IMPACT OF COMBINING MIRROR THERAPY AND HABIT ON HAND GRIP STRENGTH IN CHILDREN WITH HEMIPARESIS

Background: hemiparetic children usually tend to avoid the use of their impaired arm and are remarkably tend to perform inherently bimanual tasks of daily living with the less impaired arm only rather than with both arms. In fact, these children actually may have never learned to use their impaired arm for certain motor tasks or may only use it in the simplest manner, so the purpose of the study was to determine the impact of combining HABIT and mirror therapy on hand grip in hemiparetic children. Methods: A total of 30 hemiparetic children divided randomly into two groups (A and B) of equal number, (N of each = 15). Eligibility criteria to our study were age ranged from 4-8 years, ability to score more than 50 % of grasps and associated domains of quality of upper extremity skills test (QUEST) and grade 2 in manual ability classification system (MACS), assessment done by baseline hand held dynamometer for hand palmar & pinch grasp strength (in pounds) at start (0 week), reassessed at 4 & 8 weeks. The treatment protocol for two groups include: 2 months total time, 3 sessions\week, 1.5 hour\session. Children in study group (A) received selected occupational therapy program with modified mirror apparatus while children in control group (B) Children received the same occupational therapy program as in study group but without modified mirror apparatus. Results: there is significant improvement in both groups when comparing the pre and post I & II treatment mean values. However comparing the post treatment results of both groups were statistically non-significant. Conclusion: This study confirmed that combining mirror therapy and HABIT is effective in improving hand function.