Functional Skills among Preschool Children with Cerebral Palsy – Assessment before and after Early Intervention

ABSTRACT

Objective: To assess and evaluate the change in functional skills among children with cerebral palsy (CP) who participated in an intensified habilitation program.

Methods: In this prospective longitudinal study, a cohort of 39 preschool children (2–5 years) with cerebral palsy (Gross Motor Function Classification System levels I–V) together with their parents participated in an intensified multidimensional habilitation program for 1 year. Activities strengthening functional skills were among the main interventions. The children were evaluated with the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory before and after the program period.

Results: Only children at GMFCS levels I–II showed improvements in mobility and social function on norm-referenced scales. After the intervention period, these children scored similar to the mean for typically developing children of the same age on the social function domain.

Conclusions: Functional skills among preschool children with CP, GMFCS levels I–II, seems strengthened after participation in an intensified habilitation program.

KEYWORDS:

• Functional skills
• early intervention
• preschool children
• cerebral palsy
• GMFCS
• PEDI

Acknowledgments

We thank the children and their families for participating in this study. Further, we especially want to thank occupational therapist Grete Pettersen and our colleagues in the Division of Child and Youth Habilitation who assisted in completing the PEDI forms. We also want to thank Mette Modahl, Siri Johnsen and our other colleges in the Regional Center for Intensive Child habilitation, who are in charge of the intervention program, without them this study would not have been possible.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this paper.