The T.K. Martin Center for Technology and Disability at Mississippi State University has recently broken ground on a new therapeutic motor lab. The center focuses on ensuring that people with disabilities are able to benefit from the technological solutions and advances in the field of assistive technology.
Junior special education major Katie Orr worked at T.K. Martin as part of practicum for special education.
“I really enjoy working there because it is a great facility and it has so much new innovative equipment,” Orr said. “I think it is great that we have T.K. Martin at MSU because it is so unique to have a special needs facility on a college campus.”
The therapeutic motor lab is designed to enhance the center’s Project IMPACT (Insuring Mississippi Parents And Children’s Tomorrows).
Project IMPACT uses a family-centered approach to help involve parents and caregivers as essential participants in interventions
This is accomplished by making use of therapeutic training and techniques.
“Project IMPACT is a program for children age birth to five years old who have developmental disabilities,” said T.K. Martin director Janie Cirlot-New.
The project is designed to help small children with developmental delays and provide services for children with cognitive, language, social skills, motor development and self-help needs.
Cirlot-New said the new laboratory is going to help the children with their motor development and hopefully give them a structure they can build on.
“We have a lot of children that have developmental needs and disabilities and most of them are motor-related,” said T.K. Martin research assistant Susan Abel.
The therapeutic motor lab is going to give disabled children the opportunity to develop the skills they need to be able to walk and move.
It will also to teach them how to address different situations.
The new lab will be an outdoor, low-stress environment for the children to be able to work on their motor skills.
Many of them have trouble participating in everyday activities.
“We teach them how to go up a slide, where to put their feet, how to slide down the slide and other outdoor activities in hopes that they will be able to do them on their own,” Abel said.
The staff at T.K. Martin wants the children to get the chance to have all the experiences most children have.
“We hope to help them with motor development and social development that can take place in an outside environment,” Cirlot-New said.
The motor lab will include a rubber play surface, as well as a wheelchair-accessible main playground structure. Construction is expected to be complete in about two months.
The Project IMPACT Team works under the auspices of the Mississippi State Department of Health, First Steps Early Intervention System and the Mississippi Department of Education.