My Kind of IT: Continued

Back to drilling down into this 2004 passage: “These studies show that a period of intensive therapy (IT) in ambulatory children with cerebral palsy can lead to improvement in a number of disabilities. However, they did not demonstrate that use of the Adeli Suit was helpful. Any effect is likely to be minor.”...

*  *  *  *  *

It’s my impression that "intensive therapy" (IT) has become almost synonymous with the suit method, which is characterizable by its use of an Adeli-type suit and Universal Exercise Unit (UEU; also known as a "spider cage"). My views, therefore, about whether or not IT might benefit my daughter are informed largely by evidence put forth by the various suit therapy clinics* out there. 

In their efforts to get me to buy in, these places seem to be employing more-or-less the same “tools of persuasion”:

A big lead-in: “The use of intensive suit therapy is spreading like wildfire as all interested parties are seeing out-standing, if not a-stounding, results!”  

Anecdotes /testimonials: success stories about kids who’ve gone through the therapy

Videos: showing one or more suit-equipped kids in action, in the UEU

Theories: statements explaining how intensive therapy is supposed to work 

Lists of purported benefits: exhaustive lists (exhausting to read) of what IT will: fix, improve, normalize, correct, increase, decrease, or promote 

Studies of various sorts: see next

I've been on the lookout for more studies**. Of the relatively few I've come across, the reviews have been mixed. Some conclude that suit therapy works and helps (e.g., Effect of Modified Suit Therapy in Spastic Diplegic Cerebral Palsy, India, 2010). One other concludes that “further investigation is needed of the suit itself, and intensive therapy programs in children with CP” (Bailes; 2011 ). Others contend that there’s not enough evidence to support routine use of the suit method. (e.g., Taylor; 2006) 

Nothing about the whole lot of 'em really stands out to me; nothing touches my memory. The thought that “that’s powerful evidence” one way or the other has never crossed my mind. If anything, there's the nagging concern that the rosiest reports seem always to stem from therapists with vested interests in the method's success.

I could see how designing a suit therapy study would be challenging. Maybe it'll turn out anecdotes are the best we can hope for? Maybe studies aren't what we need? Where is all this heading? I don’t have a clue.

So, for now, I keep falling back on two things:

• I find the theories (regarding how the method should work) to be plausible. 

• Suit-method centers, or clinics, are now commonplace, if not ubiquitous.  You find them within UCP facilities, private therapy clinics, and ICF /IIDs (Intermediate Care Facilities for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities). I know of five (5) within a few hours of me in Ohio. See details below.

The method is now finding a place in hospital settings, too. We have Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center offering it here. I just read about All Children’s Hospital in St. Petersburg, FL... 

Wouldn't a hospital clinic have to have good, research-based reasons for giving suit therapy a go?

*  *  *  *  *

THINGS ASTERISK-ED

*What I know about most of these clinics comes primarily from their web sites. I haven’t spent as much time on their Facebook pages. It could easily be that they’re putting more of their communications resources there.

**If you know of other noteworthy intensive therapy research, I'd love to hear about it.

*** Therasuit LLC claims that "since 2002, we have trained thousands of therapists and helped create hundreds of intensive therapy centers in the United States.” Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, when I clicked on a link for a listing of those clinics, I was met with the all-too-familiar: “File or directory not found.”

SOME IT CLINICS IN OHIO

Leap Beyond Therapy / Milford, OH / www.leapbeyondtherapy.com

AbiliKids / Brunswick, OH / www.abilikids.com 

Achievement Centers for Children / Highland Hills, OH / www.achievementcenters.org 

UCP of Greater Cleveland / Cleveland, OH / www.ucpcleveland.org

Hattie Larlham Center for Children with Disabilities / Mantua, OH / www.hattielarlham.org