A rehabilitation framework to improve physical activity levels and patterns of children with Cerebral Palsy in Gauteng Special schools, South Africa

Research Objectives: Develop a school framework for enhancing physical activity in children with cerebral palsy attending Gauteng Department of Education (GDE) special schools.

Design: An exploratory sequential design was used in a three-phase complex mixed methods approach. Phase 1 had qualitative focus group discussions, while phase 2 evaluated the levels and patterns of physical activity (PA) among children with CP before and after an intervention. Phase 3 developed a rehabilitation framework through research synthesis.

Setting: Special schools in Gauteng Province, South Africa were utilized.

Participants: Phase 1 had health professionals, educators, learners with CP, and their parents. Phase 2 observation of PA levels and patterns comprised 40 participants with cerebral palsy and an intervention (pre-post intervention) for one school term (10 weeks).

Interventions: The intervention at two schools was functional aerobic training (school 1) and visual-motor training (school 2), and school 3 was a control group that only followed the standard physical education curriculum.

Main Outcome Measures: Phase 1 focused on children with CP, phase 2 assessed PA using Actiheart, self-administered PA checklists, and phase 3 research synthesis.

Results: Phase 1 involved 115 participants from 15 focus groups, including healthcare professionals, pupils with CP, teachers, and parents. Barriers and facilitators of physical activity were identified, and four themes emerged. Phase 2 had 65 learners with CP, but only 40 completed the intervention. Moderate to vigorous PA increased from 52.3% to 71.1% post-intervention. Phase 3 developed a framework for improving PA for all school learners.

Conclusions: The study aimed to improve physical activity and patterns for children with cerebral palsy in GDE special schools. Results showed intervention reduced light PA participation after a 10-week school term.

Author(s) Disclosures: The authors declare no conflict of interest