Using your Head

Maggie has been working on driving a power chair for several years. This is an incredibly difficult thing to master, especially for one with limited motor control. We do not own a power chair but there is one at school. It belonged to a student who passed away some years ago. Repairs and updates to this chair are tricky because they cannot be attributed to a single student. Through the dedication of the therapists, their ingenuity and their endless supply of duct tape, the chair continues to be an asset for Maggie.

Determining how to best maneuver the chair is a huge step. I really hoped Maggie could use a joystick on the arm of the chair, but that was not to be. She gets the concept, but cannot sustain the control over her hand in one position. The movement that way was very start and stop. Roselle and Cliff, two different types of therapists worked together with Maggie and the chair and found the best way for Maggie to access the power of the chair. She uses her head and switches on her tray. Leaning with her left temple makes the chair go and taking the pressure off make it stop. Turning right and left is accomplished by waving or sliding or placing her hands over “proximity” switches mounted underneath her tray. They are called proximity switches because all you have to do is get near them to activate them. They are placed on the left and right or her tray so she just moves the arm on the side of her body that she wants to turn. Reverse is beyond our technical or conceptual capabilities at the moment. (I can make the chair reverse, but we do not have Maggie doing that yet)

Maggie has become quite proficient at this. It is slow going, and certainly, some days are better than others are but she gets it. Maggie can do it herself for the most part but also responds to instructions. For example, “Maggie, you’re going to hit that pole, you better turn right.” And she does it – usually. Occasionally she gets and evil grin and just heads for the pole and we have to hit the KILL switch on the back.

The level of trust between Maggie and her therapists is huge. Maggie has never been able to move herself through space. She has had to depend on others to do that. This gives her the power to control some of that herself, but she has to trust the people working with her to overcome the fear of the unknown, and her limited visual capabilities.

I would say it has worked. Maggie can literally drive the chair with her eyes closed. I received this picture of Maggie leading the Chinese New Year parade at school. The pic is grainy, but Maggie is wearing the Lion Head while driving the chair. Roselle is next to her prompting the turns etc.

Maggie is always using her head!