At Swim Lab International, we’ve used Trexo to help countless children take their first steps toward independent walking.
The robotic walker supports your child in an upright position, gently moving their legs, allowing them to experience independent movement and explore places that would normally be out of bounds.
None of us are symmetrical, so each knee, hip, and ankle joint in the robotic legs can be calibrated separately and is designed to replicate natural movement.
Parents of children who’ve used Trexo during our weeks have told us it’s been a game changer. So what makes it so good?
1. Trexo supports the development of spatial awareness through body awareness, as your child walks and explores.
One of the big advantages of Trexo is that it allows your child to have experiences and explore places that would otherwise be off-limits to them. That might be anything from walking through the gardens or down to the beach, to walking out to get ice cream or playing ball games with a big soft ball. Having these experiences helps to keep them focussed and motivated, wanting to do more without it feeling like work.
2. Trexo is calibrated specifically for your child, to maximize their full range of movement and gait speed. The robot can be fully adjusted to give your child the most comfort and support. It might feel a bit strange at first, but they’ll soon get used to it and enjoy the sense of freedom it brings.
3. If your child can’t yet sit, roll or stand, Trexo can help them walk for the first time, using sensory stimulation to help build new neural pathways, supporting their ongoing development.
4. Weight bearing is fundamental in children’s bone health. It increases bone density and strength, and also helps to shape their joints. Trexo is designed to support your child to safely bear weight while mobilizing them, ultimately leading to better balance and coordination.
5. We control Trexo via a tablet, getting real-time feedback allowing us to make instant adjustments to settings, including gait pattern and speed.
We can use the data to adapt future sessions on land and in the pool to make even more progress by the end of the week.
6. Trexo provides data we can use to measure how well your child is doing and see progression throughout the week. We can see how many steps were taken each day, the amount of initiation of movement and a whole lot more.
Your child will also love to see how much progress they’re making during each session; they always want to get as many steps in as they can.
7. Trexo can help with so much more than musculoskeletal health and mobility. Trexo stimulates the whole body, getting the circulation going and engaging the core and back muscles as well as the lower body.
It can positively impact the somatosensory system, associated with touch and tactile perception, helping generate seonsory-motor feedback. Parents also tell us it improves neck position, bowel movements, breathing and sleep patterns.
8. Trexo is ideal if your child needs to improve their gait and or heel-toe striking, whether they walk with or without walking aids. If he or she is shuffling, we can teach them to lift their foot. We can adjust the pattern, so they shorten or lengthen their steps, encourage them to walk heel to toe and keep their feet straighter.
We can often see a massive difference in the way our children walk by the end of just one week when Trexo is integrated into the program.
9. Your child will take far more steps than would be possible in any other kind of therapy, getting more repetitions and dynamic stretching to build stamina, flexibility and strength.
Imagine trying to recreate these movements manually in a conventional therapy session. We would be limited as to how many repetitions we could create. The robot has no limits, and can support your child to take far more steps and make far more progress as a result. Many children see a significant improvement in their motor skills by the end of the week.
10. Over the course of the week, we can gradually lengthen their steps and increase the amount of stretching in the muscles. This encourages more flexibility and feels fantastic for children who spend a lot of time sitting. It’s also a lot more fun than doing conventional stretching exercises!
“Trexo which was really good – it picked up on the weakness in Finn’s right leg and by the end of the week – with Paul’s amazing work we now have Finn’s both legs working at the same level, which has really improved his walking in his Grillo walker. Can’t wait to come back in the summer!”
Finn Dempsey
