An investigation of teaching staff members' and parents' views on the current state of adaptive seating technology and provision

Abstract

Purpose. It is recognized that for children with poor postural control, a comfortable adaptive seating system which provides them with the support needed to maintain a sitting position can be essential for raising their overall level of well being. The purpose of this study was to investigate the views of teaching staff members at special needs schools and of the parents of children who attended these schools on the provision and current technology of seating systems.

Method. Two similar questionnaires intended to elicit the views of teaching staff and the parents of children attending these schools were designed and distributed to these groups.

Results. Dissatisfaction exists with reliability of these systems and the time it takes for replacement systems to be issued. The perceived importance of adaptive seating role in the user being accepted by peers was found to be statistically different between the two groups. Time spent per day transferring the child to and from seating systems was found to be greater than 1 h for both groups.

Conclusion. Scope remains for improvements to be made in adaptive seating provision and technology. Although mainly descriptive, these results could be of use when developing newer systems and improving services.

Keywords:

• Adaptive seating
• disabled children

Acknowledgements

This work was funded as part of the doctoral training centre at the Bioengineering Unit, University of Strathclyde (grant no. EP/D505321/1). The authors thank the staff and the parents who took part in the study.