Abstract
By assessing infants’ movements, our research goal was to determine if particular movement characteristics are indicators for cerebral palsy (CP), a disorder caused by a brain injury to the fetus/infant that leads to impaired development of movement. Our research may contribute to developing an earlier diagnosis for CP, and therefore earlier intervention. This would benefit children since the early promotion of motor skill development may correlate with better outcomes later in life. My specific focus seeks to identify characteristics of ankle movement to incorporate into early CP screens and diagnoses. This project involved URAP students coding videos of sixteen infants (12-14 weeks corrected age), eight with CP and eight without, for the timing of their active movements at each joint. I specifically examined the frequency and duration of each ankle’s movement into plantar flexion, which is a pointed foot position. These measures were compared between the two groups of infants and a t-test was run to determine statistical significance. While infants with CP showed significantly longer average duration compared to typically developing infants (right p=0.01, left p=0.03), the frequency of plantar flexion between the two groups was nearly but not significant (p=0.07). Future studies with greater sample sizes of infants would be warranted to further understand the generalizability and implications of this finding. If further research leads to the conclusion that frequency and/or duration of plantar flexion differ significantly in children with CP, then this movement could be added to the collection of indicators used for early CP diagnosis.