On Your Scooter! A Young Person's Way to do Physical Therapy

"On Your Scooter! A Young Person's Way to do Physical Therapy"
An interview from the Pediatric Physical Therapy Podcast
Podcast extract title:
On Your Scooter! A Young Person's Way To Do Physical Therapy
An interview with:
Marilyn Wright PT MSc, Clinical Consultant, CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, Assistant Clinical Professor, School of Rehabilitation Sciences,
McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
E-mail:
[email protected]
Web:
http://www.canchild.ca/
Correspondence to:
Marilyn Wright, PT, MSc, CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, McMaster University, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, 1400 Main St West, IAHS 408, Hamilton, ON L8S 1C7, Canada

TITLE (As published in: Pediatric Physical Therapy
Scootering for Children and Youth Is More Than Fun: Exploration of a Feasible Approach to Improve Function and Fitness
Authors:
Marilyn Wright, PT, MSc; Donna Twose, BScKin; Jan Willem Gorter, MD, PhD
Developmental Pediatrics & Rehabilitation (Mss Wright and Twose and Dr Gorter), McMaster Children’s Hospital, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research (Ms Wright and Dr Gorter), McMaster University, School of Rehabilitation Sciences, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Purpose:
Describe scootering as a physical therapy intervention for children/adolescents with mobility limitations within the “F-Words for Child Development” (fitness, function, family, friends, fun, and future) and through motion analysis. Methods: Perspectives of scootering were explored using the holistic “F-words for Child Development” recommendations for pediatric rehabilitation and through 3-dimensional instrumented motion analysis of children/adolescents with cerebral palsy and children/adolescents with typical development.
Results:
Scootering was consistent with the F-words tenets for rehabilitative best practice. Many of the motion characteristics of scootering reflected desirable exercise and gait attributes relevant to children/adolescents with cerebral palsy.
Conclusions: Scootering is a feasible, functional, and fun activity that has the potential to address many aspects of fitness, function, and gait; meet the needs of families; and provide opportunities for interaction with friends. It is a physical therapy intervention that has the potential to contribute to future health and well-being of children with disabilities.
Video Abstract:
For more insights from the authors, see Supplemental Digital Content 1, available at: http://links.lww.com/PPT/A331. (Pediatr Phys Ther 2021;000:1–8)
Key words:
adolescent, cerebral palsy, child, scootering, motion analysis