Development of Fine Motor Skills to Enhance the Functional Abilities of Children With Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Cerebral palsy is a neurological, non-progressive and commonest cause of severe physical disabilities. It affects body movement and muscle coordination permanently and usually appears in early childhood. Children with cerebral palsy have severe problems of fine motor skills. The research was conducted to achieve the following objectives 1) to identify the current level of fine motor skills of students with cerebral palsy studying in the schools, 2)Design  an intervention strategic plan  to enhance the fine motor skills of children with cerebral palsy,3)implement the prescribed intervention plan to enhance the fine motor skills of children with cerebral palsy.4)improve the fine motor skills of children with cerebral palsy by implementing the intervention strategies. It was an experimental research conducted by applying single subject research design (ABA).The researchers used two different checklists to assess the functional abilities of the children with CP before and after intervention. The reliability of all the instruments was checked by using cronbach alpha (.87 and .78) whereas the content validity of the instruments was estimated by taking expert opinions. On the basis of pretest an intervention plan was implemented to enhance the functional abilities of the students. A self-developed test was used after implementing the intervention strategies to see the improvement in the functional abilities of children with cerebral palsy.