Reaction-time and movement-time of children with cerebral palsy: under motivational reinforcement conditions.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effects of motivational reinforcement (verbal praise), upon the reaction- and movement-times of children with spastic cerebral palsy. Twenty male and sixteen female subjects were tested on the motor task under controlled conditions. Based upon this initial testing, the subjects were matched and paired, and then designated as the experimental (N = 18) and control (N = 18) groups, respectively. The investigation was carried out over a seven week period with the initial (week-one) and final test (week-seven) sessions performed under control conditions. The five week period between initial and final sessions was utilized for application of the treatment condition (verbal praise), or control condition (no praise). The analyses performed indicated that only the experimental group improved significantly in reaction-time and movement-time performance. It was therefore, concluded, that the motivational reinforcement condition (verbal praise), resulted in a reaction-time and movement-time performance which was significantly superior to that of a non-motivational (no praise) condition.