Sarah M. Schwab-Farrell

Sarah M. Schwab-Farrell
University of Cincinnati | UC · College of Allied Health Sciences

PhD

About

27
Publications
3,643
Reads
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161
Citations
Introduction
My research examines the impact of contextual factors (environmental and personal factors) on the motor control of individuals with neuromotor disabilities using the theoretical frameworks of ecological-dynamics and critical physiotherapy. The aim of this work is to develop context-sensitive physiotherapy assessments and interventions. I received my DPT in 2018 from the University of Cincinnati and MA (2020) and PhD (2022) in Experimental Psychology from the University of Cincinnati.
Education
August 2018 - August 2020
University of Cincinnati
Field of study
  • Experimental Psychology
August 2018 - August 2022
University of Cincinnati
Field of study
  • Experimental Psychology
May 2015 - April 2018
University of Cincinnati
Field of study
  • Physical Therapy

Publications

Publications (27)
Article
Individuals post-stroke commonly demonstrate alterations in motor behavior with regard to both task performance and the motor strategies used in pursuit of task goals. We evaluated whether constraining postural sway (motor strategy) during practice would affect upper-limb precision aiming performance (task performance) and postural control adaptati...
Preprint
People with stroke (PwS) often exhibit altered postural control, and concomitant stroke-related communication disorders (e.g., aphasia, dysarthria) may be an underrecognized risk factor for post-stroke falls. This heightened fall risk may be related to alterations in postural control that emerge during different speaking and listening conditions. T...
Preprint
Objective: To investigate longitudinal changes in spatiotemporal gait parameters after maximal versus moderate speed locomotor training in chronic stroke, by comparing short-burst high-intensity interval training (HIIT) versus moderate-intensity aerobic training (MAT). Compared to MAT, short-burst HIIT was hypothesized to exhibit greater improvemen...
Article
Full-text available
Background/Purpose: Return to sport decision-making may be improved by assessing an athlete’s ability to coordinate movement with opponents in sport. The purpose was to investigate whether previous injuries associated with female soccer players’ interpersonal coordination during a collision avoidance task. The authors hypothesized that external per...
Article
Objective Motivation is critically important for rehabilitation, exercise, and motor performance, but its neural basis is poorly understood. Recent correlational research suggests that the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC) may be involved in motivation for walking activity and/or descending motor output. This study experimentally evaluated brai...
Article
Interprofessional collaboration among speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy is considered to promote best practice in rehabilitation as it can enhance efficiency, patient outcomes, and clinician and patient satisfaction. Although clinician experiences with interprofessional collaboration have been studied in each of...
Article
Full-text available
Background Walking and balance impairment are common sequelae of stroke and significantly impact functional independence, morbidity, and mortality. Adequate postural stability is needed for walking, which requires sufficient integration of sensory information between the visual, somatosensory, and vestibular centers. “Sensory reweighting” describes...
Article
Full-text available
Cortical activity is typically indexed by analyzing functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals in terms of the mean (e.g., mean oxygenated hemoglobin; HbO). Entropy approaches have been proposed as useful complementary methods for analyzing fNIRS signals. Entropy methods consider the regularity of a time series, and in doing so, may prov...
Article
Despite the many advancements over the history of the profession, physical therapy remains in a somewhat paradoxical relationship with disability. The physical therapy profession values disability as diversity but continues to focus on the normalization of body functions as the primary means to promote functionality in people with disability. This...
Article
Background: Individuals with stroke commonly demonstrate upper-limb sensorimotor impairments. Upper-limb tasks occur against a background level of postural control and thus require a flexible postural control system to facilitate performance. Anterior precision aiming tasks, for example, benefit from lower medial-lateral (ML) center of pressure (CO...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose: Ultrasound biofeedback therapy (UBT) is a relatively new type of technology-assisted speech-language therapy and has shown promise in remediating speech sound disorders. However, there is a current lack of understanding of the barriers and benefits that may influence the usage behavior and clinical decision making for the implementation o...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Locomotor high-intensity interval training (HIIT) has been shown to improve walking capacity more than moderate-intensity aerobic training (MAT) after stroke, but it is unclear which training parameter(s) should be prioritized (e.g. speed, heart rate, blood lactate, step count) and to what extent walking capacity gains are the result of...
Article
Full-text available
The International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) recognizes that disability arises from the interaction between an individual with a medical condition and the context in which they are embedded. Context in the ICF is comprised of environmental and personal factors. Personal factors, the background life and lifestyle of a...
Article
Full-text available
Caregiver support is an important contextual factor in the daily functioning of children with cerebral palsy (CP), but few studies have examined child-caregiver interactions during collaborative motor tasks to identify characteristics of effective support that should be promoted in clinical interventions. The aims of this exploratory study were to...
Article
Physiotherapists seek to improve client movement and promote function within an individual’s unique environmental and social realities. Despite this intention, there is a well-noted knowledge-practice gap, that is, therapists generally lack sufficient foundational preparation to effectively navigate societal challenges impacting contemporary health...
Article
Mobility and speech-language impairments and limitations in adults with neurological conditions manifest not in isolated anatomical components but instead in the individual-environment system and are task-dependent. Optimization of function thus requires interprofessional care to promote participation in meaningful life areas within appropriate tas...
Article
Background: Individuals with neuromotor disabilities demonstrate motor control patterns characterized by a decreased capacity to adapt to contextual change. Task-oriented training is one promising intervention to improve functional task performance, but little is known about effective strategies for intervention progression to promote adaptability....
Article
Background Children and adolescents with cerebral palsy demonstrate impairments in grip control with associated limitations in functional grasp. Previous work in cerebral palsy has focused on grip control using relatively predictable task demands, a feature which may limit generalizability of those study results in light of recent evidence in typic...
Article
Background: Collaborative goal-setting is a fundamental component of developmental physical and occupational therapy practice. Evidence suggests, however, that therapists struggle to elicit patient and family goals, and they often establish goals that are not reflective of patient and caregiver functional preferences. Training and efficiency also a...
Article
The grip force applied to maintain grasp of a hand-held object has been typically reported as tightly coupled to the load force exerted by the object as it is actively manipulated, occurring proportionally and consistently in-phase with changes in load force. However, continuous grip force-load force coupling breaks down and grip force is instead o...
Article
Full-text available
Children and young adults with physical disabilities consistently report low self-concept across multiple domains. The purpose of this study was to (1) determine if a community-based running program working to improve physical activity patterns in children and young adults with physical disabilities also affected self-concept, and (2) identify spec...
Article
Recent evidence suggests that visual feedback influences the adjustment of grip force to the changing load force exerted by a grasped object as it is manipulated. The current project investigated how visual feedback of object kinematics affects the coupling of grip force to load force by scaling the apparent displacements of the object viewed in vi...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Productive interactions between engaged patients and clinical teams are key to effective clinical practice. Accordingly, the identification of needs and priorities through the process of collaborative goal setting is fundamental to patient-centered care. Executing a goal-setting process that is truly collaborative is challenging; many...
Article
Background and Purpose: Acute care physical therapists (PTs) and occupational therapists (OTs) are frequently confronted with the question, “What is the difference between PT and OT?” The response, “PTs work with lower extremities and OTs work with upper extremities,” is common. Such an approach to this question is antiquated and misleading. It und...
Article
Objective: To describe patterns in preferred dimensions of change in therapy goals identified by individuals with developmental disability and their caregivers. Methods: A retrospective chart review of Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) goals for patients aged 2–32 years (n = 124) participating in a program of episodic care was conducted. Dimensions of...
Article
Purpose: The objectives of this review article were to (1) describe the populations and interventions to which Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) has been applied in pediatric rehabilitation, (2) summarize the scientific rigor of published studies utilizing GAS as an outcome measure in pediatric rehabilitation, and (3) illustrate the responsiveness of G...

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