Social Participation in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Abstract

Social participation is known to play a significant role in the maintenance of health and well-being. For a child, social participation is an important prerequisite for typical development, since children gather knowledge and develop social skills while interacting with other people. Children with cerebral palsy (CP) however experience limitations in their ability to participate in social activities due to the impairments associated with the damage to the brain. The impairments these children experience include motor, cognitive or a combination of both. We hypothesised that impairments in the motor abilities of a child lead to specific types of limitations in social participation of children with CP and hence the aim of the current study is to learn about the relationship between level of motor impairments and social participation in children with CP. A total of 80 participants in the age range of 6-12 years were recruited for this study. The Gross Motor Function Classification Scale (GMFCS) and Child Adolescent Scale of Participation (CASP) were administered to gain information about children’s levels of impairment and levels of social participation respectively. Results of the data analysis showed that children with CP had limited social participation in different contexts and activities in accordance with their level of severity of motor impairment.

Keywords

• Cerebral palsy
• Social participation
• GMFCS
• CASP
• Motor impairment