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Early intervention for the C.P. initiating from 2 or 3 years
old, who have received early rehabilitation treatment, seating
and body supports with assistant technology as well as long-term
training and education, has been demonstrated to provide
promising outcomes in significantly improved abnormal muscle
tone, reflex, body*s coordination and balanced control. The
consequent clinical benefits, which have been demonstrated by
the U.S. and other developed countries, are providing an up-
right posture to offer and enhance the abilities of
independence, education and social activities. In Taiwan, the
rehabilitation management for severe disabilities has not well
established, and it is strongly lack of research and development
in the rehabilitation and assistant technology, particularly in
specialized seating and functional postural supports. Therefore,
it is important and urgently needed to develop an cost-effective
seating and positioning system for clinical evaluation and
prescription for the design and development of specialized
seating and body support systems in rehabilitation management of
the C.P. in our society.The purpose of this project is to design
and develop an adjustable multi-function seating simulator and
body postural measuring system to provide quantitative
measurement and evaluation for clinical research and study, and
to fabricate specialized seating and body support devices/
systems for customized fitting for the severe C.P. Initially, 28
severe C.P. children were clinically evaluated and measured for
the determination of functional design and their seating
anthropometry to provide system design criteria for the
adjustable seating system. Finite element method (FEM) is used
to analyze the system structure in welding and drilling regions
with potential failures. The strain-stress analysis on the
completed design and prototype was compared with an experimental
testing using strain gauge to assure the structural safety. The
adjustable seating and positioning system has been used in
clinical research and seating clinics, (I) for the investigation
of optimal seating and posture control, and (II) to provide
individual measurement in the length of body segments and the
degree of joints for customized design of seating and body
support devices in severe C.P. children . The system has been
found to be functional very well. Finally, a comprehensive
evaluation program for each individual with moderate or severe
C.P. is recommended through1) using a single-case experiment
design method,2) initial seating & position evaluate using the
adjustable system,3) fabricate the customized seating & support
system,
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