Comparision of visual perceptual skills in children with cerebral palsy based on the severity of gross motor function

Introduction: Visual perception is one of the cognitive functions damaged in children with cerebral palsy (CP) who have a motor and developmental disability. This study aimed to assess the visual perception skills of children aged 6-12 with CP based on gross motor function levels.

Methods: This research was a cross sectional study performed on children with CP and also from the rehabilitation clinics in the Karaj city. Sixty-seven subjects were selected by simple non-random sampling. The instruments used were the Test of Visual Perception Skills- Revised (TVPS-R) for the evaluation of visual perception skills and the Gross Motor Measure Function Classification System Expanded & Revised (GMFCS E&R) to assess the severity of gross motor function lesions. The data were analyzed by Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests.

Results: The mean and standard deviation of the total scores of visual perception skills in children with mild, moderate and sever levels were 74.83±27.4, 62.36±16.4 and 75.69±21.02, respectively. There were no significant differences among the seven visual perception skills in three areas of CP severity (mild, moderate and severe) levels based on GMFCS E&R (p>0.05).

Conclusion: The results showed that the visual perception does not depend on the gross motor function levels in children with CP. In other words, more damage in gross motor function in these children does not lead to aggrevating their visual perception deficiencies.