Influence of Parenting Skills on the Functional Outcome of Children with Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) refers to a group of permanent disorders of the development of movement and posture, causing activity limitations, which are attributed to non-progressive disturbances that occurred in the developing fetal or infant brain. Caregivers play a vital role in maintaining the quality of life of children affected with cerebral palsy. The study was done to find out the influence of parenting skills on the functional outcome of children with cerebral palsy.

A cross sectional survey was conducted among parents of children with cerebral palsy. 150 consecutive cases attending the Paediatric Neurology Out Patient Department of SAT Hospital and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram were interviewed. The parenting skills, which include mothers’ knowledge, attitude and reported practice in the care of children with cerebral palsy as measured by structured interview schedule, rating scale and checklist respectively, were assessed and their association with the gross motor and fine motor functions of children was found using chi square test.

Majority of subjects were boys and spastic quadriplegia was the most common type of cerebral palsy reported. In functional outcome 36% of children had Grade IV gross motor function and 38.7% had Grade II fine motor functional status. Majority of mothers had poor knowledge (81.3%) regarding CP. The parenting skills especially maternal attitude and practice had significant association with the level of gross motor and fine motor function of the child.