Comparative effects of bilateral hand splints and an elbow orthosis on stereotypic hand movements and toy play in two children with Rett syndrome.

A single-subject rapidly alternating treatment design was used to compare the effectiveness of bilateral hand splints and an elbow orthosis in decreasing stereotypic hand behaviors and increasing toy play in 2 children with Rett syndrome. The subjects' responses were compared across three treatment conditions: no intervention, hand splints, and elbow orthosis. The order of the treatment phases was randomly selected for each subject. Data were collected in both a free-time condition and a toy-play condition; the outcome measures were stereotypic hand movements and hand-to-toy contact. Both subjects demonstrated a decrease in stereotypic hand movements and a corresponding increase in toy contact with the use of the elbow orthosis. The bilateral hand splints had no obvious treatment effect.