The development of anticipatory action planning in children with unilateral cerebral palsy

Area of Science:

• Pediatric neurology
• Motor control research
• Rehabilitation science

Background:

• Children with unilateral cerebral palsy (CP) often exhibit impaired bimanual performance.
• This deficit may stem from difficulties in action execution and/or impaired anticipatory action planning.
• Previous research highlights the need to understand planning deficits in unilateral CP.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effect of age on anticipatory action planning in children with unilateral CP.
• To examine differences in planning based on the side of hemiplegia (left vs. right).
• To explore the relationship between anticipatory action planning, unimanual capacity, and bimanual performance.

Main Methods:

• A multi-centre, prospective, cross-sectional observational study.
• 104 children aged 6-12 years with unilateral CP participated.
• Anticipatory action planning was assessed using the sword task.

Main Results:

• Anticipatory action planning did not show improvement with age in the 6-12 year age range.
• No significant differences were observed between children with left versus right hemiplegia.
• Anticipatory action planning was not found to be related to unimanual capacity or bimanual performance.

Conclusions:

• Anticipatory action planning, as measured by the sword task, does not develop with age in children with unilateral CP (ages 6-12).
• This planning ability is not associated with bimanual performance or the side of hemiplegia.
• Future research should utilize tasks that more directly necessitate effective anticipatory action planning for successful completion.