Learning Objectives
As a result of this continuing education activity, participants will be able to:
- List 3 mobility training strategies for improving driving accuracy in the context of the school day.
- List 3 mobility training strategies for improving judgment in the context of the school day.
- List 3 mobility training strategies for improving problem solving in the context of the school day.
Introduction
Michelle Lange: Today, we will talk about pre-mobility training. These are techniques used to develop skills before a power wheelchair is recommended. We will also talk about mobility training, which usually occurs after a new power wheelchair arrives and can help optimize driving for the client. Our emphasis today is on children and particularly those in school. A lot of this training can happen within the school day. If you do not work in a school setting, hopefully this information will be applicable to other settings as well. We are going to use some case studies at the end of the webinar to help illustrate some of the salient points.
Challenges
Within the school setting, we have a couple of challenges. First of all, a student may bring a power chair to school right after it has been delivered by the equipment supplier, and that might be because the home or the family's vehicle is not accessible. The school and the school vehicle usually are. This is a brand-new vehicle for this client. They may not have had a chance to drive since their evaluation and that might have been months before the power chair was actually delivered.
Another challenge is that the school is often expected to store the chair, charge that chair, and train the new driver in optimal use. That might be the case even if the school did not have the opportunity to participate in the evaluation.
Thirdly, the student and the staff have limited time in that busy school day for mobility training. If mobility training is not specifically cited in the IEP, it might be hard to carve out some time for it. It might be that if a power chair is delivered, another IEP meeting needs to occur to address this, so that there is adequate time in the student’s schedule and there is adequate staff available.
Mobility training can be accomplished by pulling the child out of their classroom, but if we are able to do some of the training in context, that can save time. It is important to save time, but it can also be motivating for the student. Oftentimes, we need a combination of pullout times and in context time. Pullout time might be more appropriate right off the bat with a brand-new chair, but then we can start moving the training into that regular school day.
Mobility training can also occur as a part of the evaluation itself. We might need to provide more support to determine whether this person is truly ready for power wheelchair before ordering. However power mobility training can occur before equipment is actually recommended and that is what we will discuss with pre-mobility training vs. driver's training with the equipment.
