Wearables for Pediatric Rehabilitation: How to Optimally Design and Use Products to Meet the Needs of Users

Abstract

This article will define “wearables” as objects that interface and move with users, spanning clothing through smart devices. A novel design approach merging information from across disciplines and considering users’ broad needs will be presented as the optimal approach for designing wearables that maximize usage. Three categories of wearables applicable to rehabilitation and habilitation will be explored: (1) inclusive clothing (eg, altered fit, fasteners); (2) supportive wearables (eg, orthotics, exoskeletons); and (3) smart wearables (eg, with sensors for tracking activity or controlling external devices). For each category, we will provide examples of existing and emerging wearables and potential applications for assessment and intervention with a focus on pediatric populations. We will discuss how these wearables might change task requirements and assist users for immediate effects and how they might be used with intervention activities to change users’ abilities across time. It is important for rehabilitation clinicians and researchers to be engaged with the design and use of wearables so they can advocate and create better wearables for their clients and determine how to most effectively use wearables to enhance their assessment, intervention, and research practices.

Robotic devices for paediatric rehabilitation: a review of design features

“…Traditionally, rehabilitation robot designers have focused solely on improving physical function [ 58 ], which can lead to rejection of the devices as not all the needs of children with disabilities are considered. Thus, to ensure successful adoption of the technology, the rehabilitation robots should cover these needs of the children.…”

“…family members, clinicians, and health care providers) during the development process, providing feedback to identify possible issues of importance [ 1 , 43 ]. Furthermore, it is essential to focus not only on addressing the impairment or limitation in users’ functional abilities, but also on other fundamental needs, like accessibility and aesthetics [ 58 ], to avoid the user abandoning the rehabilitation device due to frustration [ 59 ].…”

A Contactless Method for Measuring Full-Day, Naturalistic Motor Behavior Using Wearable Inertial Sensors

“…Classifying body position from wearable sensors provides a third option that addresses the limitations of both video and survey methods. Lightweight inertial movement units (IMUs)small sensors that contain an accelerometer and gyroscope-can be worn for the entire day or multiple days taped to the skin, embedded in clothing, or worn on a wristwatch (Cliff et al, 2009;de Barbaro, 2019;Lobo et al, 2019;Bruijns et al, 2020). Notably, an experimenter does need not to be present, and data can be recorded at a dense sampling rate in real time.…”

Machine Learning to Quantify Physical Activity in Children with Cerebral Palsy: Comparison of Group, Group-Personalized, and Fully-Personalized Activity Classification Models

“…For researchers and clinicians interested in monitoring time spent walking, the ankle may be an ideal wear location. An accelerometer can be readily attached to the ankle-foot orthoses commonly worn by this patient group to assist in mobility [39,40]. Prior studies have established that children with CP have a high compliance with wearing ankle-mounted accelerometers, such as the StepWatch, as they do not cause undue irritation or discomfort [41][42][43].…”