Découvrir le fauteuil roulant électrique en établissement pour personnes adultes polyhandicapées : une opportunité de stimulation cognitive

Adults with severe cerebral palsy and restricted autonomy are able to engage in meaningful activities suitable for their locomotor abilities and appropriate to stimulate their cognitive skills. Experimental assistive mobility with an electric wheelchair is one example. Here, we present seven case reports of adults with multiple and severe disabilities, living in institutions. They were proposed training sessions, guided by a multidisciplinary team and dedicated to the discovery of using an electric wheelchair. We show that the learning milestones that are described in children with motor deficiency when beginning to use an electric wheelchair are also observed in our adults. For each individual, depending on the severity of his/her neurological damage, this experiment revealed the level (exploratory or operative) of cognitive ability that was reached after training. For all of them, the discovery of a self-initiated mobility was a source of intense emotional and attentional mobilisation.