The Effects of Treadmill Training on Spastic Cerebral Palsy Children's Gross Motor Functions

트레드밀 훈련이 경직성 양하지 마비 아동의 대동작 운동 기능에 미치는 영향

The purpose of this study was to apply treadmill training through motor learning to cerebral palsy children and examine its effects on their Gross Motor Functions. The subjects of this study were 13 spastic diplegia children who had difficulty in independent gait, and GMFCS level III, IV. We performed treadmill gait training using the principle of weight bearing, based on 4times a week for 30 minutes before and after each session physical therapy we gave weight bearing treadmill training 5 to 10 minutes, during 7 weeks(April 9, 2012~May 26, 2012) fittingly for the children's gait characteristics. In order to test how the weight bearing treadmill training affects spastic diplegia children's gross motor functions, we measured body mobility with Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM). These data were collected before and after the experiment and analyzed through comparison. Data collected from the 13 spastic diplegia children the results were as follows. For evaluating with regard to change in body mobility, significant difference was observed between before and after the experiment in measured gross motor functions, which were crawling, kneeling, standing, walking, jumping and running(p<0.05). According to the results of this study, when gait training through motor learning was applied to spastic cerebral palsy children, it made significant changes in their body mobility. Accordingly, for the effective application of gait training through motor learning to cerebral palsy children, it is considered necessary to make research from different angle on how such training affects children's mobility, activity of muscles in the lower limbs, and gait characteristics.