The effect of rebound therapy on functional outcomes in children with mild physical impairments

Objectives: As a result of a lack of evidence into rebound therapy, the objective was to evaluate the effectiveness of rebound therapy on functional land based activities for children with mild physical impairments. Method: A pilot study with twelve children (9 males, 3 females) mean age 7.1 (SD 1.6) years who had been referred by a physiotherapist and completed block of rebound therapy between June 2010 and June 2011 and had their case notes reviewed. The block of rebound therapy comprised of one 20 minute session per week for six weeks. Children were assessed pre and post intervention using the timed up and go test, (Podsiadlo & Richardson 1991) the single leg stance time (Tourtellotte 1965), and the age appropriate item 2 of the Aiming and Catching section of the Movement ABC-2 (Henderson et al 2007). Results: Whilst no statistically significant improvement was observed in any of the outcome measures, a clinically significant difference was observed in the timed up and go scores at 6 weeks. Conclusion: Rebound therapy may impact on functional land based activities in a positive way. The need for further, more robust research is highlighted in this paper