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The aim of the Association of Wheelchair Children is to visit all children in the UK who use a wheelchair to ensure they are properly trained. After, we are able to refer the child to the Health Service to acquire a chair that meets the child’s clinical needs as demonstrated by the course. The combination of the right chair and the right training means that children will have functional parity with their peers.
At our unique 2-day manual wheelchair training courses, we enable children to develop their mobility skills through a series of practical assessments, which includes:
1) Propelling their own wheelchairs up and down kerbs unassisted;
2) Coping with traffic and pedestrians;
3) Negotiating crossings and pedestrians as well as crossing roads.
Learning wheelchair skills and being able to assess risk are essential requirements if a child is to become more independently mobile and be able to move about safely and with confidence. For a wheelchair-using child, a major hurdle to becoming fully mobile outdoors is ascending and descending a 4" kerb. Being able to backwheel balance is one of the most important skills a child can learn and a child who has learnt this will be able to go up and down kerbs, steps, slopes and negotiate roads to get to school or go to the local shops independently. This skill is also used to go up and down some of the steeper or rougher slopes, particularly grassy ones where it is a great deal safer to descend such slopes on the back wheels of the chair. As a consequence, our fully qualified therapy team spend a great deal of their time teaching the wheelchair-using child the essential skills of backwheel balancing.
From our experience we find that children benefit most from practicing their wheelchair skills over a period of time. Following their first course we would expect an 8-year-old child to be able to go up and down a 4" kerb. After a second course they should be able to move towards backwheel balancing their chair and after a 3rd they should have acquired the necessary skills to confidently do a static backwheel balance leading to a backwheel balance down a slope.
We hold a stock of Lightweight wheelchairs, which are ideal for children attending one of our wheelchair training courses but who do not own a suitable chair. Long waiting lists from NHS wheelchair services sometimes necessitate these chairs being loaned out on "long term lets". Wherever possible, AWC will advise a child to obtain the chair needed from the National Health Service (NHS) Disabled Service Centre. We work in close collaboration with the child to support and advise on application to these services.
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| about us | what we do | get training | get involved | contact | ||
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Association of Wheelchair Children 6 Woodman Parade, North Woolwich, London, E16 2LL Tel: 0844 544 1050 Registered Charity No. 1057894 Company Registered 3249582 |
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