Training characteristics important for growing consciousness of joystick-use in people with profound cognitive disabilities

Abstract

Aim The Driving to Learn project focused on people with profound cognitive disabilities and their possible achievements from practicing joystick-use in a powered wheelchair. The aim of this study within the project was to statistically analyse the participants' outcomes, and to explore factors, in terms of participant and training characteristics, associated with a favourable outcome of training joystick-use. Methods In this study, previously collected and analysed data and findings from 45 participants (aged 12 months to 52 years) were used to extract participant and training characteristics. Associations between participant and training characteristics and the participant's outcome of joystick-use were calculated. Results The results showed that training characteristics were decisive for reaching steering control, whereas participant characteristics were not. Factors significantly associated with participant's reaching ‘control of steering’ were: taking part in more than 30 training sessions (p=0.004), training at two or more training venues (p=0.007), undergoing a training period longer than two years (p=0.016), and a high degree of training with professional trainers (p=0.045). Conclusions Appropriate training characteristics assisted growing consciousness of joystick-use in people with profound cognitive disabilities. Findings from the project also include the identification of an eight-phase process of growing consciousness of joystick-use and the development of a tool for assessment of phases, which were used to measure the participants outcome.