Abstract
In the present study, pauses of stereotypic hand movements in an 8-year-old girl with Rett syndrome were analyzed. A "pause" refers to a temporary disappearance of her marked stereotypic hand movements. Pauses were observed in the following situation: (1) The girl was sitting in a wheelchair that had a push-style switch, and which was moved by external power, and (2) adults gently guided her right hand (the one that showed stereotypic movements) to the switch that moved the wheelchair. After that, the girl became able to put her hand on the switch without guidance. Pauses of 1 s and over were observed 185 times in a total of 8 sessions; the longest duration pause was about 8 min. When the duration of each pause was divided into 5 activity levels, the main factors associated with the pauses seemed to be her visual attention to environmental changes, together with locomotion and physical and mental relaxation.
