Article

Cerebral palsy (CP) impairs an individual's ability to move and control one's
posture. Unfortunately, the signs and symptoms of CP may not be apparent before
age two. Evaluating sitting posture is a potential way to assess the developing
mechanisms that contribute to CP. The purpose of this project was to determine
the reliability of linear and nonlinear measures, including inter- and intrastage
reliability, when used to analyze the center of pressure (COP) time series during
the stages of sitting development in children with typical development (TD) and
with/at-risk for cerebral palsy (CP). We hypothesized that nonlinear tools would
be more reliable than linear tools in assessing childrens' sitting development,
and reliability would increase with development. COP data was recorded for three
trials at eight sessions. Linear parameters used were root mean square, range of
sway for the anterior-posterior (AP) and medial-lateral (ML) directions, and sway
path. Nonlinear parameters used were Approximate Entropy, the largest Lyapunov
Exponent, and Correlation Dimension for the AP and ML direction. Participants
consisted of 33 children with TD and 26 children with/at-risk for CP. Our results
determined that COP is a moderately reliable method for assessing the development
of sitting postural control in stages in both groups. Thus, clinicians may be
able to use measures from COP data across stages to assess the efficacy of
therapeutic interventions that are intended to improve sitting postural abilities
in children with/at-risk for CP.
CI - Copyright (c) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Langue : ANGLAIS