One of the earlier pieces of pediatric research was on non-ambulatory patients with CP:
"Treadmill Training with Partial Body Weight Support in Nonambulatory Patients with Cerebral Palsy"
Schindl, Forstner, Kern and Hess in Arch Phys Med Rehabil 2000;81:301-6
I am not sure how you are defining "severe and profound" I think that characterising your group by their physical cababilities would help you to define your research and simplify your design. It's very hard to find a large enough group of CP children in one location who can be clearly defined (age, level of physical ability, level of cognitive ability etc) to create a group in order to establish highly significant results. There are several "pilot" studies out there that seem to have never been able to go forward to a full blown study. (Richards et al in Pediatric Physical Therapy 1997, oops can't find the other ref right now, but...) The second study [which I can't locate right now] used the GMFM as a tool for measuring change in skill level.
Another choice is to seek to publish a case study or a series of case studies to describe your use of PWBTT without having to find the group that can sustain statistical analysis (which might take years.....). At the APTA website you can find a book for sale on writing case studies................
An example of a recent case study report with a nonambulatory child is found in Pediatric Physical Therapy 2004 Summer;16(2):106-113. Locomotor Training with Partial Body Weight Support on a Treadmill in a Nonambulatory Child with Spastic Tetraplegic Cerebral Palsy: A Case Report: Day, Fox, Lowe, Swales and Behrman
There are grants available from APTA if you are a member. This might be the easiest route. Government grants are usually very specific in terms of your employ and your work location. You could also try funding through a benevolent organization working with the same population.
does this help at all???
plo'r
Last edited on Tue Dec 5th, 2006 11:20 pm by plor
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