One of the tools our therapists utilize in Intensive Therapy is the TheraSuit. This device has many wonderful benefits and has helped kiddos improve across different areas of development.
The Therasuit is a wearable dynamic orthotic.
Used to treat patients diagnosed with cerebral palsy, hemiplegia, stroke, developmental delays, ataxia, athetosis, traumatic brain injuries, and many other neurological disorders.
Utilized for individuals with sensorimotor impairments to help facilitate body alignment, stability, movement skills, and joint stability when participating in functional mobility, strengthening, and gross motor activities.
While using the body suit and elastic rubber bands, the child’s body is aligned as close to ‘neutral’ as possible. The design of this device allows our therapists to provide exactly the right amount of pressure for each individual child, making this a fully customizable treatment. Placing patients in a more appropriate position allows them to utilize their trunk and postural muscles to help them achieve more upright positioning. The suit also provides needed proprioceptive input and stability around the trunk so that they can better utilize their upper and lower extremities.
This device has a huge impact on children’s vestibular system, which accounts for balance and your body’s positioning in space. Most children that benefit from intensive therapy have neurological disorders or diagnoses that display imbalances between muscle systems that need to work together for controlled independent movements.
Benefits of the TheraSuit include:
Re-trains the nervous system
Provides external stabilization and supports weak muscles
Normalizes muscle tone
Provides dynamic correction
Provides tactile stimulation
Influences the vestibular system
Improves balance and coordination
Decreases uncontrolled movements in ataxia and athetosis
Improves body and spatial awareness
Promotes development of both fine and gross motor skills
Improves speech production and its fluency through head control and trunk support
Improves bone density
Helps to decrease contractures
Helps improve hip alignment through vertical loading over the hip joint
Allows for close to ‘neutral’ alignment
Increases muscle strength in muscles used less frequently
Increases awareness of muscles necessary for stability and mobility
Provides resistance to muscles while supporting weaker muscles
Improves balance, coordination and spatial awareness
For more information, visit http://www.suittherapy.com/therasuit-method-