Breanna Wheeler, Physical Therapist for our Pediatric Pelvic Health program says:

“The surface EMG biofeedback machine helps my kiddo’s, their families and myself better understand how their pelvic floor musculature is working. Three small electrodes are placed around the perineum, so if the child is not comfortable with me placing the electrodes, I will teach the parents how to place the electrodes. Because the electrodes are connected to the adapter with long wires, they are then able to participate in this activity with their clothing on with the ability to move into different positions. These electrodes receive electrical activity of the muscles measured in microvolts. This allows me to gather information without doing a direct assessment of the perineum; including the resting tone of the muscles, the strength, ability to relax, and endurance. After I assess their function, the child is essentially playing a video game with their pelvic floor muscles. For example, they appear on screen as a butterfly, and I set target goals as coins at specific microvolts that are achievable to them and they are to contract and relax their muscles to get the target coins that appear near the top and bottom of the screen. Improving pelvic floor muscle coordination, strength, and endurance helps children combat urinary and fecal incontinence, void and eliminate successfully, and improve overall balance in the musculoskeletal system.

The families are loving the new equipment. I am able to explain what I am seeing on my screen, and as I do this, the child doesn’t get bored because they can continue watching the animation. It also gives the kids and parents something objective to better understand the child’s, strength, endurance, and ability/or lack of ability to fully relax. The kids are often originally hesitant because of the placement of the electrodes. To help, I use a pelvic model to first review the anatomy, explain where the “stickers” will go, what the “stickers” and machine do, and review how to use their “up muscles” (“the muscles that help you hold in a toot”). Once they get past the initial hesitancy to get the “stickers” on, they have all said something along the lines of it’s “so cool” and/or “this is really fun”. They often will want to keep playing so they can try all the different animations the program has to offer (spaceship, butterfly, scuba diver, hot air balloon). I have been using the equipment for about a month now – so I’ve probably used it with 6-7 kids/families so far. As you can imagine, this tool requires cognition to be fairly intact for the child to understand what is going on. Because of this, I don’t use it with everybody, but I have used it with some of my high functioning kiddo’s with autism and had good success.”