• Occupational Therapy And Speech Therapy For Children With Cerebral Palsy
  • Ali Aghighi,1 Maryam Babaei,2 Zahra Sadeghi asl,3 Erfan Qutb al-Dini,4 Hossein Bostani zadeh,5,*
    1. Student Research Committee, School of Nursing & Midwifery, Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
    2. Student research committee,babol university of medical sciences, babol,iran
    3. Student Research Committee, Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, Iran.
    4. Erfan Ghotbaddini,Student Research Committee,Department of Occupational Therapy,School of Paramedical Sciences,Mashhad University of Medical Sciences,Mashhad,Iran
    5. Faculty of Paramedicine, Department of medicine, Bushehr University of Medical Science, Bushehr , Iran


  • Introduction: Cerebral palsy is a permanent and non-progressive childhood syndrome that occurs in two to three cases out of every 1000 live births and originates in the prenatal period, perinatal period, or the first few years of life and negatively affects brain development. It affects and causes movement disorders, body posture, and imbalance, which severely limits activity. Muscle hypertonicity due to brain damage is the most common symptom observed in cerebral palsy patients along with other motor problems such as impaired balance, coordination, hand function, etc. Patients with cerebral palsy often experience non-motor problems that must be managed into adulthood, including cognitive dysfunction, seizures, pressure sores, osteoporosis, emotional or behavioral problems, and hearing and speech disorders. To control the situation, there must be a balance between a person's complex interactions with the environment and tasks. Balance involves a complex interaction between the musculoskeletal and nervous systems.
  • Methods: This study is a systematic review with English keywords Cerebral Palsy, Treatment, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Children in reliable English and Farsi scientific databases and sites, including Pubmed, Google Scholar, Scopus, Sciencedirect, Magiran, Sid in the period from 2002 to 2022. It was done and 50 articles were found in the initial search, after removing duplicates and evaluating the title and abstract, 18 articles were selected with the necessary conditions to participate in the present study, and general conclusions were made based on the information in the various selected articles.
  • Results: Studies show that the treatments performed improve motor activities. Treatments such as physical, occupational, speech, and behavioral therapy help with therapy and caregiving, while family-centered therapies can be provided. Some of the techniques used include hippotherapy, neurodevelopmental therapy, sessions of 30 to 45 minutes twice a week for 8 to 12 weeks, deep brain stimulation and electrical stimulation, serial casting, robot-assisted walking training, Body Weight Support Treadmill Training, virtual reality, and biofeedback, vestibular intervention. The most common movement disorders observed in cerebral palsy are muscle spasms and dystonia with problems with coordination, strength, and selective movement control. Spasticity is a major challenge in the management of children with cerebral palsy. It causes the bone and joint deformities due to spasms, pain, and loss of function. Common medications found in the literature to relieve spasticity include baclofen, diazepam, clonazepam, dantrolene, and tizanidine. Baclofen and diazepam help relax muscles but have many side effects. The first line of treatment for spasticity is physiotherapy, occupational therapy, botulinum toxin injection, selective dorsal rhizotomy, and intraspinal baclofen. Combined use of active vestibular interventions and occupational therapy can improve functional balance in children with spastic cerebral palsy. One of the most common speech problems in children is cerebral palsy, which includes problems such as drooling, swallowing, and feeding, which affects half of the children. Speech therapy for such conditions helps improve motor skills, anesthesia problems, and communication skills and includes oral care, feeding techniques, food modification, and oral muscle movement. Excessive drooling can be controlled by controlling the problem, Mouth control, tongue control, behavioral therapies, intraoral appliances, and medications such as cholinergic and onabotulinum toxin (Botox) injections into the salivary glands and surgery on the ducts and salivary glands, and managed biofeedback. Speech therapy and the use of computer synthesizers can help improve communication.
  • Conclusion: Deciding on the most effective and efficient amount of treatment services for children with cerebral palsy and how to provide them is complex. However, any severe disorders associated with this disease should be managed carefully. Occupational therapy helps children with cerebral palsy improve their ability to perform daily tasks. Interventions that include specific exercises of child-initiated movements, environmental modifications, and parent education provide the best response. Family-centered rehabilitation treatments are positively associated with greater participation in family/recreational activities and walking tolerance. Occupational therapists help children work on improving their impairments. The parental perception that rehabilitation treatments meet the child's needs is associated with greater participation in family/recreational activities. Speech therapy teaches children to communicate successfully. Intensive speech therapy focuses on creating a stronger voice that improves the clarity of children's voices and speech. Treatments such as physical, occupational, speech, and behavioral therapies help strengthen patient-caregiver interactions while providing family support.
  • Keywords: Cerebral Palsy, Treatment, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Children