title: Comparative effects of bilateral hand splints and an elbow orthosis on stereotypic hand movements and toy play in two children with Rett syndrome.
abstract: A single-subject rapidly alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness of bilateral hand splints and an elbow orthosis in decreasing stereotypic hand behaviors and increasing toy play in 2 children with Rett syndrome. The subjects' responses were compared across three treatment conditions: no intervention, hand splints, and elbow orthosis. The order of the treatment phases was randomly selected for each subject. Data were collected in both a free-time condition and a toy-play condition; the outcome measures were stereotypic hand movements and hand-to-toy contact. Both subjects demonstrated a decrease in stereotypic hand movements and a corresponding increase in toy contact with the use of the elbow orthosis. The bilateral hand splints had no obvious treatment effect.
authors.affiliation: Sun Prairie Public Schools, Wisconsin.
authors.forename: P A
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Sharpe
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004550:Elbow; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D009989:Orthotic Devices; D011897:Random Allocation; D015518:Rett Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D013165:Splints