Impact of Early Intensive Stimulation on Bimanual Function in Infants at High Risk of Unilateral CP (BB-BIM)

Summary

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Description

Congenital hemiplegia, often referred to as Unilateral Cerebral Palsy (UCP), is characterized by a unilateral or asymmetrical brain injury that occurs around birth and impacts the development of manual skills and motor abilities of one side of the body. Affected children frequently develop hemiplegi...

Congenital hemiplegia, often referred to as Unilateral Cerebral Palsy (UCP), is characterized by a unilateral or asymmetrical brain injury that occurs around birth and impacts the development of manual skills and motor abilities of one side of the body. Affected children frequently develop hemiplegia with major limitations in the use of their impaired hand, resulting in poor bimanual coordination, thus impacting the performance of daily activities at home, school and in the community. Several intensive therapy approaches currently exist, including the bimanual approach (BIM) which aims to improve the use of the affected hand as an assisting hand in daily functional activities. These approaches have long been established as effective, however, with these children reaching 90% of their potential gross motor skills around the age of 5, or even earlier in some cases, there is a growing interest in earlier approaches, well before school age. It has also long been established that during the first year of life, there is a critical time frame for hand motor development. The investigators have thus set up an intensive bimanual stimulation program for infants showing early signs of UCP, delivered by the family environment, in the child's familiar surroundings, under the guidance of a therapist, over a period of 2 months.

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