The effect of meaningful action observation training on upper limb function and participation in 6 to 12-year-old children with spastic cerebral palsy

The effect of meaningful action observation training on upper limb function and participation of children with spastic cerebral palsy

This study is a double-blind randomized controlled trial with a parallel design and 1:1 allocation ratio, in which 40 participants are randomly divided into control and experimental groups using computer software

This study is a randomized controlled trial with a parallel design that will be conducted in the rehabilitation clinic of the Iran University of Medical Sciences. In this research, the evaluator and the participants are kept blind to the study grouping. For this reason, the evaluator is selected out of the research team and the placebo is used for the control group

Inclusion criteria: spastic cerebral palsy, 6 to 12 years old, having therapeutic priority the same as therapeutic videos, and getting less than 4 according to MACS Exclusion criteria: Botox injection in the upper limb, the existence of other neurological diseases, uncontrolled seizures, cognitive problems, visual and auditory deficits, and contracture in the upper limb joints

"Intervention group": they receive traditional occupational therapy treatments along with meaningful action observation training for one month, 3 times a week. In the meaningful action observation training method, a predetermined movie of activities is played for children and they should repeat and practice the predetermined activities like those in the movie. Treatment sessions continue for 45 minutes "Control group": the intervention of the control group is identical to that of the treatment group, but participants watch cartoon pictures instead of predetermined activity movies. The intervention lasts for one month, three times a week, and 45 minutes in each session

upper limb function score

In this research, randomization will be done with the Block method using block sizes of 4 to 6 by Stata software. A statistics expert arranges the assigned order of randomized groups; He, based on this ordering, selects the study groups and puts them in separate envelopes. The envelopes are arranged according to the assigned randomized order achieved by the Block method. A person who is blind to the aims of the study, during examining the inclusion criterion and registering the client information, gives the envelopes to the participants according to the arranged order. When the client enters the occupational therapist's room, the envelope will be opened and the study group will be assigned based on this method.

Evaluator: In this study, in order to keep the evaluator blind, an attempt is made to choose the evaluator among experts who are not in the research team and are unaware of the grouping of participants. Participants: In this study, in order to keep the participants blind, the same treatment program is considered for the control and intervention groups, but in the control group, instead of showing therapeutic videos, cartoon pictures and natural scenes are shown.

demographic data of the study participants after making them unidentifiable; Primary and secondary outcome information

After publishing the results of the study

Researchers who are working in academic and scientific institutions

For doing meta-analysis review studies

1) Samira Boroumand Phone number:0098 9365799466 Email address: Sa.boroumand@yahoo.com Address: School of Rehabilitation, Madadkaran Alley, Shahnazari Street, Madar Square, Mirdamad Boulevard, Tehran, Iran 2) Afsoon Hassani Mehraban Phone number: 0098 21 22228051 Email address: mehraban.a@iums.ac.ir Address: School of Rehabilitation, Madadkaran Alley, Shahnazari Street, Madar Square, Mirdamad Boulevard, Tehran, Iran

The researcher can access the data of this research up to one month after sending the request and attaching the registered protocol of the review article to the introduced emails.