Music Glove

Jake started some new more engaging therapy a few weeks ago that we are hoping helps improve his fine motor skills on his left hand. Over the past several months, we've seen him try to use his left hand more and more doing things like opening the car door or holding his water bottle with his left hand and opening it with his right. He does pretty well grasping things but still really struggles with the release/opening of his hand. We've also noticed his hand control really depends on the position his wrist is in, he gets fatigued keeping his arm and hand straight and his wrist falls causing his hand to go down. This is a big issue when he drums so he has a small wrist splint he uses which seems to help.

Several months ago I saw on Facebook of all things, an add for a Music Glove (I still find it a bit creepy that facebook knows what to advertise to me based on what I search for on the internet). It's a rehab glove that isolates work on the pinch and release for the thumb and each of the fingers all done to music. As much as Jake likes music, we thought it might be a good thing to try. To get the fine motor skills back takes tons and tons of repetition and this seemed like a more engaging way to do it. I shared it with his OT and she did some research and thought it looked interesting, but we weren't sure he had enough isolated finger movement at the time to use the glove effectively. I brought it up to her again about a month ago and we decided it would be worth a shot. We talked to Jake to make sure it was something he was willing to take initiative to do 5 days a week working up to 20-30 minutes each session. He thought about it for a couple of days and came to us and said he wanted to try it.

It's pretty cool, he gets to pick which pinching grip he works on and if he wants to work 1, 3 or 5 grips/pinches per song. As the song plays, a little dot shows up on the screen and when it gets to the of buttons at the bottom showing the grip, Jake has to pinch. In the video, Jake is working on his middle finger and thumb, you can see the green dot coming down the middle of the screen. The sensors on the glove tell him if he's early, late or gets it exactly right. We got it two weeks ago and I took a video of his pinching without the glove and the first time he used it  https://youtu.be/PKZqNhlzC7I. The thing I've found interesting while watching him is how much he moves around when trying to get to pinch, it's like he needs the rest of his body to support what he's trying to do rather than isolating and moving only his fingers. He also holds his left wrist with his right hand for added support. First time he tried it he got 32/58 which is pretty darn good, the manual said it's normal to only get 5 or 10 on the first attempt.

We've been really proud of his dedication so far to "practicing." He needs a little help getting the little sensors on, but he comes to us and says he wants to practice instead of us reminding him. We're anxious to see how he progresses over the next several months, I'll be sure to keep you posted. :-)