Get creative with your home exercise program
It is no secret that children, or anyone for that matter, don’t always love the idea of running home and doing the exercises recommended by their therapist after a busy day. As your therapists, we understand that it is difficult to fit everything in, and sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Nevertheless, it is also our job to help you understand the importance of consistent stretching and/or exercises, as well as provide ideas for making these home exercise programs more fun and less like work.
Although we would love to see everyone multiple times during the week, it doesn’t always work that way. This is why we send you home with your “therapy homework”! Please try to overlook the negative association to the term homework, but understand that it is still similar to the importance of school homework. A home exercise program is something therapists put a lot of thought into in order to create the most beneficial program for each individual’s needs.
The homework provided by your therapist is meant to work in conjunction with the plan of care completed while you are at the clinic. As a large provider for pediatrics, we are always looking to give parents and caregivers advice that will motivate children to participate in their home programs while decreasing the stress on parents and caregivers. The importance of this homework only increases as we look at the pediatric population, which consistently is growing and changing immensely.
With that being said, I want to turn the spotlight onto one physical therapist in New Jersey, Marc Suznovich, who has found a way to motivate his patients to push themselves during therapy. How does he do this you ask? Well, he simply introduces them to a game which I am sure many of you are familiar with – the Wii!
Bringing creativity into your home program
Marc Suznovich, PT, DPT is taking full advantage of the Nintendo Wii game system to encourage his subacute geriatric patients to push their functional abilities while playing games like bowling, ring toss and golf. A link to the full story is provided below, but I would like to take this opportunity to encourage parents and caregivers to think about what types of games are available in your home that could be utilized as a fun way to get kids moving. While not everyone has a Wii gaming system, there are many options when it comes to video games. As children and adults alike tend to find them entertaining, they are certainly an excellent motivator to encourage play and those home exercise programs!
“You want to get patients to increase their standing time, which makes them able to walk longer. Patients find the Wii enjoyable and motivating; they will stand twice as long as if you just have them reach for cones or another activity,” Suznovich says.
The key to Marc’s statement here is to make it enjoyable! We cannot expect children to focus their energy on exercises after a long weekday if we do not think outside the box and bring it to the table in different forms. Incorporating games makes it more interesting and additionally involving parents, siblings or friends also adds a motivating element. Video game systems such as they Wii may not be the answer for everyone, however, it is a great example of a way in which we can increase participation in the home program without increasing stress.
Scholarly research supports more creative home programs
The second link provided below is a research article that looks at the effects of a video gaming system used as a rehabilitation tool in addition to traditional therapies. An adolescent with a diagnosis of spastic diplegia cerebral palsy used the Wii gaming system during school-based therapy in this research article. The article goes on to state, “Improvements in visual-perceptual processing, postural control, and functional mobility were measured after training.” The article further reports that more research should be completed on the use of game systems as therapy tools, but in a short period of time proved to be successful in this particular case.
If tools like this can be used to encourage participation in home programs for patients of all ages, why not begin taking advantage of what you may already have?
I encourage you to start a discussion with your therapist if you have a few ideas, but are unsure of how to use them best for a home program. We would love to assist in creating fun exercise options by using tools already available to you and your child!
Happy Friday and thanks for reading!
Kendell Myers, PT, DPT
Physical Therapist
Resources:
http://www.apta.org/PTCareers/Profiles/HesGotGame/
http://ptjournal.apta.org/content/ptjournal/88/10/1196.full.pdf
