Working on walking

In therapy this week, Alex has gotten to start practicing walking for real.  The past few times Alex has done the robot, they take off the robot legs for the last 5-10 minutes or so and have Alex practice walking on the treadmill alone.  We are really trying to get her to learn how to walk with a "heel-toe" gait.

Treadmill walking without the robot 

 

 

Yesterday, Alex walked with a walker contraption I had never seen before.  She was harnessed in, so some of her body weight was supported and the PT guided it.  Despite being sick and tired, she did a really good job with this, and seemed to enjoy to be up and walking.

 

Body weight supported walker device video

 

Yesterday's trial went so well that today we tried out Alex's walker for the first time.  We have been trying various experiments to help focus Alex's attention on the heel-toe walking pattern.  This is very hard for her and something she NEVER did before the surgery.  One of her PTs came up with the idea of putting velcro around the toe part of her shoe so that it sticks to the carpet and makes more noise if she doesn't first put her heel down.  This seemed to help Alex really pay attention to what her feet were doing.  These were some of her best heel-toe strikes yet.

 

walker with velcro video