United Brachial Plexus Network, Inc.

I have aquestion regarding supination....may sound strange but..if you don't ask.....you don't know..so.... My son cannot supinate on his own past neutral...he CAN supinate with the assistance of his OT and myself...my question is...will he eventually learn to do this on his own or will there be a problem "learning" the muscles to supinate if he has never done that...in other words can he learn the muscles to do this or does that involve the nerve "telling" him to supinate the arm....If he has not been able to supinate thus far is the nerve damaged to a point where he will not be able to supinate on his own or is it just a matter of him growing and "learning" to supinate on his own? Thanks any info is always appreciated !!

I would think that this is one of those "case by case" kind of things. For myself, I cannot supinate past nuetral without help. But with help I can get to about 45 degrees.

Mark, How old is your child?
I am Angela....mom to Jill born severe Left OBPI. Jill is now age 21.

In her case she was supinated and could not pronate (I understand she is in the minority for that one). My Jill entered grade school resting her hand on her desk, PALM UP (supinated). Did therapy galore, to try to get it to pronate (palm down). Never did atain that palm down, pronated ability.

Sometime in mid gradeschool her forearm FROZE into the NEUTRAL position. I was told by her Chicago O.T., that actually it was better for the forearm to be FROZEN in NEUTRAL.....better than ONLY supinated, or ONLY pronated. Forearm Neutral is the most functional. And for Jill, this does seem to prove out.

Do these activities yourself. To carry a lunch tray, button the front of your shirt. To take hand to face. Hold something in your hand. Notice, your forearm/hand is in the Forearm NEUTRAL position.

I do agree with the above poster......you just never know....it is case by case.

For computer typing I got her the Comfort Keyboard.....the keyboard comes in 3 sections. Also if it is the LEFT hand that is unaffected, the ten key pad can be removed from the very sturdy metal base and moved over to the left side.
http://www.comfortkeyboard.com/
For Jill, I stood the left side almost verticle, she preferred the other 2 to be flat, since she used them with her unaffected right hand.

Mark, please read this thread
http://ubpn.org/messageboard/thread ... read=11983
Vanda and I, wrote back and forth regarding the forearm, and the use of e-stim Vs. TES. Vanda explained that TES reaches the area that you are asking about, and e-stim does not. I only had the e-stim (late 80's early 90's), and I knew first hand that the e-stim was not able to access the forearm rotation issues we had.

About all I can tell ya is therapy,therapy , therapy.
it has a better chance to come back by alot of therapy.All the best