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> Infinity Walk - A Cutting-Edge Tool in Brain Injury
Rehabilitation
 
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Infinity Walk - A Cutting-Edge Tool in Brain Injury
Rehabilitation
When
visitors enter the physical therapy gym at Northeast
Center for Special Care, they are prone to do a
double-take at the formidable looking, stainless
steel figure-eight bolted to the floor of the gym
and they almost always ask: “What is it?”
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What
is it?, you may ask.
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The
device appears to be a walkway with handrails
like you would see in a bank or an
airport. But instead of leading travelers to
the airplane or terminal, this device is
leading individuals with brain injuries to
improved functioning. It is called “Infinity
Walk®.” The name comes from the
figure-eight shape, which is a symbol for the concept of infinity.
Infinity Walk® was designed by Dr. Deborah
Sunbeck for use with a variety of disabilities
that are described in her series of books, Infinity
Walk. When staff at the Northeast Center
learned of it, they immediately saw the
possible benefits for the rehabilitation
of individuals with
traumatic brain injury .
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An
occupational therapist instructs a
Resident-Neighbor during an initial walk using
the Infinity Walk®. In the figure-eight
pathway the therapist can do
rehabilitation with the individual ranging
from detailed finite skill development to
gross motor endurance. |
Mike
Plante, RPT, Director of Rehabilitation at
Northeast Center for Special Care explains:
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One
of the obvious benefits of the
Infinity Walk® over the traditional
parallel bars is that the individual
can continue walking without having
to stop every few feet as with
regular parallel bars. Therapists
report that they can appreciate the
effects of what they are working on
with someone and watch how they have
to move and turn their body to walk
in a way that is much more natural
for them than simply walking in a
straight line.
The Infinity Walk® is a
collaboration between movement and
sensory cognitive processing. The
theory behind it is that while
someone is walking the therapist
challenges them with external
stimuli. We can use a board with
letters and numbers which are almost
like a large eye chart - our
Resident-Neighbors have to
concentrate on and attend to. This
helps people use more areas of their
brain than simply walking
alone. We also utilize tasks
and objects as external simuli.
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Orthopedic
limitations, movement discrepancies,
performance blocks, and sensory-motor
compensatory patterns can be isolated for
intervention and retraining, refocusing
treatment objectives, and functional
progression. The Infinity Walk®
also
supports professional assessment of
unilateral-bilateral gait, joint dysfunction
and sensory-motor deficits. “The
continuous pattern also assists in building
endurance, improving bilateral sensing,
managing rhythm, timing and pacing,
sustaining attention, and building
multi-tasking skill,” Plante added.
Northeast Center for Special Care clinical
and rehabilitation staff are working to
develop a protocol designed specifically to
promote sustained, selective, and divided
attention which are critical for the
successful performance of all tasks,
including but not limited to walking.
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External
stimuli challenges the individual when the
Infinity Walk® is used in therapy
session. Here the occupational therapist
tosses a ball for the Resident-Neighbor to
catch (and vice-versa) while the individual
walks through the Infinity Walk® pathway. |
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Gerry
Brooks, MA, CCC, CBIT, Brain Injury Program
Director explained the importance of attention
this way:
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We
tend to underestimate just how
extraordinary the human brain is at
filtering out distractions, focusing,
and shifting attention back and forth
rapidly between what we are doing and
what is going on around us. Even
seemingly simple tasks such as walking
require a great deal of these
abilities. For example, if you are
walking down a sidewalk with an
irregular or graded surface, you must
pay attention to the surface
characteristics and make constant
adjustments to pace and stride. While
you are doing these things you also
need to pay attention to whom and what
else is around so that you can slow
down, speed up, change direction, or
stop in order to avoid collision.
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Materials provided by Dr. Sunbeck explain that
the Infinity Walk®
is a dual-brain,
progressively more challenging and integrative
skill-building method. The focus of
progressive development is on the improved
integration of the brain, nervous system,
mind, and the whole person.
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In this example the external
stimuli are flashcards which the occupational
therapist shows the Resident-Neighbor as he
walks the pathway. The individual is
asked to identify the object on the flash card
and asked a question related to the
object. The individual continues to walk
the pathway without stopping during this task. |
Attention
is almost always impaired following
brain injury and re-integrating
attention into walking, talking, and the
performance of other tasks is an ongoing
challenge in brain injury
rehabilitation. Infinity
Walk®
provides new ways to integrate
physical, occupational, and
speech-language therapies to
systematically improve attentional
capacities that allow the individual to
meet both the physical and cognitive
demands of walking and many other tasks.
In fact, we expect that we can use
the Infinity Walk as a basis for
maximizing attention to improve almost
any ability.
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Therapists and
Resident-Neighbors can note the individuals improved
performance over time using the Infinity
Walk®. |
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Ann Belcher, CEO of Northeast Center sees the
therapeutic device as cutting edge: “The Infinity
Walk®
is
another way that the state-of-art specialty
rehabilitation programs at Northeast Center
for Special Care use innovative approaches to
therapy in the rehabilitation and recovery of
our Resident-Neighbors with traumatic brain
injury.”
Northeast Center for Special Care, ever on the
forefront of innovation in neurorehabilitation,
leads the way once again by developing
Infinity Walk®
treatment protocols for use
with individuals recovering from physical and
cognitive challenges.
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Infinity
Walk Website
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