Page 10 - Mobility Management, September/October 2022

ATP Series
Do you remember that cute second-grader with cerebral palsy? The one who loves Spider-Man? He’s back because he broke the footplate off his wheelchair.
Yes, again.
DYNAMIC WHEELCHAIR SEATING
can be helpful for many clients, from those who exhibit seemingly superhuman strength and tone when in static seating, to those who benefit from moving while sitting, to those who need assistance to stay properly positioned.
While wheelchair seating that moves might seem a bit counter-intuitive — Aren’t wheelchairs supposed to provide stability? — Jessica Presperin Pedersen, OTD, MBA, OTR/L, ATP/SMS, FAOTA, the Director of Clinical Education for Sunrise North America, pointed out that the ability to move while in a wheelchair does mimic how able-bodied people move.
“We constantly move,” she said. “We’re moving now. It’s not like we’re static. And so for somebody who doesn’t have that ability, can we incorporate that ability?”
Michelle L. Lange, OTR/L, ABDA,
How Dynamic Seating Can Help Manage Otherwise Harmful Forces
By Laurie Watanabe
ATP/SMS, Access to Independence Inc., sees the benefits of being able to move while seated in a wheelchair. “I’d love to see movement be built [into wheelchair seating] a lot more,” she said. “There are people who use wheelchairs that can move within their wheelchair fine. Maybe I’m a [paraplegic], and I’m propelling my manual chair, and I can move around. Even if I don’t always have sensation, I can choose to move. So I might [lean to one side] for a while because I feel like it, and I can do that and get myself back into posi- tion. But there are a lot of clients who can’t move themselves within their wheelchair seating system.”
That’s when dynamic seating can be helpful. “Dynamic seating is movement that occurs within the seat and/or wheel- chair frame in response to client move- ment and force,” Lange said. “Dynamic
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