Interventions focusing on learning pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation in a patient with severe Alzheimer's disease: a case report.

Independence of transfer is important for the daily activities of wheelchair users. A critical step in performing this transfer includes a pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation, and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) experience difficulties in learning these tasks. In this report, we present the results of a treatment focused on learning pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation and its learning course in a patient with severe AD. The patient was a 92-year-old woman with severe AD during hospitalization in a long-term care ward. Since her cognitive function was highly compromised, she required assistance for pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation. Physiotherapists implemented a treatment plan that incorporated post-behavioral praise into a practice combining errorless learning and spaced retrieval training for pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation. The patient was able to accurately perform pre-transfer wheelchair manipulation in the seventh treatment session and achieved transfer independence after 12 physiotherapy sessions. This case report suggests that practicing combined errorless learning, spaced retrieval training, and post-behavioral praise was helpful as a treatment modality for an individual with severe AD for wheelchair manipulation learning before transfer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]