Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants
Results of an Intensive Hippotherapy Program on Gait and Speech
Department
Occupational Therapy
College
College of Health Professions
Date Range
2011-2012
Abstract
This presentation will report on the results of an intensive hippotherapy program on the gait and speech abilities of a 28 year old man with a traumatic brain injury. "GA" suffered a severe TBI at age 14 following a motor vehicle accident resulting in balance and coordination difficulties across all motor acts including walking and talking. GA participated in five thirty minute hippotherapy sessions over five consecutive days. His walking and articulation abilities were measured before and after each session. Results indicated improvement in all measured categories: stride length, walk speed, times off balance, diadokokinesis, intelligibility, and sustained /ah/ following each session with baseline improvements noted before the 5th session. These results indicate that hippotherapy may be beneficial for persons with chronic brain injury.
Conference Name
XIVth International Congress of Therapeutic Riding
Conference Location
Athens, Greece
ScholarWorks Citation
Macauley, Beth, "Results of an Intensive Hippotherapy Program on Gait and Speech" (2011). Faculty Scholarly Dissemination Grants. 359.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/fsdg/359
