Biofeedback to Increase Propulsion During Walking After Stroke

"Intervention (12, 60-minute sessions, 3X/week for four weeks) will occur in an outpatient research setting. Participants will be supervised by a licensed physical therapist and wear a gait belt during all activities. The therapist will choose from a standardized bank of gait activities, suitable to each participant's ability level. The goal for total walking time for each session will be 50 minutes: 5, 10-minute bouts with a 2-minute rest between bouts. This is the typical length and intensity of outpatient rehabilitation sessions for ambulatory patients discharged from inpatient rehabilitation.~Biofeedback Group: Biofeedback (external-focus feedback) will be provided as an adjuvant to therapist-provided feedback during the intervention. Participants will be instructed that a tone will sound when they push off with their (paretic) leg to swing it forward when the participant-specific pre-programmed threshold is exceeded."

"Intervention (12, 60-minute sessions, 3X/week for four weeks) will occur in an outpatient research setting. Participants will be supervised by a licensed physical therapist and wear a gait belt during all activities. The therapist will choose from a standardized bank of gait activities, suitable to each participant's ability level. The goal for total walking time for each session will be 50 minutes: 5, 10-minute bouts with a 2-minute rest between bouts. This is the typical length and intensity of outpatient rehabilitation sessions for ambulatory patients discharged from inpatient rehabilitation.~Verbal Feedback Group: Therapist-provided internal-focus feedback (directed towards components of body movement) will be used to instruct participants on achieving and/or maintaining appropriate movement patterns that contribute to propulsion generation."