Amir N. Wadee, Sara Samir Saad El-Dien, Ahmed M. Elshinnawy‎‎

Abstract

Background: Cerebral palsy (CP), a heterogeneous disorder of gross motor development, is one of the most important causes of disability influencing children. Objective: To detect the influence of prone positioning on gross motor development in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy. Methods: Forty-two spastic diplegic CP children of both genders participated in this study. They were randomly chosen from the Medical Centre of Faculty of Physical Therapy, Modern University for Technology and Information, Cairo, Egypt. Their ages ranged from 12 to 18 months, with partial control of head and trunk according to gross motor function measure (GMFM), and mild spasticity (grade 1, 1+ according to Modified Ashworth scale(. Children were randomly assigned into control group, received selected physical therapy program based on the neurodevelopmental principles for 60 minutes, and study group received the selected physical therapy program in addition to a designed prone and quadruped exercise for 30 minutes. Treatment procedures conducted three times/week for three successive months. Results: The in-between comparison of GMFM showed no significant differences in the pre-measures while there were significant differences in the post-measures (t= 1.322, P= 0.194, t= 6.397, and P= 0.000, respectively). Conclusion: The results of this study revealed that prone position training program was effective in improving the gross motor skills in children with spastic diplegia.