How does HAT work?

The Hypertonia Assessment Tool involves an evaluator moving a child’s arm or leg in a series of purposeful stretches and movements in order to observe movement, increased tone and/or resistance. 

The presence of at least one HAT item per hypertonia subgroup (spasticity, dystonia, rigidity) confirms the presence of the subtype and the presence of items from more than one subgroup identifies the presence of mixed tone. 

The HAT is capable of discriminating hypertonia subtypes for both the upper and lower extremities and takes approximately 5 minutes to conduct per limb assessed.