A pilot evaluation of conductive education-based intervention for children with cerebral palsy: the Tongala project.

OBJECTIVE

To perform an objective evaluation of a programme based on conductive education (CE).

METHODOLOGY

Two groups of children with cerebral palsy were studied over 6 months. Eleven children participated in a CE-based programme and nine children received traditional early intervention programmes. Videotapes of the children performing items from the Vulpe Assessment Battery (VAB) were scored by assessors blind to the treatment group. The questionnaire on resources and stress (QRS-F) was administered to the primary caregiver.

RESULTS

Few statistically significant results were obtained. There was a trend for the conductive education-based group to make slightly greater gains. The videotaped measures yielded high Chronbach coefficients and high interrater correlation coefficients suggesting that this is a useful method to evaluate progress.

CONCLUSIONS

The study was limited by small sample size, the nature of the control group and the lack of random assignment to CE and control groups. It did provide a basis for the development of further research in the area.