Changes in Capacity and Performance in Mobility Across Different Environmental Settings in Children with Cerebral Palsy: An Exploratory Study

Abstract Background and Purpose. Mobility of children with cerebral palsy (CP) has generally been examined in terms of capability (what a child can do) in a controlled environment, rather than performance (what a child does do) in everyday settings. The purpose of this study was to compare gross motor capability and performance across environmental settings in children with CP. Subjects. The subjects were 307 children with CP, aged 6 to 12 years, who were randomly selected across Ontario, Canada. Methods. Children were grouped by capability (the highest of 3 items achieved on the Gross Motor Function Measure). Performance was measured via a parent-completed questionnaire on usual mobility methods in the home, at school, and in the outdoors or community. Results. There were statistically significant differences in performance across settings for children in all capability groups. Children who were capable of crawling performed crawling more at home than at school or in the outdoors or community. Children who were capable of walking with support performed walking with support more at school than in the outdoors or community. Children who were capable of walking alone performed walking alone more at home than at school or in the outdoors or community, and more at school than in the outdoors or community. Discussion and Conclusion. The results provide evidence that children with CP with similar capability demonstrate differences in performance across settings. The results suggest that physical therapists should examine performance in the settings that are important to the child's daily life.

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Heart Rate Response to Therapeutic Riding in Children With Cerebral Palsy: An Exploratory Study

Pediatric Physical Therapy ◽

10.1097/pep.0b013e31804a57a8 ◽

2007 ◽

Vol 19 (2) ◽

pp. 160-165 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Lauren N. Dirienzo ◽

Lee T. Dirienzo ◽

Deborah A. Baceski

Keyword(s):

Heart Rate ◽

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Exploratory Study ◽

Heart Rate Response ◽

Therapeutic Riding ◽

Children With Cerebral Palsy

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Body Representations in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Brain Sciences ◽

10.3390/brainsci10080490 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (8) ◽

pp. 490 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Antonella Di Vita ◽

Maria Cristina Cinelli ◽

Simona Raimo ◽

Maddalena Boccia ◽

Stefano Buratin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Cerebral Palsy ◽

Developmental Stages ◽

Body Schema ◽

Poor Performance ◽

Body Representation ◽

The Body ◽

Structural Representation ◽

Body Representations ◽

Children With Cerebral Palsy ◽

And Performance

We constantly process top-down and bottom-up inputs concerning our own body that interact to form body representations (BR). Even if some evidence showed BR deficits in children with cerebral palsy, a systematic study that evaluates different kinds of BR in these children, taking into account the possible presence of a general deficit affecting non-body mental representations, is currently lacking. Here we aimed at investigating BR (i.e., Body Semantics, Body Structural Representation and Body Schema) in children with cerebral palsy (CP) taking into account performance in tasks involving body stimuli and performance in tasks involving non-body stimuli. Thirty-three CP (age range: 5–12 years) were compared with a group of 103 typically-developing children (TDC), matched for age and sex. 63.64% of children with CP showed a very poor performance in body representation processing. Present data also show alterations in different body representations in CP in specific developmental stages. In particular, CP and TDC performances did not differ between 5 to 7 years old, whereas CP between 8 and 12 years old showed deficits in the Body Structural Representation and Body Schema but not in Body Semantics. These findings revealed the importance of taking into account the overall development of cognitive domains when investigating specific stimuli processing in children who do not present a typical development and were discussed in terms of their clinical implications.

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