EFFECT OF ORAL MOTOR INTERVENTIONS ON DROOLING AMONG CEREBRAL PALSY CHILDREN AT SELECTED CENTERS OF THE CITY.

Abstract

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a movement and posture disorder caused by non-progressive lesions in the developing brain. CP may affect oral motor skills, leading to speech delay, drooling and difficulties with sucking, swallowing, and chewing. A study conducted to assess drooling among cerebral palsy children in experimental and control group and to assess effect of oral motor interventions on drooling in experimental group. Quantitative approach was selected for the study. Quasi experimental non randomised control group design was used. 10 Children from age group of 4-12 years with cerebral Palsy taken as sample. Non probability purposive sampling method was used. Children from different rehabilitation was selected for the study. Standardized Scale for Assessment of Drooling (By Thomas- Stonell and Greenberg) was used for assessment of drooling. Cohen’s Kappa is used to check the reliability. Reliability was assessed using inter-rater method. Investigator calculated the r- value for Assessment of Drooling = +0.82. So Standardized Scale for Assessment of Drooling is reliable. Result shows that, In experimental group, in pretest, 80% of the cerebral palsy children had mild oral motor skills and 20% of them had severe oral motor skills. In posttest, 60% of them did not have drooling, 20% of them had mild drooling and 20% of them had moderate drooling. This indicates that the drooling among cerebral palsy children improved remarkably after oral motor interventions. Researcher applied paired t-test for the effectiveness of oral motor interventions on drooling among cerebral palsy children. Average drooling score among cerebral palsy children in pretest was 5 which reduced 3.4 in posttest. T-value for this test was 4 with 4 degrees of freedom. Corresponding p-value was small (less than 0.05), the null hypothesis is rejected. Average drooling score in pretest was significantly higher than that in posttest. It is evident that the oral motor interventions are significantly effective on reducing drooling among cerebral palsy children.