Abstract:

Children's cerebral paralysis is still a common pathology in children and it is often combined with moderate mental retardation. At the same time, the effectiveness of the schemes used for the rehabilitation of such children remains low. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the method developed by the authors, including curative gymnastics, orthopedic adaptations, and equipment in children aged 6-10 years old with cerebral paralysis and moderate mental retardation. The study was performed on 33 children aged 6-10 years old with infantile cerebral palsy and moderate mental retardation in which 17 children were classified into the experimental group and the rest made up the control group. All the children examined had spastic diplegia or spastic tetraparesis. In the experimental group, the authors developed an option of complex correction with the help of medical gymnastics, strength training, orthoses, and verticals. In the control group, the traditional scheme of correction of infantile cerebral palsy was applied. In both groups, the dynamics of motor skills were assessed according to the Chailly scale, goniometry of the knee joints, the level of spasticity of muscles, the strength of the quadriceps muscle of the thigh. The results are processed by Student's test. As a result of the sessions, all the subjects observed a positive dynamics of the indicators taken into account. More pronounced positive dynamics of the strength of the quadriceps femoris muscle (by 19.0%), the level of the motor skill in different starting positions (from 9.8% to 28.5%), and spasticity of the limb (3.1 times) were noted in the experimental group. The dynamics of the amplitude of knee extension in both groups of observations was comparable. The use of the developed methodology in the daily practice of rehabilitation can increase the effectiveness of rehabilitation in children with infantile cerebral paralysis with moderate mental retardation and increase their social integration.

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