Selective Motor Control and Upper Extremity Functions in Children With Hemiparetic Cerebral Palsy

It will be used to assess selective voluntary motor control. It is a reliable and valid evaluation tool used to quantify and describe selective voluntary motor control in children with spastic cerebral palsy. The goal of the assessment is to systematically evaluate a person's ability to move the upper extremity with selective voluntary motor control by observing movement control, coordination, fluency, mirroring, and speed at each joint, and then assigning a grade, all in 'real time. Clinically this measure may guide the selection of medical, surgical, or therapy interventions and may improve outcome prognosis after brief training. Raters demonstrated excellent reliability in assessing upper extremity SVMC in a group of children with hemiplegic, diplegic, and quadriplegic CP using the Ttest of arm selective control

Hand held dynamometer (Camry Digital Hand Dynamometer Grip Strength, Model EH101-37, China) will be used to assess hand grip strength of the affected upper extremity. It is generally small, portable and relatively cheap reliable measurement instruments to measure muscle strength of the arm and hand in children with spastic cerebral pasly. It is used to measure strength; maximal voluntary isometric contraction; objectively in kilograms, pounds or newtons. Such devices have been proven to have good to excellent reliability in different populations. It represents an easily accessible way to assess muscle weakness in children with cerebral palsy and the overall reliability is considered to be good.

It will be used to assess function of the affected upper extremity. It is a reliable and valid outcome measure designed to evaluate movement patterns and hand function in children with cerebral palsy. It is designed to be used with children who have neuromotor dysfunction with spasticity and has been validated with children from 18 months to 8 years of age.