Physiotherapy in Neurological conditions: AB No: 81: Tele-rehabilitation program for Balance and Coordination training in Cerebral Palsy Children: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT

Purpose: To evaluate the effect of tele-rehabilitation on balance and coordination training in cerebral palsy children. Relevance COVID-19 pandemic had significant impact on children with disability due to prolonged confinement at home which influenced negative physical status of children. Tele-rehabilitation can play a major role in the maintenance of function, prevention of worsening disability, and follow up of patient. It can proves beneficial to the family by decreasing time and costs related to travelling, family centered service, home based model of delivery of care which leads to being less prone to infection. Participants: 9 Children with cerebral palsy in the age group of 6–12 years with GMFCS level I and II were recruited from the paediatric out-patient department and child developmental centre of a tertiary care hospital and special schools in Belagavi. Methods: In this pre-post pilot study, pre-treatment and post-treatment outcomes were taken by using balance and bilateral coordination subtest of Bruininks Oseretsky Test of motor proficiency 2 (BOT2). The physiotherapy treatment consisted of conventional balance training exercise via tele-rehabilitation through Whats App video call. The intervention was carried out thrice a week for 4 weeks for one hour which was monitored by the therapist and assistance was provided by the parent. Statistical Analysis: The data was analysed using paired t test. Results: The results indicated a significant improvement in balance (P =0.042) with mean difference-4.25 ± 3.20 and coordination with mean difference-4.25 ± 1.50 (P=0.011). Conclusion: This study showed that tele-rehabilitation as a mode of treatment for children with cerebral palsy is useful for training balance and coordination. Implications Tele-rehabilitation can be considered as an effective mode of delivering rehabilitation for children with cerebral palsy and that the effect must be studied in a larger sample size.