MODERN APPROACHES TO VOIT DIAGNOSTICS AND VOJT THERAPY
Authors: Bakaliuk T. G. , Vitcentovych M. V. , Stelmakh H. O. , Makarchuk N. R. , Sotnyk I. T. 
Published: January 2023

The article evaluates the use of Vojt diagnostics and Vojt therapy during rehabilitation in modern conditions for adults and children.

Reflex-locomotor therapy was developed by Vaclav Vojta as a diagnostic and therapeutic tool. At the very beginning of the study, V. Vojta described two different motor complexes, reflex crawling and reflex turning, which are triggered by adequate location and stimulation of the corresponding trigger zones. Due to this activation, a global reflex response is triggered, which contains innate motor programs associated with locomotion patterns in human ontogeny (rolling, crawling, walking).

To date, neurokinesiology according to Vaclav Vojta allows to diagnose impaired motor development in children from the newborn period, even before the absence of clear neurological symptoms during a classic examination, and to prescribe early therapy.

The essence of Vojt diagnostics is not only passive observation of the child, but also an active examination method using appropriate functional tests (loads, provocations). And Vojta therapy is a neurophysiological method used to obtain reflex responses in muscles after stimulation of certain activation zones. Such therapy stimulates the brain through selected areas of the body, activating stored innate motor programs that are exported as coordinated movement and contraction of trunk and limb muscles.

The novelty of V. Vojt contribution in this field lies in the strict focus on genetically determined, species-specific movement development programs. The existence of ideal patterns of movements as a basic characteristic of human motor behavior to date is practically not reflected in the problems of motor rehabilitation in general, that is, the standard given "by nature" or determined by evolution still remains largely unknown, therefore the purpose of this study is to assess the impact the approach of Vojt diagnostics and Vojt therapy in the rehabilitation of children and adults in modern conditions.

Vojta described 10 different zones that are available for stimulation of movement patterns of reflex locomotion. Light pressure on a specific stimulation zone (muscle or bone) and resistance to the current movement is used to induce an involuntary motor response from the patient and to perform certain movement patterns.

The best results of Vojt therapy are achieved when the patient has not yet developed and established any so-called replacement movement patterns. In patients with established "substitute motor activity", the goal of treatment is to activate and maintain physiological movement patterns, as well as to reduce unestablished abnormal movement patterns and integrate them into normal movement processes, until the mastery of conscious movement activity is completed.

In the beginning, Vojta therapy was used to rehabilitate children with movement disorders and infants at risk of developing cerebral palsy. Years later, this method was successfully applied to adults with neurological and movement problems.

Today, Vojta therapy is used for various pathologies and in different age groups, from infants to adults, and is a safe and effective conservative alternative method of rehabilitation.