Body representation in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy.

Abstract

Clinical observations indicate that many children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy refrain from using or disregard the affected upper limb. The aim of the present study is to investigate deficits in different body representations (body schema, body structural description, and body image) in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP) compared to typically-developing (TD) children. Three groups of children participated in this study: 42 TD children (aged 5.17-10.91 years), 23 children with right HCP (aged 5.83-10.92 years), and 22 children with left HCP (aged 5.67-10.90 years). The results demonstrate generalized deficits in all three body representations in children with HCP, and do not offer evidence for an effect of hemiplegia laterality.