Now we`ve reached the practical part of our course. Before you start working with your child, please take some time to practice with a prop or bowl. Tomorrow we will start working with your child.

Rotation can enable or prevent movement

• Without a rotation in your knees, getting from standing on all fours to sitting is impossible.
• Some of the most important functions of your arms depend on rotation: pushing against the floor (turned outward) and feeding (turned inward).
• Rotation results in strength - think of athletes throwing or hitting a ball, of boxers, or skiers.
• The ability to rotate begins with a well working vestibular system.
• Rotation can be disorienting, especially with poor vision. In these cases, work on balance and vision first.
• In W-sitting (kneeling between the legs with the feet turned outwards), childen use this effect to prevent movement.

Teaching Rotation

The importance of rotation is often overlooked in traditional therapies. However, especially with spasticity, it is one of the most important discoveries a child can make.

The ability to rotate your hands while touching it will transmit the idea to the child. Your rotational movments will be reflected by their nervous system.

Always look out for slight rotations, even if you want to go straigt in one direction. With a small "twist", a leg might bend much easier. Getting up from a chair is usually much easier if we dont move straight through the middle, but a little bit toward one knee or the other.

The easiest way to learn rotational movments is touching yourself - or helping your child doing it. As soon as your hands are turned inward towards your body, in almost any position the joints are free to move anatomically "correct", functional way. (Try sitting on a chair and touching whatever part of your leg that you can easily reach with your palms). Just guiding a child to gently touch itself is a great opportunity to learn.

Practice your own ability to rotate your Hands

During therapy, my hands have to be free to rotate at any time. Here is how you start to incorporate this technique into your movements.

Our most effective movements are spiral movement, or rotational. This is what our skeletons and joints are build for. Muscle fibres are reacting to rotation as well.

Now let`s look at the same situation with a child.