The Use of Armeo Spring in Upper Extremity Rehabilitation

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of the Armeo®Spring Pediatric as therapy for children with hand and arm weakness. The Armeo®Spring Pediatric is a device that supports the weight of the child's arm and uses joystick that helps to play computer games. The child will be assessed before and after this therapy. Participating children with upper extremity impairments will receive therapy 3x/week for 6 weeks during 30-45 minutes sessions at progressively increasing degrees of difficulty. Each child's performance will be tracked with regard to time necessary to complete a predetermined number of trials of the activity. The standardized assessment tools that will be used are the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA), Box \& Blocks test, Jebsen Taylor hand function test, and the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory-Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT). Data will be analyzed to determine the efficacy of this training method.