Abstract
Although so many rehabilitation programs have been addressed for rehabilitation of diplegic children, it still a challenging task to attain a satisfactory functional recovery. The purpose of the study was to investigate the efficacy of an intensive proprioceptive and visuomotor training program in the treatment of diplegic children in term of spatiotemporal gait parameters, postural stability, and quality of life. In a prospective randomized controlled trial, convenient sample of forty ambulant diplegic children were randomly distributed to either control (n=20) or study ( n=20) groups; the control group received a traditional rehabilitation program for 1 hour, 5 times/week for 3 successive months, while the study group received the same program with intensive proprioceptive and visuomotor integration. Vicon 3D motion analysis system, Technobody balance system and Pediatric Quality of life Inventory were used to measure spatiotemporal gait parameters, stability indices and quality of life respectively. all parameters were similar in both groups at inception (p>0.05). Children within both groups showed improvement of gait function, postural stability and quality of life (p>0.05) and the integrated proprioceptive and visuomotor rehabilitation program achieved better gain (p>0.05). Integrated proprioceptive and visuomotor rehabilitation might improve gait function, postural stability, and quality of life in diplegic children.