YetiCare supports emotional skills at Bobath Foundation for CP

YetiCare activates children

Yetitablet was tested at Bobath’s Early Childhood Centre in Madrid, where they specialize in children from 0 to 6 years who have neurological alterations that affect movement, posture, and the sensory system.

They have been trying various technologies to promote collaborative work and improve the socio-affective interaction of the students in the centre, regardless of their motor or cognitive skills.

To test the impact of Yetitablet, Bobath established three main goals:

• Facilitate social interaction in early childhood
• Improve the socio-affective competence
• Improve the effectiveness of their methodologies

To accomplish those, Bobath decided to use interactive learning apps and games that would help the students to communicate with one another, stimulate certain cognitive functions, practice activities of daily living, and help the children cross midline faster.

The children had plenty of fun, while they exercised social, cognitive, and executive functions that are necessary for them to live more integrated lives as adults. The Yetitablet helped them accomplish this with effectiveness and efficiency, as time is crucial in early childhood development. At such an early age, children have a neuroplasticity that when managed properly, gives them a better prognosis with better outcomes of success as adults.

Nuria Sánchez, an occupational therapist at Bobath, mentions that many of their students are extremely shy and introverted as a result of the insecurity that living with a disability causes them. In order to help the students improve their chances of success in adulthood, the therapists need to exercise the children’s social skills as much as possible. One way to help them accomplish the skills is through collaborative games.

“The apps we used the most were sensory stimulation apps that simulate textures like sand, colors and water. We used a lot of musical apps that simulate pianos, guitars and drums as the cause-effect reaction was more tangible. Most of our students will never have the dexterity to play an instrument or make a vase out of clay. So an app that simulates it is one of the best ways to convey that feeling. We also exercised activities of daily life with apps where the children had to dress up a character, or give them food, or gather ingredients for a meal, and other activities.”

Nuria Sánchez

Some of Bobath’s favourite features were the stand as it can be adjusted to each person’s mobility needs, the ease of use, the easy integration with peripherals like joysticks, and the variety of apps to target any cognitive function they wanted.

However, the most important one was definitely the size as it promotes group activities and collaboration in ways that are hard to do with other methods. A vivid example is one of her students who had never talked with any of her classmates as she was too shy. After a few minutes of playing games on the Yetitablet, she had broken the ice and had made new friendships with her classmates.

“We accomplished the objectives. We were able to use the tablet for many activities in which the tablet became the element to motivate the students to participate. The attention of the students increased, making both the active users and the passive ones benefit from the activity. The size gives the possibility of immediate participation, both for groups and individuals, which allows everyone to benefit at the same time.”

Nuria Sánchez

All the professionals and users expressed that Yetitablet was a key resource to have, with possibilities to help in all their areas of intervention.

About Bobath Foundation

Bobath Foundation is a specialist treatment, training centre, and charity dedicated to supporting children and families living with cerebral palsy and similar neurological conditions. They teach their clients from early education all the way to professional training in adulthood. One of their objectives is to integrate their clients into the labour force so they can lead more normal and fulfilling lives.