The Beginning

This company was started by the father of a beautiful little girl named Janae, born with special needs. Before birth, Janae was diagnosed with a very rare condition called Arterial Venous Malformation (AVM), which led to cerebral palsy. His daughter is the inspiration and namesake for the company, Janae Designs, LLC, created to design and manufacture physical therapy equipment and products to help improve the physical development and quality of life of Janae and other children with similar special needs.

Janae was 7-years old in 2008 when her father, frustrated with the high cost of physical therapy equipment and services, and insufficient health care support from insurance companies, decided to utilize his engineering background and manufacturing skills to build equipment to assist in his daughter’s physical therapy development at home. Shortly afterwards, Janae's physical therapists at school recognized the ingenuity and quality of his devices and asked him to build equipment for the other children at their school.

Their first request was to design a special physical therapy positioning sitting device to help stretch the hamstring and adductor muscles of children with tightness and spasticity in their legs. This led to the invention of the Wedgster Hamstring/Adductor Positioning Device with optional Mobile Base (Patent Pending). School staff and physical therapists were so impressed and pleased with the effectiveness and success of the equipment that they recommended parents order Wedgsters for their child’s home use. This was the beginning of Janae Designs, LLC.

Janae Designs, LLC, located in Palm Beach County, Florida, is a design, manufacturing, and distribution company of physical therapy devices, durable medical equipment (DME) and products for specials needs children. At the request of our customers, we can also design new and modify or repair old equipment to help meet their child’s special needs. See "Our Products" page for list of products we manufacture.

The History of the Wedgster
Written by Mary Pengelley, PT (10/16/10)

As a pediatric physical therapist practicing for over 25 years, I have had the pleasure of being one of a founding team of therapists and teachers who made a dream come true, when we founded Potentials Charter School at the Arc, in Palm Beach County. The Arc of Palm Beach County has been serving children and adults with developmental disabilities for over 50 years, providing services and programs to fit the needs of our clients and their families. 12 years ago, our Outpatient Therapy Program noted that the children with multiple disabilities attending public schools received limited therapy services, and with the advent of Charter Schools, we decided to create Potentials Charter School. Potentials is a school for children who lack independent mobility and independent communication, and all students receive intensive therapy throughout the day, through the services of a classroom PT, OT, and ST.

Even at Potentials School with children receiving daily therapy, positioning and mobility training, I have found that one of my biggest frustrations in working with children who are non-ambulatory, is the constant battle with muscle tightness and resultant tendon release surgeries. Knowing that children who have limitations in walking, strength and endurance will naturally be sitting more than their non-disabled peers, I realized that they were spending the majority of their days with their hamstrings, adductors and gastrocnemius muscles in a shortened position, just by virtue of the sitting position (hips flexed and adducted, knees flexed, ankles in neutral alignment with knee flexion). One of the fathers of a student at our school, Mr. Ollie Jones, has an engineering background and had offered his services if we needed anything. I told him that I wanted a long sitting device, where children could be positioned with their hamstrings, adductors and gastrocnemius muscles in a lengthened position for extended periods of time. I asked him to make it padded and adjustable so that it could be used with children who had varying degrees of tightness. I asked for a tray, and another therapist suggested that it come on an elevated, mobile base to be more easily moved throughout the classroom. With these few suggestions, Ollie created the Wedgster, making a nicely finished product with colorful padding and the optional mobile base.

We began using the Wedgsters daily at school with multiple students who exhibit increased muscle tone and tightness in their hamstrings, adductors and gastros. We sometimes use knee immobilizers to ensure knee extension remains full, and the children wear their AFO’s while sitting in the Wedgster to provide stretching to the gastrocnemius. We have slowly increased the length of time and degree of stretch, starting with the Wedgster in the most elevated position and positioning the children during a fun activity such as circle time or music, until they are comfortable with this new stretch. Currently in my class we have 4 students who use the Wedgster daily for 60-120 minutes at a time, some of them twice per day, without complaint. These are all children with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy under the age of 6, and some have used the Wedgster for more than 1 year.

Although it is relatively early to know if we will be able to prevent future tendon releases on these children, I do know that all of them have demonstrated increased passive range of motion between 10 and 25 degrees, and one child has demonstrated improved active range of motion as noted by his increased stride length and decreased tendency to scissor while walking.

My hope is that even if we don’t prevent the surgeries completely, we may be able to prevent them from occurring as early and as repeatedly as some of our previous students. Surgery of any type is not only very disruptive, painful and traumatic to the children, but also creates a big strain on the family, and is expensive and often paid for out of state funding through everyone’s tax dollars. Many children with CP face a lifetime of corrective orthopedic surgery. I believe the Wedgster is the only positioning device available at this time that provides this very needed daily stretching for children with high muscle tone and tightness of their hamstrings, adductors and gastrocnemius muscles. With time and future studies we hope to prove the effectiveness of the Wedgster.