Definitions

The term/phrase Adaptive Equipment (AE) can refer to any tool or device that is used to help make activities of daily living easier. It could be a grab bar at the toilet, a long handled shoe horn, or even a piece of durable medical equipment (DME) such as a shower chair. The objective of adaptive […]

Adduction (or A-D-duction) is the bringing of bodily parts toward the midline of the body. When the arms are at your side and/or your legs together, they are said to be adducted. While at university and studying anatomy, I used to think of A-D-duction as adding my limbs to my body as they were brought

In the “anatomical sense” abduction (or you may hear it described as A-B-duction) is when a body part, most commonly an arm or leg, is moved away from the midline of the body. Familiar motions like raising your arms and legs apart and away from your body when doing jumping jacks is considered abduction of

When clinicians use the term flaccid they simply mean limp. But, in most cases they are using the term to describe “lack of muscle tone” that typically is a result of a neurological process or injury. A flaccid limb is one that the individual has great difficulty in moving or cannot move at all and

When therapists and health care professionals talk about “flexion”, they are referring to the bending of a joint or the movement toward the front of the body. In the photo above, most every aspect of the model’s body is flexed (except for the elbow and hands-even the shoulders are flexed because they have moved toward

If you have been around physical therapists, whether you’ve received treatment or been present while another has been working with a therapist, you have probably heard them refer to extension of a body part. Many people get confused between the terms “flexion” and “extension”. But to clear up any misunderstandings, extension means to straighten, or