Effect of Experiencing Parent-Child Separation on Social Adaptive Skills of Children with Cerebral Palsy / The Japanese Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine

ABSTRACT

Objective：This study aimed to examine the effect of experiencing parent-child separation on the social adaptive skills of children with cerebral palsy.Methods：The subjects were children with cerebral palsy who belonged to special schools. They were divided into two groups based on whether or not they would experience parent-child separation by participating in the camp activity. Asahide-shiki Social Adaptability (ASA) was used to evaluate their social adaptive skills. ASA consists of four specified sub-scales, namely “language,” “daily living,” “social life,” and “interpersonal relationship”．The data were analyzed using two-way repeated-measures ANOVA with the group and the time of evaluation as the independent variables. The simple main effect test was used, following the Bonferroni method.Results：Interaction was observed at the total skills scores and “Social life” of the sub-scales items, while the time of evaluation was found to have a main effect on the subscale scores of social life and interpersonal relationship. As a result of the simple main effect, improvements in social life, interpersonal relationship and the total skills scores were recognized in the group experiencing parent-child separation.Conclusion：Cerebral palsy children who experienced parent-child separation improved their social adaptive skills, particularly social life and interpersonal relationship skills. For children with cerebral palsy, who lack experience of social participation, extraordinary experiences are an opportunity to review their relationships with people in daily life, and it leads to improvement in their social adaptive skills.