Since 2019, SPOON has partnered with Utensile, an Oregon-based product development company, to create a safe and affordable seating solution for children with feeding difficulties. Dr. Paula Rabaey, Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at St. Catherine University and member of SPOON’s Medical Advisory Board, is currently working with SPOON’s partner in Uganda, CoRSU Rehabilitation Hospital, to test the chair prototype with children with disabilities and their caregivers. Read Paula’s update from the field below.
Greetings from Uganda! My name is Paula Rabaey, and I have been a member of SPOON’s Medical Advisory Board and a technical expert in feeding for the past eight years. I am currently in Uganda at CoRSU Rehabilitation Hospital leading a pilot study on the SPOON Chair.
Designing a low-cost, yet effective, chair to help position children with disabilities who cannot sit on their own has been a dream of SPOON’s since we started conducting trainings. Up to 90% of children with disabilities face significant barriers to optimal health, growth, and development due to persistent eating problems such as inability to chew and difficulty swallowing. These difficulties are often exacerbated by sub-optimal positioning. Documented research shows that the ideal seating position for children who have significant disabilities (such as cerebral palsy) is sitting upright, back supported, head aligned with the trunk, and hips at approximately 90 degrees. While many caregivers are doing the best that they can to safely feed the children in their care, without any assistive technology for seating, this is a challenge. Many caregivers hold children with disabilities on their laps to feed them, but as children grow, it becomes increasingly difficult to maintain the best position for eating and swallowing. This makes feeding stressful for both caregiver and child! The SPOON Chair was designed to meet this need and act as a safe and affordable solution that provides adequate support for children with feeding difficulties.
Our research team here in Uganda and back in the US are pilot testing a prototype of the SPOON Chair with 20 caregiver and child pairs to assess its usability, feasibility, and acceptability. As of the first week of May, we have successfully tested the chair with 14 pairs of caregivers and children and received valuable input from the caregivers through a focus group discussion. Caregivers (including mothers, grandmothers, and aunts) have given us valuable feedback about what they liked about the chair, ease of setting it up and re-folding it, what they felt was missing, and how they felt about feeding their child in the chair versus holding them in their laps.
“With this chair, my child can sit with family when we eat.”
Mother of a child with disabilities
Uganda
Overall, caregivers have been enthusiastic about the chair with many comments about how lightweight and portable it is. One mother said, “With this chair, my child can sit with family when we eat.” That statement made my heart soar! One five-year-old girl who has significant difficulty coordinating her swallowing and breathing was also able to communicate with us that she was comfortable in the chair. She didn’t want to get out and was sad she could not take it home. It brought tears to my eyes to see how the chair improved her comfort while feeding and her ability to swallow safely.
Also key to this trip is meeting with stakeholders about the use and production of the chair. Rehab professionals at CoRSU have been giving excellent feedback about the chair’s design, and I hope to meet with some potential in-country manufacturers next week. This pilot study will help tweak the design of the chair, allowing us to scale up research on its effectiveness and bringing SPOON closer to making this chair a reality for families here in Uganda and beyond!
Testing the prototype
Read more about the initial development of the SPOON Chair here!
Update: for more information, you may also see a poster by Dr. Rabaey she presented at the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Inspire conference in April 2023.
