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Project Title: Vestibular stimulation on cerebral palsy: Designing a vestibulator

Supervisor: Professor G. G. Ray

Vestibular stimulation is an important part of therapeutic program to improve the neuro-muscular function of a person with physical disability. There is no existing therapeutic equipment to facilitate the function of vestibular system of cerebral palsy (CP) children. The aim of the study was to develop specific therapeutic instrument which is called as vestibulator for the children with CP and to investigate the effect of vestibular therapy intervention using the developed vestibulator on the children. The vestibulator has been designed and fabricated at the Industrial Design Centre, IIT Bombay, based upon data collected from assessment of neuro-development and anthropometric survey on 67 children. The vestibulator provides stimulation of all receptors of vestibular system including forward-backward tilting, side to side tilting, spinning, forward-backward linear and gravitational ascending-descending motion. The vestibulator provides different postures along with different amount of support while stimulating the system. It is also adjustable in height and support area to be used for children from 1 to 6 years old.