Evidence Based Practice

Current evidence endorses adaptive cycling as an effective and promising intervention to improve motor and social outcomes for children with cerebral palsy.

Research continues to increase knowledge in the field of motor learning. Understanding the mechanisms of motor learning can contribute to therapist interventions to further promote motor skills.

This excellent new study provides clinical practice guidelines at the activities and participation level of the ICF to families and therapists, addressing which interventions are effective and evidence-based.

This new exploratory and descriptive study is the first to measure weight-bearing during standing in different degrees of hip abduction, stander inclination and stander orientation.

Children with CP who do not walk are at risk for hip displacement. This recent study contributes new insights into the preventative benefits of standing in hip abduction.

In 2013, Iona Novak and her team put together one of the most comprehensive evidence-based overviews of pediatric interventions. With over 200 systematic reviews performed since then, this evidence update adds strength and definition to recommended interventions for children with cerebral palsy.

New evidence in neurorehab points to the importance of intensive overground walking opportunities for individuals recovering from chronic stroke, TBI and SCI.

Improved joint range of motion (ROM) and strength certainly contribute to better functional outcomes in children with cerebral palsy (CP), but is stretching and progressive resistance exercise an adequate intervention to achieve the end? Previous research shows that children with CP have shorter hamstring muscles than their peers. A short or spastic hamstring muscle contributes to gait deviations, and...

As a pediatric physical therapist working in public schools, I want my students to move, and to move in the same way their peers do. When Rifton came out with the treadmill gait trainer, I was eager to explore increasing exercise intensity for my teenagers with mobility impairments. I was fortunate enough to get funding for one in my school. I went to the literature to look for protocols using gait treadmills for youth with disabilities and did not find much.

The field of pediatric physical therapy has long recognized the difficulty of conducting high level research with the cerebral palsy population. Meeting the qualifications of a randomized controlled trial while implementing interventions with children with multiple physical disabilities – with all their varied daily realities – is extraordinarily difficult. In turn, the systematic review that...