Training a Parent in Wheelchair Skills to Improve Her Child's Wheelchair Skills: A Case Study

We tested the hypothesis that training a parent in wheelchair-user and caregiver wheelchair skills would improve the child's wheelchair skills. We studied an 11-year-old girl with spina bifida and her mother. The mother received 4 training sessions averaging 42.5 minutes per session, over a period of 3 weeks. The total pre-training and, 4 weeks after completion of the parent-training sessions, post-training performance Wheelchair Skills Test (WST 4.1) scores for the child were 66% and 69%, for the mother as a simulated wheelchair user were 69% and 84% and for the mother as a caregiver were 93% and 100%. Both the mother and the child perceived the training to be beneficial. This case study suggests the potential for parent training to benefit their children's wheelchair skills abilities.