The Posture and Postural Capacity Scale or P-PAS (Rodby-Bousquet, et al., 2015)¹, is a instrument that can be utilized to evaluate posture, postural potential and the standard of posture in inclined, supine, sitting and standing positions.
Posture, on this context, refers back to the anatomical alignment of physique components in relationship to one another and the surroundings. Postural potential is outlined as an individual’s potential to stabilize the physique’s segments relative to one another and a stabilizing floor to be able to assume probably the most applicable physique configuration to finish a selected activity inside an surroundings. (Rodby-Bousquet et al. 2014)². The P-PAS has wonderful inter-rater reliability, inside consistency and assemble validity (Rodby-Bousquet et al. 2012)³, making it helpful for assessing the postural potential of shoppers with important bodily disabilities. The consumer’s postural potential is dependent upon his or her potential to be positioned in, and transfer out and in of positions, and is classed on a seven-tiered scale. At Degree 1, the consumer can’t be positioned in an aligned place, and at Degree 7, the consumer simply strikes from a place. High quality of posture is scored “Sure” or “No” and takes weight distribution in all 4 positions into consideration utilizing the sagittal and frontal view of the physique.
Let’s take into account the utility of the P-PAS for college college students who’re required to take part in quite a lot of actions throughout the faculty day. Usually, the positions wanted are sitting and standing, though preschoolers may have to lie down if their program features a nap time. Adaptive tools is a crucial help to appropriate positioning in all positions and facilitates participation. Adaptive chairs and standers provide mechanical helps that may be added and moved to help physique segments to foster probably the most applicable alignment and permit optimum entry to actions. The P-PAS stage identification and high quality rating can be utilized to place a pupil appropriately as a part of providers to a pupil, and used as a coaching instrument as a part of providers on behalf of a pupil inside the IEP course of.
Let’s use as our instance the beforehand mentioned pupil with mid-thoracic trunk management challenges per SATCo testing. As a service to the coed, we now use the P-PAS to find out what postural potential stage and high quality rating the coed has whereas sitting on a bench throughout the circle time exercise. Primarily based on commentary, we decide the coed is a P-PAS Degree 4, which means we will anticipate the coed to appropriate a ahead and backward lean whereas seated on the bench. Whereas the coed is sitting quietly ready her flip, we assess the standard of that seated place utilizing the P-PAS scoring mechanism from each the frontal and sagittal view.
As soon as accomplished, every aspect of the instrument and your scoring will be shared with classroom workers. This supplies a robust coaching instrument for comply with by with the layperson’s potential to place a pupil accurately in an ongoing means. The P-PAS scoring data will be become an information assortment sheet used to trace the coed’s appropriate place whereas guiding and coaching classroom workers on their positioning effectiveness and their constancy with tools use.
Approaching pupil positioning on this means can foster classroom workers confidence in applicable positioning and proper alignment of the bodily challenged pupil utilizing any piece of adaptive tools. As with SATCo, completely different positions are required to entry completely different actions, and this requires cautious commentary by the clinician, with the potential for various postural potential ranges and high quality scores in various contexts.
For a household who has been inspired by their early intervention supplier to face their one-year-old at dwelling to interact in playtime with a sibling, a stander with equipment can be utilized as an intervention. Utilizing the postural potential stage as a place to begin, adopted by figuring out the standard of the kid’s place in standing, the household will be instructed to place their little one accurately utilizing the stander and to grasp what good alignment seems like. This method builds the household’s confidence of their potential to bodily handle their little one and implement the adaptive tools with constancy. If the kid is utilizing adaptive seating for consuming and consuming or to govern objects, the P-PAS postural potential stage and scoring mechanism for high quality can once more be used to find out applicable alignment to facilitate the most effective alternative for little one engagement and entry.
As a clinician, I encourage you to think about using this instrument to help your work with shoppers within the dwelling and in class to be able to totally perceive their postural management challenges and tackle their postural potential in an evidence-based means.
