Deprivation of early sensorimotor experience and cognition in the severely involved cerebral-palsied child
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Children with severe cerebral palsy can achieve cognitive milestones like object permanence. Their general intellectual level, not motor handicap severity, is key for cognitive development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Pediatrics
Background:
- Severely quadriparetic cerebral palsy can impede sensorimotor experiences crucial for cognitive development.
- Piagetian theory posits object permanence as a marker for mental representation.
- Understanding cognitive milestones in children with severe motor impairments is essential.
Purpose of the Study:
- To assess object permanence in children with severe cerebral palsy.
- To investigate the relationship between physical handicap severity, mental age, and cognitive achievement.
Main Methods:
- Evaluated 34 children (9 months–12 years) with congenital quadriplegia.
- Assessed object permanence levels, a key Piagetian developmental milestone.
- Correlated object permanence scores with physical handicap severity and mental age.
Main Results:
- 16 out of 34 children demonstrated high levels of object permanence.
- Physical handicap severity explained less than 15% of score variation.
- Mental age accounted for 25% of the variance in object permanence scores when handicap severity was controlled.
Conclusions:
- Early cognitive milestones are attainable for children with severe congenital motor impairments.
- General intellectual level appears more influential than motor handicap severity for cognitive achievement.
- This challenges assumptions about sensorimotor deprivation limiting cognitive development in cerebral palsy.
Abstract:
Severely quadraplegic cerebral-palsied children suffer profound deprivation of early sensorimotor experiences considered by Piagetian theory as critical to the development of cognitive structures. In the present study, 34 children quadraplegic from birth, ranging in age from 9 months to 12 years, were tested for level of object permanence which, according to Piaget, signals the emergence of mental representation. Sixteen demonstrated high levels of object permanence. Severity of physical handicap accounted for less than 15% of the variation in scores. With severity held constant, mental age explained 25% of the variance. These results indicate that early cognitive milestones can be achieved by children severely physically handicapped since birth and that general intellectual level may be more important than severity of the motor handicap in determining such achievement.