Visual motor rehabilitation in children with cerebral palsy

Cerebral palsied (CP) children were given intensive visuo-oculomotor training in order to improve their visuo-oculomotor control, using children's films as a visual stimulus. A comparative study was conducted on a group of normal children of the same age. Results showed that training does improve visuo-oculomotor system control as illustrated by (1) a marked increase in smooth pursuit precision and maximum velocity, (2) an improvement of saccadic movement precision and stability, and (3) a shortening of the saccadic reaction time. The highest performance was observed under conditions in which the child pointed at and followed the visuo-acoustic target with his arm extended.