The effect of motor training in mirror therapy on gross motor skills of the affected hand in children with hemiplegia

Abstract

Objectives: Spastic hemiplegia cerebral palsy is the second type of cerebral palsy among premature infants, which affects the mobility of one side of the body by impairing the brain's ability to send nerve impulse to the muscles. The present research aims to examine the effect of motor training in mirror therapy on the gross motor skills in Spastic Hemiplegia Cerebral Palsy (SHCP) children. Methods: This experimental study, 14 children with SHCP were selected using convenience sampling and randomly divided into two groups, i.e. mirror therapy or therapy group (7 children) and the control group or without mirror therapy (7 children). The gross motor skills for both groups was measured using Box and Block Test in the first session as pre-test. Later, the first group participated in motor training such as wheeling shoulder, adduction and abduction arm, throwing tennis balls into the basket, pushing a cylinder, rolling a tennis ball, rowing with elastic bands, etc. Both groups participated in 16 sessions of 30 minutes each. The control group completed the above program without a mirror. The post-test was conducted using the same procedure as the pre-test. Results: Results showed that the gross manual dexterity significantly promoted from pre- to post-test in both groups (P<0.05), but comparisons showed that the therapy group outperformed the control group in gross motor skills of their affected hand (P<0.05). Discussion: The finding of this study suggests that though motor training were beneficial for gross manual dexterity, mirror therapy had higher efficiency and efficacy. Therefore occupational therapists can benefit from this program in their remedial sessions for SHCP children.