Efficacy Of Quiet Eye Training On Visuomotor Coordination In Adolescents With Cerebral Palsy

Adolescents with Cerebral Palsy (CP) are insufficiently active for health purposes. They are at risk for health complications and loss of functional mobility skills. Improved fundamental movement skills proficiency might therefore facilitate their activity accrual and decrease sedentary time - improving overall quality of life. PURPOSE: To test the efficacy of quiet eye training (QET) as a novel intervention designed to improve visuomotor coordination underpinning throwing and catching and hence quality of life in this clinical group. METHODS: We used a single-group pretest-posttest research design. Eight adolescents (M = 13.1, SD = 2.8) with CP were recruited from a special school in Shenzhen, China. The 4-week skills training (throwing and catching) protocol was implemented among participants. The intervention group undertook 4 sessions (one session per week, 30-min per session) in a multipurpose room at the special school. Participants were individually trained and asked to watch the videos showing the eye movement while performing the throwing and catching task demonstrated by the expert model before each training session. Gaze data was recorded using ASL Mobile Eye-5 Glasses. The throwing and catching performance were measured by the Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC-2) and the Test of Gross Motor Development-2ndedition (TGMD-2). Quality of life was measured by the Chinese version of the Pediatirc Quality of Life Inventory 4.0 (PedsQL). Paired t-test with effect size (Cohen’s d) was used to compare the scores of variables measured at baseline and post-test. RESULTS: The 4-week QET intervention produced significantly improvements in TGMD-2 process oriented catching performance (d = 2.254, p = 0.001). Improvement was observed in MABC-2 successful throwing performance but not significant (d = 0.038, P = 0.914). Significant improvement was also observed in the PedsQL School Functional scale, which showed a large effect size (d = 0.878, p = 0.035). CONCLUSIONS: The findings provide potential support for the efficacy of a QET intervention for adolescents with CP to improve their fine motor performance and quality of life.