Instagram Reel from July 12th, 2023!

Sensory training for dystonia—but make it fun 🤩

Sensory training is a HUGE part of rehabilitation for dystonia (and many other disorders)
And why not make it fun!?

In this instance, we were:
🧠Working in quadruped—a great position for dystonia (because of the change in postural responses and sensory input into the joints in this position!). It’s also a great position for heavy work!
🧠Working on activating posterior chain shoulder and back (to alter the position and sensory input to the neck, trunk and shoulder). We had her pulling the treadmill belt (it was off). I initially did this without any targets and thought—this is boring. 🥱As soon as I gamified it—it was a lot more fun for both of us! 🎉
🧠Working on sensory training and re-weighting—using an ankle weight across the left shoulder. We started with very light weight and found that 2.5 lbs was most helpful for her (where the neck and shoulder felt the most relaxed)
🧠Worked on alternating weight bearing by using different arms and targets
🧠This also considers optic flow with the moving targets and belt! It was a really nice external focus for smooth pursuits, saccades and convergence. Thank you positive spin courses for helping me think of this all of the time). We often see that people with cervical dystonia especially have difficulty with the more challenging optic flow.

Also not pictured—her dystonia! It is pretty much gone (just a tad bit of tightness into tilt)! This woman had gone from extreme tilt and rotation in her dystonia to full control of full ROM and now we are working and progressing to much more challenging tasks and actually strengthening muscles that had been weakened by botox. It is a privilege to be able to work with someone at this stage of her recovery.

What are your favorite tools for sensory training? I want to hear ‘em! Comment below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️


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