ability to move his or her arms against gravity is important for independent performance of critical activities of daily living and for exploration that facilitates early cognitive, language, social, and perceptual-motor development. Children with a variety of diagnoses have difficulty moving their arms against gravity.
Objective The purpose of this technical report is to detail the design process and initial testing of a novel exoskeletal garment, the Playskin Lift, that assists and encourages children to lift their arms against gravity.
Design This report details the design theory and process, the device, and the results of field testing with a toddler with impaired upper extremity function due to arthrogryposis multiplex congenita.
Results The Playskin Lift is an inexpensive (<$30 material costs), easy to use (5/5 rating), comfortable (5/5 rating), and attractive (4/5 rating) device. While wearing the device, the child was able to contact objects more often throughout an increased play space, to look at toys more while contacting them, and to perform more complex interactions with toys.
Limitations This report details initial testing with one child. Future testing with more participants is recommended.
Conclusions These results suggest that by considering the broad needs of users, including cost, accessibility, comfort, aesthetics, and function, we can design inexpensive devices that families and clinicians can potentially fabricate in their own communities to improve function, participation, exploration, and learning for children with disabilities.
Footnotes
Dr Lobo, Mr Koshy, Ms Hall, Dr Buckley, and Dr Galloway provided concept/idea/research design. Dr Lobo, Mr Koshy, Ms Hall, Mr Erol, and Dr Galloway provided writing. Dr Lobo, Mr Koshy, Ms Hall, Mr Erol, and Dr Cao provided data collection. Dr Lobo, Mr Koshy, Ms Hall, Mr Erol, Dr Cao, Dr Buckley, and Dr Higginson provided data analysis. Dr Lobo and Dr Buckley provided project management. Dr Lobo and Dr Galloway provided fund procurement. Dr Lobo provided participants. Dr Lobo, Dr Cao, and Dr Buckley provided facilities/equipment.
This project was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Delaware.
This research was supported, in part, by The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (1R21HD076092-01A1) and by a University of Delaware UNIDEL grant.
- Received December 8, 2014.
- Accepted August 18, 2015.
- © 2016 American Physical Therapy Association
Issue highlights
