FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 8, 2007
Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc. Supports UE's Physical Therapy Department
Many activity-related injuries can be prevented.
And thanks to a grant from the Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc., students and faculty at the University of Evansville — in collaboration with ProRehab — will spend the next year helping teach that prevention to young children.
"Typical wellness programs have focused on cardiovascular and nutritional concepts," said Robert J. Butler, assistant professor of physical therapy and director of the Dunigan Movement Analysis Laboratory at UE. "This grant is allowing us to develop a program that incorporates aspects of musculosketal development which are imperative to maintain quality of life throughout the lifespan."
The University of Evansville's Physical Therapy Department received a $39,500 grant from the Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc., last week for a collaborative, school-based wellness program incorporating "healthy" movement into standard physical education activity. In this program, UE faculty and ProRehab professionals will go to St. Ben's Elementary School during both the spring and fall of 2008, where they will spend eight weeks each semester working with students' active movement patterns.
They will begin by observing the students' movements in certain physical education activities — everything from walking to doing push-ups to simply stepping over bars or other obstacles. They then will spend the rest of the available time working with the students to correct improper motions that could, if left unchecked, lead to injuries later in life.
This project is supported by a grant from the Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc.
The group chose to focus the intervention on elementary school-aged children, since this is the time when, "kids are subconsciously figuring out how to best move these, new mature bodies to accomplish their daily activities," says research team member Bryant Elkins, PT, DPT clinician at ProRehab. "Over time, poor movement strategies take a toll on the body. The bad strategies can be modified with some relatively simple activities designed to recruit the correct joint and muscle actions to accomplish the task more effectively."
This training will be incorporated into traditional physical education, along with standard cardiovascular and nutritional concepts.
"We know kids are less active and more overweight than ever before," said research team member Phil Plisky, an adjunct faculty member at UE and practicing therapist at ProRehab. "Frequently, children don't exercise because it is painful or they feel uncoordinated. Our project stemmed from answering these questions that plague the health care professional."
Reaching children in their early stages of development is crucial, which is why UE and ProRehab are grateful to the Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc., for giving them the opportunity to help these young children.
"Our work in the sports medicine field, demonstrating the link between dysfunctional movement and injury risk is gaining popularity in professional sports," said Kyle Keisel, an assistant professor of physical therapy at UE and part-time clinician at ProRehab. "The research grant we received from the Welborn Foundation will allow us to expand this work to a younger population to measure and normalize movement. We feel strongly about prevention and early intervention, so to focus our efforts on a school-based program is exciting."
For more information on this program, please contact UE News Director Joe Atkinson at (812) 488-2562.
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