The immediate effects of visual and verbal cues on the ability of dynamic trunk control in sitting position in children with and without cerebral palsy

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the immediate effects of the different sensory cues on the ability of dynamic trunk control in sitting position in children with and without cerebral palsy (CP) aged between 8-15 years. Twenty children with cerebral palsy (10 males, 10 females) and 20 typical children (10 males, 10 females) were matched by age and gender. All participants were asked to lean trunk forward, backward, and to the left and the right directions as far as possible during sitting position in each of four cue conditions that performed in random order: no sensory, visual cue, verbal cue, and combined visual and verbal cue conditions. The results showed that the visual or verbal cue alone could improve LOS in typical children, but not in children with CP, whereas the combined visual and verbal cues could improve LOS in both children with and without CP (p<0.05). In addition, the visual or verbal cue alone could improve CoF trajectories in backward, the left and the right directions in typical children, whereas it could improve CoF trajectories only in forward directions in children with CP. Moreover, the combined visual and verbal cues could improve CoF trajectories in all directions in typical children and in forward, backward, and the left directions in children with CP (p<0.05). In conclusion, the combined visual and verbal cues was more effective to improve LOS and CoF trajectory in both groups.