This is not going to be one of my most professional, scientific, well-researched blogs. It comes straight from the heart. I don’t just like or appreciate the Shadow Tray – I love it!
In the school setting, we have two main objectives as physical therapists:
1) – Help children with physical impairments access education
2) – Do so in a manner that is cost effective and caregiver-friendly
The majority of children who participate in standing programs at school come to school in wheelchairs. Sometimes the wheelchairs fit beautifully and provide excellent postural support and alignment for attention, fine motor tasks, and communication. Sometimes they don’t. Sometimes a child has a lap tray for the wheelchair that serves as a functional work surface, sometimes the child doesn’t. Sometimes the therapist can find a great table or desk that is perfectly compatible with the child’s seating system. Sometimes they can’t.
Many children require multiple pieces of equipment to function through the day. These may include a stander and an option for seating outside of the wheelchair. The wonderful Shadow Tray allows the stander to work as a chair/desk/stander combination. When you tell a teacher with limited classroom space or a parent with limited living space they may be able to use one less piece of equipment, you are suddenly talking to a happy person.
Sitting balance is a work in progress for some of my favorite stander users. Once the Shadow Tray is in place, caregiver hands are free to pump the EasyStand up to the desired standing position. This eliminates the delicate dance of pumping while keeping one hand on the standing individual for safety, while simultaneously assisting with arm placement.
Bad contractures happen to good people. The Shadow Tray stays right in place from a seated position to the maximal standing angle an individual is able to achieve, prompting good posture and providing a sense of security even if standing fully upright is not an option. For those who are working on progressing participation in a standing program, the support of the Shadow Tray makes it easy to take seated rest breaks if needed while building tolerance for standing.
Frequent position changes are essential for circulation, skin integrity, bowel and bladder function, and overall health. Position changes that don’t require an extra lift or transfer are time savers that decrease the risk of injury to caregivers and stander users. Because the Shadow Tray is a traveling work surface, alternating periods of time spent in supported sitting and standing positions are made into a simple no-lift situation. I of course recommend taking breaks from the stander and performing common sense skin and comfort checks.
An EasyStand with a Shadow Tray allows a child to go from sitting for classroom instruction time, to standing for music class, to working at a computer in a pelvic anterior tilt position, to just sitting and relaxing for a couple minutes before the next activity begins. This can all be done with one piece of adaptive equipment and no transfers. You’ve got to love that!
Are you a fan of the Shadow Tray? What other benefits have you noticed from using a multi-positional stander?
