Hey !

When I interview experts and thought leaders in our wonderful world of pediatric therapy, I often ask them,

What did you used to believe that you no longer think is true?

It's one of my favorite questions because learning something is one thing, but changing beliefs is in a whole other category of challenge. It often requires a profound insight or event to shift the foundations of our beliefs.

I had that shift with standing frames and walkers.

As a young therapist I put a ton of effort into setting up walkers and getting kids in them. I started my PhD with the goal of getting more kids in more standers more often. And now, as I look back at the kids I worked with all grown up, at the research and the reality of raising kids with disabilities, I'm not so sure about standing frames and walkers anymore... So this was a fun topic to dig into.

Thinking about how we achieve, in Julie Perfect's words,

"Physiologically-sound, pain-free movement over the lifespan."

Of course we can't talk about standing frames without talking about Targeted Training and SATco, so there's some great resources added to the Activities Page for you to scroll through, along with key papers on standing and walking trajectories for our kids with CP across the lifespan (are you surprised by the findings?) and papers on abduction standing that includes instructions on making a DIY abduction stander.

Here's a fun fact from one of the papers. A 7-year follow-up on abduction standing published in 2021:

>> Children who stood in standers without abduction showed an INCREASE in hip migration of 6.5%, compared to their counterparts who stood the same amount of time but with abduction.

>> Children who stood with abduction showed a DECREASE in hip migration of 7% (and a significantly better change than those who had only surgery).

>> Surgery + abduction standing got the best outcome with an 18% improvement!

That's HUGE!

It's not about WHAT you do, it's about HOW you do it!

Always!

Click Here!

❗️And whilst you're on the Hub, make sure to head on over to the Discussion section where you'll find some great conversation about the Spotlights AND a very generous course discount from our amazing Wired member Mirav Newman who is running some TASES courses in Australia next year - if you haven't started introducing eStim to your practice yet, this TASES is a must do course - and if you've already done one of Mirav's courses, I don't need to tell you how amazing she is at making it simple, do-able and effective. Highly recommend!! (psst - act fast for the best discount!!)

So here's your action plan for this week

1. Listen to the spotlight on the Activities Page >> https://twc.wiredon.ltd/
2. Refresh your basics and stimulate your thinking with very cool resources
3. Reflect on what's new, newly remembered, different, interesting. Take it out of your head ie. add something in the Discussion because it's only when you take the time to make your thoughts explicit that you start to really integrate them

Have a fabulous week!

Mindy

PS. Exciting news!! Wired Weeklies are back! Every 2nd week at two different times to accommodate time zones. Check out EVENTS 🗓️ for the dates and times. Check out this quick video for how to stay up to date with events >> https://wired.d.pr/v/O0CrkA