Clinical tools designed to assess motor abilities in children with cerebral palsy

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Science
• Pediatric Neurology
• Motor Development

Background:

• Cerebral palsy (CP) significantly impacts motor abilities in children.
• Standardized tools are crucial for assessing motor function in pediatric populations.
• Evaluating the psychometric properties of assessment tools is essential for reliable clinical application.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review tools used by rehabilitation professionals to assess motor abilities in children with cerebral palsy (CP).
• To determine if these tools possess psychometric properties validated specifically for the CP population.
• To identify the key characteristics of the identified motor assessment tools.

Main Methods:

• A comprehensive literature search was conducted across multiple databases (Web of Science, PEDro, PubMed/MEDLINE, Science Direct, SciELO).
• Studies assessing the psychometric properties of identified tools were specifically searched in PubMed/MEDLINE.
• Quality assessment of included studies utilized agreement-based standards and Terwee criteria.

Main Results:

• Eighteen distinct tools for assessing motor abilities in children with CP were identified.
• A significant number of these tools have not undergone psychometric evaluation within the CP population.
• The methodological quality of psychometric property evaluations for many tools was found to be poor.

Conclusions:

• There is a need for more robust psychometric validation of motor assessment tools in children with CP.
• Rehabilitation professionals should prioritize tools with stronger empirical support and demonstrated validity in this population.
• Further research is recommended to develop and validate high-quality measurement instruments for pediatric CP.