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Efficacy of programmes based on Conductive Education for young children with cerebral palsy
Author(s) -
Reddihough Dinah S.,
King Jane,
Coleman Grahame,
Catanese Tony
Publication year - 1998
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/j.1469-8749.1998.tb12345.x
Subject(s) - cerebral palsy , randomized controlled trial , physical therapy , medicine , cognition , rehabilitation , pediatrics , physical medicine and rehabilitation , psychology , psychiatry , surgery
Conductive Education (CE)‐based programmes have been introduced to Australia over the past 10 years. The aim of this project was to compare these programmes with traditional neurodevelopmental programmes of rehabilitation for young children (12 to 36 months, mean age 22 months 3 weeks) with cerebral palsy. Thirty‐four children were matched by age, motor impairment, and cognitive ability and randomly allocated to CE‐based or equivalent‐intensity control programmes. Those unwilling to be randomized (32) were still studied but their outcomes were treated separately. Our results indicate that children involved in CE‐based programmes made similar progress to those involved in traditional programmes. Statistically significant changes were spread among the four groups of subjects. The foldings also endorsed the measures used and the expected maturational effect was detected. Although there were major difficulties in conducting this randomized trial, it was achieved by gathering parental and professional support, and adequate funding.