A case series assessing relationship between active motions and stereognosis in cerebral palsy

Abstract

Cerebral Palsy (CP) is an umbrella term used to describe a permanent disability resulting from non-progressive damage to the brain, specifically the corticospinal tract, of a developing fetus or infant. CP is believed to be caused by a malformation of the brain during its development and is a common pediatric disorder with about two to three cases occurring out of every thousand births. Children with CP experience a range of impairments including muscle weakness, sensory deficits, increased muscle spasticity, and upper limb dysfunction [1]. All of these interfere with a child’s motor function resulting in a reduction in their ability to interact effectively with their environment, decreases in the child’s daily self-care activities, as well as developmental nonuse, especially of the upper limbs [2]. In the past, treatment for unilateral CP has had a strong focus on correcting motor impairments such as muscle weakness and/or spasticity [3]. Recently, a shift in focus towards investigating the effects of assessing and improving tactile dysfunction in the upper limbs since findings have reported that the prevalence of sensory processing impairments in children with hemiplegia are up to 75% or more [4]. To date, there is a lack of research assessing the relationship between Active Range of Motion (AROM) and sensory processing (tactile discrimination) deficits. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine if there is a relationship between active AROM and tactile discrimination for children previously diagnosed with unilateral CP.

A Case Study on the Fundamentals of Sensory Problems in Cerebral Palsy

“…After that, the parents were given a pool of items which was collected from the literature, and they were asked to add the additional number of items that were not included in the literature. For related sensory problems, a total of 10 domains (Gustatory, Tactile, Vestibular (8) , Proprioception, Movement Processing (1) , Visual, Auditory (9) , Olfactory (10) , General Processing (11) , Stereognosis (12) , were created. Some of them were Negative Signs (Table 3) others are Abnormal Positive Signs (Table 4).…”