Magic Camp for Children With Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy

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Primary Purpose

Status

Completed

Phase

Not Applicable

Locations

United States

Study Type

Interventional

Intervention

Magic camp intervention

About this trial

This is an interventional treatment trial for Cerebral Palsy focused on measuring motor training for cerebral palsy

Eligibility Criteria

9 Years - 18 Years (Child, Adult)All SexesDoes not accept healthy volunteers

Inclusion Criteria:

spasticity with Modified Ashworth Scale grades between 1 and 3;
ability to lift the more affected arm 15 cm above a table surface;
impairment of hand function at levels I to III of the Manual Activity Classification System
ability to grasp and release light objects with the more affected hand
largely nonuse of the more affected hand in daily activities as determined by the Pediatric Motor Activity Log
are interested in learning magic tricks
have the cognitive and social ability to participate in a camp setting;
ability to follow directions in English; and
ability to remember simple sequences of actions to perform magic tricks.

Exclusion Criteria:

severe muscle spasticity or fixed contracture in the more affected limb that limits functional arm and hand use
dystonia
severe visual or auditory disorders that prevent learning and carrying out the magic tricks
serious or recurring medical complications
participation in intensive upper limb intervention and/or musculoskeletal and tone management treatments, dorsal rhizotomy, or surgery on the upper limb in the previous 6 months or anticipated within subsequent 6 months
start muscle relaxant within the last 3 months; or
plan to move to another state within the next 6 months.

Sites / Locations

University of Alabama at Birmingham

Arms of the Study

Arm 1

Arm Type

Experimental

Arm Label

Magic camp intervention

Arm Description

These children are diagnosed with cerebral palsy and we will provide motor control training.

Outcomes

Primary Outcome Measures

Unimanual skill as measured by the Jebsen Taylor Test of Hand Function

Jebsen Taylor Test of Hand Function (JTTHF) is a standardized timed test administered by occupational therapy (OT) students to assess the efficiency of unimanual grasp and release of items with six tasks. Higher scores (i.e., longer duration the participant takes to complete the task) represent poorer unimanual skills

Bimanual coordination as measured by 3-D kinematic motion analysis

Participants will be asked to perform the task with their preferred hand choice at a self-selected pace following by an auditory go-signal. Each trial ends when the button is pressed. Five trials will be collected after 2 practice trials, and outcome measures will be averaged over the 5 trials. Longer time duration it takes for the participant to complete the task represents poorer bimanual coordination.

Extent of the more affected hand use in daily bimanual activities as measured by the Children's Hand Experience Questionnaire (CHEQ)

CHEQ is a 29-item (parent and child report) questionnaire that evaluates the experience of children in using the more affected hand in activities where usually two hands are required. Percentage use of the more affected hand will be expressed as percentage of independent activities performed bimanually in which the more affected hand is used to stabilize or grip items. Higher percentage (ranging from 0% to 100%) represents higher extent of using the more affected hand.

Health-related quality of life as measured by the Cerebral Palsy Quality of Life (CPQOL) Questionnaire

CPQOL evaluates the well-being of children with CP across several broad domains such as social well-being and acceptance, and emotional well-being. Items are rated on a 9-point scale, and recoded and transformed into scaled scores (transformed to a scale of 1-100) for each domain. An average of the scale scores from all domains (family & friends, school, communication, health, special equipment, pain and bother, and access to services) is conducted. Higher scores represent better health-related quality of life.

Emotional stress as measured by the amount of cortisol in participants' and their caregivers' fingernails.

Fingernail samples from every digit will be collected by clipping directly into a Ziploc® bag to avoid losing any parts of the sample. Nail samples will be sent to the Bio-Analytical Redox Biology (BARB) Core Laboratory, University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) for analysis.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Unimanual skill as measured by the Jebsen Taylor Test of Hand Function

Jebsen Taylor Test of Hand Function (JTTHF) is a standardized timed test administered by OT students to assess the efficiency of unimanual grasp and release of items with six tasks. Higher scores (i.e., longer duration the participant takes to complete the task) represent poorer unimanual skills.

Bimanual coordination as measured by 3-D kinematic motion analysis

Participants will be asked to perform the task with their preferred hand choice at a self-selected pace following by an auditory go-signal. Each trial ends when the button is pressed. Five trials will be collected after 2 practice trials, and outcome measures will be averaged over the 5 trials.Longer time duration it takes for the participant to complete the task represents poorer bimanual coordination.

Extent of the more affected hand use in daily bimanual activities as measured by the Children's Hand Experience Questionnaire (CHEQ)

CHEQ is a 29-item (parent and child report) questionnaire that evaluates the experience of children in using the more affected hand in activities where usually two hands are required. Percentage use of the more affected hand will be expressed as percentage of independent activities performed bimanually in which the more affected hand is used to stabilize or grip items. Higher percentage (ranging from 0% to 100%) represents higher extent of using the more affected hand.

Health-related quality of life as measured by the Cerebral Palsy Quality of Life (CPQOL) Questionnaire

CPQOL evaluates the well-being of children with CP across several broad domains such as social well-being and acceptance, and emotional well-being. Items are rated on a 9-point scale, and recoded and transformed into scaled scores for each domain. An average of the scale scores from all domains (family & friends, school, communication, health, special equipment, pain and bother, and access to services) is conducted. Higher scores represent better health-related quality of life.