RESUMO
AIM: We aimed to determine if there was a significant difference in the functional performance of family requested daily tasks by a heterogeneous group of children with cerebral palsy following a programme of neuro-developmental treatment and in comparison to a randomly control group. BACKGROUND: There are considerable challenges in conducting research into the functional performance of children with cerebral palsy. These include the highly heterogeneous nature of the population group, poor ecological and treatment fidelity, floor and ceiling effects in assessments, and insensitivity to the diverse functional needs and goals of children and families. Therapists and families identified functional goals and specified all aspects of performance details for each goal on five point goal attainment scales. Children with cerebral palsy were assigned randomly to treatment and alternate treatment groups. Children were video recorded attempting to perform targeted functional skills at pre-test, post-pest and follow-up. Videos were recorded and rated by expert clinicians blind to experimental condition. RESULTS: After the first round of target intervention and alternate treatment had been completed, a significant difference in the goal attainment was noted between the control group and the treatment group at the post test, indicating that intervention was associated with a higher level of goal attainment than that attained by the control group (p = 0.0321) with a large effect size. CONCLUSIONS: The study provided evidence of an effective way to investigate and to enhance the available motor capacity of children with moderate to severe cerebral palsy during participation in requested daily task performance, as reflected in goal attainment. Goal attainment scales were a reliable measure that was able to be used to detect changes in functional goals among a highly heterogeneous population group with individualized goals that were meaningful to each child and family.