20/10/2026
🧠 Sometimes the simplest assessment tells us so much.
Here we are completing a basic visual neglect screening just 5 days after a stroke. The patient is asked to mark/cross out all the lines she can see across the page.
Following a left-hemisphere stroke, she presented with right-sided hemiplegia as well as reduced awareness of information on the right side. A task like this can help us identify patterns of inattention and guide further assessment and treatment.
The early days after stroke matter. As neuro OTs working in the acute hospital setting, our intervention goes far beyond simply getting someone “up and moving.” We are already considering body awareness and body scheme, sensory and perceptual processing, postural control, upper-limb management, attention to the affected side, positioning, and how all of these influence function.
This is where skilled neurological rehabilitation can make such a difference. Early, appropriate therapeutic handling, positioning and task-specific input can help create the best possible conditions for recovery while reducing the development of unhelpful compensatory strategies and secondary complications.
NDT/Bobath training has strongly influenced the way we assess and treat people after stroke—particularly how we consider the whole person, their alignment, sensory information, movement strategies and participation in meaningful activity from the very beginning.
Acute care may only be the first few days of a much longer rehabilitation journey, but what we do during those days matters. 💚
