Robotic Gairment

The literature that is reviewed in this piece was compiled from a variety of online databases and resources. Using Husson University’s library, I found there were many different databases available to use for the research. I selected from the following online databases; PubMed, Medline, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOHost, and the American Psychological Association. The original terms included physical therapy, gross motor skills, and cerebral palsy. However, as I narrowed the broad subject of physical to more of a specific topic, I changed the search terms to robotic gait training, neurological disorders, and physical therapy. The majority of results from the search terms “physical therapy” and “neurological disorder” related to gross motor …show more content…
I rejected a few sources as their purpose was to focus on robotic therapy on other gross motor skill functions, such as the use of arms following a stroke or accident. For the purpose of this research, it was necessary to search for gait impairment only. The only problems I encountered while searching for appropriate literature was finding studies that compared the results of robotic gait training to traditional physical therapy. I will review the literature thematically to assess how the results and professional opinions compare and contrast different authors of similar work. The three major themes that I will analyze includes; robotic gait training for stroke patients, robotic gait training for patients with neurological disorders, and intense traditional physical therapy on patients with neurological disorders. The majority of these studies show a positive correlation between treatment success and robotic gait training. However, a few sources also showed a negative correlation, which will be discussed in the review of literature. I will discuss each major theme in separate paragraphs, comparing and contrasting the similar work done by different authors so that the thesis can either be supported or