Jan van der Burg

So you wanna be a Popstar? Selfmanagement during bimanual activities in children with unilateral Cerebral Palsy

The aim of modified Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (mCIMT) and bimanal training (BiT), is to learn children with unilateral cerebral palsy to perform bimanual activities as independent as possible. These therapies are incorporated in the Pirate Group Intervention at the Sint Maartenskliniek (Aarts, 2010), It was shown that bimanual capacities increase following this kind of intervention, but the generalisation of the bimanual performance in activities of daily life remains low. In order to facilitate generalisation over situations and time (maintenance), a group intervention protocol, based on self management techniques, has been developed and evaluated. A contemporary and popular talent show called ‘So You Wanna be a Popstar?’ is chosen to motivate the children as much as possible.

Simply participate?

Inclusion of children with disabilities in regular Dutch schools has become an important policy in the Netherlands. In the current situation regular education and special education exist in parallel. Special educational needs in regular schools are often met through counselling and additional funds are available for the school to implement extra instruction time and specific help for the child, However, the child’s participation in the social network of the class and the school is sometimes hindered, and, as a consequence, social-emotional development may be at risk. In this project, we: (1) make a survey of assessment instruments and educational and training programs and materials for the social-emotional development and investigate their usefulness for children with physical disabilities in special schools and rehabilitation centres, (2) evaluate the psychosocial adjustment of children with a physical disability or chronic disease who attend regular schools, and examine the teachers’ need for help in this domain.