Affiliations: Department of Physiotherapy, College of Medicine,
University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria
Abstract: Assessment and physiotherapy intervention for children with cerebral
palsy (CP) are conventionally carried out in the hospital or clinic setting.
However, the daily lives of these children include a variety of environmental
settings in addition to the clinical setting. The objective of this study was
therefore to explore the possible influence of the environment on motor
function in children with CP. Purposively selected children with CP (n=107), ages 1 and 6 years
with mean age of 2.1 years (SD 1.10 yrs), were involved in this study. The
motor function of each child was assessed in the hospital and at their homes
within a one-week interval, using the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM); this
was done at the baseline and on a monthly basis for eight consecutive months.
The paired t-test rank was computed to compare the overall GMFM score and each
of the sub-domain scores measured in the clinic and at home. GMFM scores measured at home were significantly higher than those
measured in the clinic and this pattern was also obtained for the sub-domains
throughout the study period, suggesting that children performed gross motor
functions better at their homes than in the clinic.
Keywords: Environment, gross motor function, cerebral palsy