Case study: Unique development and rehabilitation blocks help girl with epilepsy relax

Marzena Komisarczuk, the founder of Baffin Technology Systems, has experienced the benefits of the company’s MOOVIE therapy building blocks firsthand.

Marzena’s daughter, Jessica, who is eight years old, has epilepsy, which affects her behaviour and causes learning difficulties. However, Jessica’s mobility is not affected.

Marzena and the Baffin Technology team are always on the lookout for innovative products that could potentially help children with disabilities, and they added MOOVIE to their range last year.

One of the first children in the UK to use MOOVIE was Jessica, and the results exceeded Marzena’s expectations.

MOOVIE is a unique set of development and rehabilitation blocks designed for children with varying degrees of mobility, autism, and gross motor disorders that result in decreased levels of mobility, with the aim of enabling them to benefit from play therapy. The idea behind MOOVIE is to enable children to develop and enhance a wide range of skills while having fun so they don’t realise it’s therapy.

“As soon as I saw MOOVIE, I knew it would be great not just for Jessica but for hundreds of other children across the UK,” Marzena explained. “Jessica has been using MOOVIE at home since March of this year, during which time it has had an extremely positive impact in many ways.

“For example, in addition to attending school, Jessica also has regular Kumon sessions to help with her maths and English, and she will use MOOVIE to help her relax before the session, as she is often tired after a day at school.”

In the past, Jessica would become easily bored, but with MOOVIE, that is no longer the case, as many potential activities are available.

Marzena took MOOVIE into Jessica’s school to show the staff the benefits of the product and how it can be used by both able-bodied and disabled children. One part of the MOOVIE set works like a rocking chair, which is great for relaxing Jessica, as that movement is proven to help relax the brain. This can be beneficial to children with epilepsy and other conditions.

Marzena continued: “Using MOOVIE really helps Jessica’s brain ‘slow down,’ which is great. She sometimes says that she feels angry and frustrated and wants to get rid of that feeling. By lying on the floor with various MOOVIE parts, she can do this and sometimes also has a brief nap, after which she is much happier and relaxed.”

The MOOVIE blocks fit together like a jigsaw and can be made into various shapes, depending on the requirements of the child or children. From a chimney or hoop through to a barrel, rocking horse, cave, or tunnel, the range of shapes and activities that can be achieved with MOOVIE is extensive.

All the while, the children are developing and enhancing a wide range of movements and skills, including motor skills, hand-eye coordination, upper and lower body strength, awareness of gravity, and general confidence. Available in small (15 pieces) and large (23 pieces), MOOVIE can be used indoors, outdoors, and in a swimming pool. Both sizes can be used together to make all types of shapes and obstacle courses.

There are many ways in which children with or without a disability can benefit from using MOOVIE. These include:

• Physical development of the child through exercises performed on large-sized blocks
• Reducing levels of mental stress through physical exercise
• Developing and improving orientation in space by moving left/right and up/down
• Developing and improving orientation in the body pattern
• Developing spatial imagination by building, planning, and coordinating
• Developing motor, auditory, and visual perception
• Helping the child establish relationships with peers by integrating and socialising, e.g., working as a team to build a tower or obstacle course

The MOOVIE set, particularly the cradle exercise, can be used to calm and relax children with auditory and visual hypersensitivity and motor hyperactivity. Thanks to exercises or spontaneous play, the child integrates motor skills into a sequence of movements, trains the adaptation of motor skills to changing environmental conditions, improves hand-eye coordination, and develops and improves language skills.