The Effectiveness of Play Activities and Functional Activities on Fine Motor Skills in Children with Spastic Diplegic Cerebral Palsy

Approximately half of children with cerebral palsy may sustain dysfunctions in upper extremities such as reaching, grasping, and manipulation. Occupational therapy intervention is one important support to the child's development of fine motor skills and the techniques of sensorimotor approaches are used through play or functional activities along with other conventional therapy to improve fine motor skills. However the play activities differ from self-care based functional activities in the mode of practice and therapeutic value. So, this study was aimed to compare the difference between the effectiveness of play activities and functional activities on fine motor skills in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

To compare the effectiveness of play activities and functional activities on fine motor skills in children with spastic diplegic cerebral palsy.

24 children diagnosed as spastic diplegic cerebral palsy and who fitted in the inclusion criteria were selected and consecutively allotted to two experimental groups. The children in one experimental group received play activities and the children in other experimental group received age appropriate self-care based functional activities. PDMS-2 was used as outcome measure for fine motor skills. Both groups were allowed to continue conventional therapy.

Statistically significant improvement was seen in both groups on fine motor skills after six weeks of therapy. Intergroup comparison showed statistically improvement in play based activities group as compared to functional activities group.

The findings concluded that both play and functional activities have therapeutic effect on fine motor skills but the play activities have more therapeutic value on fine motor skills as compared to functional activities in cerebral palsy children.