Gillian starts off with acknowledging that “neuro hands are difficult to treat” and that less than half of stroke survivors regain upper limb function within six months. She explains that reducing secondary complications such as contractures, pain and caregiver burden and facilitating meaningful functional engagement are two of the most important considerations in treatment. She shows how to focus on personalised functional goals, and outlines assessment priorities, providing ideas for low-resource settings. While mentioning a number of treatment techniques she addresses splinting, TES/NMES, and Botulinum toxin in more detail. The importance of sound clinical reasoning in application of all modalities is emphasized.

Tamryn shares a number of practical ways in which to retrain functional movement. She explains how to use the Brunnstrom Stages to help us understand the pattern in which movement recovers post stroke, and neurodevelopmental techniques to prepare for and facilitate movement. She provides practical videos and activity ideas for each stage of recovery. She gives examples of how we can focus on function, and shows the importance of repetition for functional retraining.