GUWAHATI, Oct 5 - Cerebral Palsy is a congenital disorder of movement, muscle tone or posture, due to abnormal brain development which often happens before, during or shortly after birth or in the first few years of life. Not all children with Cerebral Palsy have intellectual impairment. Since many such children do not have intellectual disability, a research was carried out in the Department of Psychology, Gauhati University, to train such children on neuro-cognitive strengths to enhance their learning and coping skills.
Neuro-cognitive training refers to brain training exercises to stimulate and raise brain wave activity which is reflected in behaviour.
The study was aimed at developing a task-based training approach for children with Cerebral Palsy so that they can be trained and subsequently become independent and self-sufficient in life, stated a press release. The research was carried out by identifying four basic neuro-cognitive skills � sustained attention, expressive speech, tactile perception and verbal working memory.
There was a significant difference among the four skills. The children scored poorly on verbal working memory and tactile perception compared to expressive speech and sustained attention. Later, task-based training was provided to the children irrespective of their strengths or weaknesses.
The research showed significant enhancement of all the four skills, thus demonstrating that the training programme designed by the researchers would capitulate greater learning.
The training in verbal working memory included tasks like active reading, making connections, multisensory games, visualisation skills, etc. The tasks related to tactile perception were tactile graphics, play dough, sensory tactile toys, outdoor texture walk, etc. Further tasks such as fine hand use, interpersonal interaction, producing and receiving non-verbal messages, coping, learning through action with objects, observing anything, use of wordless books, pretend play, etc., were related to sustained attention and expressive speech on which the children were trained.
The research work received the Gandhi Scholarship Award. The researchers also visited Yunnan Minzu University in China and deliberated on learning disability. The work was published in many journals and was selected for presenting at the University of Malaysia Sabah.
Dr Pallavi Sarmah, Protection Officer, DCPU, Social Welfare Department, Assam, and Dr Manidipa Baruah, faculty member in the Department of Psychology, Gauhati University, were involved in the project.
