Abstract
Study objective: The purpose of the present study was to investigate effects of physical guidance in wheelchair-driving training for a participant with severe right hemiplegia and cognitive disorder. Design: Single-subject design of A-B-A-B′. Setting: Rehabilitation unit at a hospital. Participant: A 44-year-old male patient who had had a stroke. Intervention: In the baseline phase, the therapist used oral instruction and modeling. In the intervention phase, the therapist used physical guidance. Measure: The number of times that the patient drove the wheelchair consecutively after the intervention. Results: In the training with physical guidance, the number of times that the participant successfully drove the wheelchair was significantly greater than with oral instructions and modeling. Furthermore, the trend in the number of successful instances of driving did not show any increase with oral instruction and modeling, but showed a clear increase with physical guidance. Conclusion: The present study suggests that physical guidance may be quite effective for stroke patients with severe hemiplegia and cognitive disorder, compared to modeling or oral instructions.
