Physical Assessments to determine physical capacity and assist in designing a tailored exercise intervention. These assessments will focus on identifying challenges in:
Balance: ability to maintain control and stability of your position whilst stationary or moving.
Muscular Strength: The maximum force a muscle or group of muscles can generate in a single effort.
Muscular Endurance: The ability of muscles to sustain repeated contractions or maintain a force over a period of time.
Bilateral Coordination: The ability to use both sides of the body together in a controlled and coordinated manner.
Agility: The ability to change direction quickly and effectively while maintaining control of body.
Cardiovascular Fitness: The efficiency with which the heart, lungs, and circulatory system supply oxygenated blood to muscles during activities.
Mobility/Flexibility: The range of motion of joints and muscles allowing ease of movement.
Exercise Physiology sessions will include all or some of the following:
Strength: Focus on exercises that target muscle grounds essential for daily tasks, such as lifting, carrying and pushing. Strength exercises provided are based on current guidelines and can involve body weight, weighted equipment or resistance bands.
Balance: Both static and dynamic balance exercises completed with use of varied surface stability, introduction of resistance, multitasking challenges and reducing assistance (minimizing handrail use, or only using one leg).
Motor skill development: Focus on refining gross motor skills through activities that utilize both left and right side of the body as well ensuring frequent crossing of the midline.
Functional movement training: Focus on exercises that replicate daily activities such as walking, sitting, and standing to improve strength, and coordination. Training is tailored to enhance functional capacity and restore or improve occupational performance.
Flexibility: Introduce stretching exercises (static and dynamic) to reduce stiffness, which will improve mobility and enhance movement of everyday activities like bending, reaching, and getting dressed.
Mobility: Focus on exercises that improve joint range of motion and fluid movement patterns. Techniques like stretching, joint mobilizations, and walking drills will help with moving through spaces and performing tasks more easily.
Play based: Sessions aim to be fun and engaging to encourage movement, and social interaction.
Emotional regulation: Support emotional regulation development through regular grounding activities, use of equipment that provides proprioceptive feedback (such as weighted blankets, or ankle weights), and breathing exercises. These strategies are used throughout the session when required, typically completed after completion of an activity/exercise to help calm the individual and develop the ability to regulate following physical activities.
Parents and Carers are provided with a tailored home exercises and activities that can be completed at home to support progress and maximize the benefits of Intervention. The home exercises will include:
Strength, balance, bilateral coordination and mobility exercises as required.
Regulation activities.
Regular check-ins to monitor progress and adherence.
Comprehensive NDIS report detailing:
Goals: A reiteration of NDIS goals and objectives.
Strategy to achieve goals: An outline of the established strategy being implemented to achieve these goals.
Progress: Detailed breakdown of client progression towards goals and comparison to previous level of ability.
Recommendations: A breakdown on strategies effectiveness and changes that may need to be made. I also will outline what other health professionals will be beneficial in helping the client achieve their goals.
Functional capacity represents an individual's ability to actively participate in daily life. It includes a wide range of activities, from self-care and personal management (such as dressing, grooming, and meal preparation) to community engagement (like shopping, using public transport, or social interactions) and economic participation (such as attending school, completing work-related tasks, or managing household responsibilities). Enhancing functional capacity allows individuals to navigate their environments with greater independence, confidence, and efficiency, ultimately improving their quality of life.
Balance: Challenges with balance can impact a person’s ability to perform tasks like standing, walking, or reaching for objects without the risk of falling. This may affect independence in activities like getting out into the community, cleaning, or even getting out of bed or a chair.
Muscular Strength: Crucial for completing everyday tasks such as lifting, carrying groceries, pushing a wheelchair, or performing physical tasks at work or home. Weakness in specific muscle groups can limit a person’s ability to independently manage personal care, household chores, job responsibilities, or even engage in recreational activities.
Muscular Endurance: Essential for sustaining daily activities such as walking (especially stairs), standing, and performing repetitive tasks (e.g., using a walker or preparing meals) without excessive fatigue or discomfort. It also supports proper posture and body alignment throughout the day. Limited muscular endurance can lead to early fatigue, reducing an individual's ability to complete these activities independently.
Bilateral Coordination: Challenges in bilateral coordination can make tasks like dressing, writing, or using tools/equipment more difficult, such as riding a bike. These challenges may also impede the acquisition of new physical skills, making it crucial to focus on bilateral coordination to pave the way for future skill development.
Agility: Poor agility might affect tasks such as navigating through crowded spaces, moving between different locations, or responding to environmental changes (e.g., avoiding obstacles in the path).
Cardiovascular Fitness: Diminished cardiovascular fitness can lead to fatigue during routine activities like walking, climbing stairs, or participating in daily tasks, thereby impacting one's ability to perform activities of daily living (ADLs). Furthermore, poor cardiovascular health is linked to a heightened risk of cardiovascular diseases, underscoring the importance of improving and maintaining cardiovascular fitness.
Mobility/Flexibility: limited mobility or flexibility can hinder tasks such as walking, bending down, reaching for items, or performing daily activities like dressing, bathing, or getting in and out of a car. Stretching exercises and physical therapy can help improve flexibility, making it easier for individuals to move through their day independently.