View clinical trials related to Gross Motor Development Delay.
Filter by:The purpose of this study is to determine the optimal frequency and intensity of physical therapy for children with cerebral palsy aged 6 to 24 months of age. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of three groups: daily, intermediate, or weekly physical therapy. Short and long term effects will be evaluated to determine the best 'dose' of rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy, including frequency (number of sessions per week and the number of weeks), intensity (how hard the patient works), and time (how many total hours) of rehabilitation treatment.
Children with cerebral palsy (CP) have life-long motor disorders and are typically subjected to extensive treatment throughout childhood. Despite this there is a lack of evidence supporting the effectiveness of treatment aiming at improving motor function and activity in daily life. The primary area of interest of this research programme is to determine the effectiveness of an early intervention program in children younger than 12 months of age who are at risk of developing CP. A randomised control trial is planned, addressing hand use, mobility and communication in a home-based program. New treatment principles based on recent knowledge of brain plasticity will be employed. The overarching goal of this research programme is to develop and evaluate new intervention principles for children with neurodevelopmental disorders based upon theories of early learning induced brain plasticity. Our overall aims can be formulated as follows: To evaluate the effects of an early intervention programme on the overall development in children with risk of developing cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders. The program includes intensive intervention towards the foci: hand use, mobility and communication in a home based program The hypothesis is that the design of the Small-Step-Program intervention, with clear foci on specific areas of development during different time periods and conducted in the child's home environment, will facilitate development and be more effective than usual care. The second hypothesis is that children learn what they practice, meaning that children will have a more rapid development within the focus of each specific step in the training, when compared to the, for the time being, untrained steps. The third hypothesis is that children's ability to learn within the different steps of the intervention programme will be influenced by the specific characteristics of any underlying brain pathology. The fourth hypothesis is that parents in the study group will be less stressed and can better cope with their child's situation than parents to children receiving usual care. Thus, the tools provided within the Small-Step-Program intervention, like education, supervision and feedback of how to practice communication and task performance will make parents more able to cope with the child's delayed development.