Premium
Improving the participation of youth with physical disabilities: the effectiveness of the Pathways and Resources for Engagement and Participation (PREP) intervention
Author(s) -
A MAJNEMER
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
developmental medicine and child neurology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.658
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1469-8749
pISSN - 0012-1622
DOI - 10.1111/dmcn.56_13224
Subject(s) - intervention (counseling) , psychology , physical therapy , medicine , psychiatry
feedback was provided through motivating games playing with the robot providing assistance when needed or resistance to keep challenging the participants. Clinical and biomechanical evaluations were done at preand post6-week treatment. Proprioceptive acuity was measured as plantar or dorsi-flexion movement (at the speed of 0.5°/sec controlled by the ankle rehabilitation robot) at which the children felt the movement. Results: Children with CP had significantly impaired proprioception at ankle compared to typically developing children. The proprioceptive acuity of CP group was 3.60 2.28° (mean SD) in dorsiflexion and 3.72 2.38° in plantar flexion, as compared to that of the TDC group’s 0.94 0.43° (p = 0.027) and 0.86 0.48° (p = 0.012). Furthermore, children with CP sometimes detected the movement in wrong direction. After 18 sessions of the robot-guided passive-active therapy, ankle sensory and motor functions were improved. Gait functions such as TUG (p = 0.018), 6MWT (p = 0.018) and balance function (PBS, p = 0.026) were significantly improved and muscle strength (p = 0.018) and active range of motion (p = 0.018) in dorsiflexion were significantly increased after 6-week intervention. The proprioceptive threshold showed trend of reduction to 3.08 2.07° in dorsiflexion (p > 0.05) and to 2.59 1.94° in plantar flexion (p > 0.05). Conclusions/Significance: Robot-guided training may be an effective therapeutic intervention to children with CP for improving sensorimotor functions of the lower limbs. The robotic training provided an interactive and motivational therapy to engage children with CP in rehabilitation with improvements in sensory-motor performance.