Arabella was referred by her consultant pediatrician for an assessment to determine whether she could benefit from our specialist therapy Targeted Training.

Arabella’s mum reported that from the beginning of her life she was not reaching normal milestones, and Arabella was referred for physiotherapy at the age of 16 months. Even though Arabella had learnt to sit at an early age, she had difficulty in rolling activities, and only began to achieve this at the age of 2 years. Crawling came soon after and at 2.5 years old Arabella managed to demonstrate pull to stand. With the normal development stages, learning to walk would usually be achieved between 1 and 1.5 years, but Arabella was over 3 years old before she took some independent steps.

After a thorough assessment of her abilities, it was suggested by one of our specialist physiotherapists that Arabella could benefit from a course of Targeted Training.

Arabella was supplied with her specialist standing frame. She was given encouragement to stretch and reach upwards with activities involving lots of toys, while maintaining an upright posture. She was able to achieve this position and so was given extra activities that included reaching and rotating to each side. Although it would usually be suggested that children gradually work up to 30 minutes, Arabella was able to achieve 30 minutes from the onset. On her supply Arabella was given the functional goals of standing hands free, and walking forward 10 steps.

With the standing frame now at home, we received lots of pictures of Arabella enjoying her time in the Targeted Training standing frame. Sarina, Arabella’s mum had thought up lots of fun games and activities to keep Arabella engaged. Mum suggested that Arabella seemed more confident, and had become stronger in her trunk. She had also shown that standing independently and walking hands free were improving. By her second review Arabella had learned to get into a high kneeling position, and could now walk on her knees, and had shown that standing was improving. Arabella now wanted to walk everywhere.

Arabella continued to make steady progress at each assessment, achieving functional goals that she had been set. At the end of Arabella’s course Sarina told us how Arabella really wanted to walk everywhere independently and she was able to do just that! The family had even been on holiday and Arabella had been able to run along the beach for quite a distance without losing her balance. This meant Arabella could be far more independent, which has made a huge difference to the lives of Arabella and her family.

With the basis of her strength improved we are sure that Arabella now has the building blocks in place and that she will continue to make progress. We will keep in touch with the family to keep up to date with progress.