Electrically powered indoor/outdoor chair performance for children aged 7 to 9 years

Abstract

Introduction: Northern Ireland wheelchair guidelines state that wheelchair users who wish to drive their National Health Service provided powered wheelchairs outdoors must complete an electrically powered indoor/outdoor chair test. Within the same guidelines, children in Northern Ireland under the age of 10 years are not permitted to complete this assessment. Research was completed to evaluate how children under 10 years would perform in electrically powered indoor/outdoor chair training and testing under adult supervision. Method: A case-study design was utilised with three children aged 7-9 years to evaluate if: (a) these children can complete electrically powered indoor/outdoor chair training/testing safely with adult supervision; (b) the length of time using an electric powered indoor chair correlates with performance on electrically powered indoor chair training/testing; (c) the current Northern Ireland guidelines on age restriction should be re-evaluated so that each child is assessed on an individual basis rather than age. Findings: Paediatric powered wheelchair users aged seven to nine years can become competent electrically powered indoor/ outdoor chair users with adequate training and adult supervision. Length of time (years) driving an electrically powered indoor chair may not correlate with improved electrically powered indoor/outdoor chair performance. Conclusion: Regional Northern Ireland criteria relating to electrically powered indoor/outdoor chair provision for children should be revised in order to consider an individual needs assessment, rather than imposing an age restriction.

Effectiveness of wheeled mobility skill interventions in children and young people with cerebral palsy: A systematic review

“…High variability in intervention duration and intensity was displayed across the studies. The duration of the interventions varied from one session 37,38 to 1 year 35 . The intensity of the interventions varied from once 40,43,44 to five 39,51,52 times per week, with six of the interventions taking place twice a week 36,41,42,46–48 .…”

“…This is a common practice in Northern Ireland to assess children's readiness for outdoor mobility 38 . Both children had more than 6 months' experience with indoor power mobility but demonstrated varying results in outdoor driving 38 . However, promising results on improving outdoor mobility were supported by computer simulation training over a 6‐month period 47 .…”

“…[37][38][39]46,48,50,53 Regarding experience with wheelchair driving, 55% of participants were non-experienced drivers (n = 112 out of 203); 36,39,42,[49][50][51]54 however, experienced drivers were also included (n = 47 out of 203, 23%). [36][37][38][46][47][48] Driving experience was not clearly specified in the remaining participants (n = 44 out of 203, 22%). 35,40,41,43,52,53 Notably, although most of the studies reported patient characteristics such as age, sex, GMFCS level, and previous wheelchair use experience, included studies typically did not distinguish between these characteristics in their subsequent analyses.…”

“…Twelve studies failed to report details on the theoretical framework that would explain the rationale of the designed interventions. 35,38,39,41,43,[46][47][48][49][50]53,54 Nonetheless, the principles of motor learning theory (n = 5) 37,40,42,51,52 and the theory of powered mobility learning strategies by Nilsson and Durkin 55 (n = 4) 36,40,51,52 prevailed when such details were reported.…”

Trends, goals and outcomes for children and families using early powered mobility in a charitable loan scheme

“…However, evidence was predominantly qualitative rather than quantitative, some studies lacked rigour and there is no consensus on outcome measures (Livingstone and Field, 2014, 2015). Many studies involved low numbers of children, often only one or two (Livingstone and Field, 2014, 2015; McCourt and Casey, 2016); few studies included very young children. However, one randomised controlled trial (Jones et al , 2012) showed that children as young as 14 months may be able to use powered mobility with positive effects on their development and function, while Lynch et al (2009) found similar results from a driving skills programme for one child of seven months.…”