Oral Motor Facilitation Technique And Traditional Exercises on Children With Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy is a motor disorder caused by the damage to the developing brain. Feeding and swallowing difficulties are common in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Poor postural control and oral motor dysfunction results in extended feeding time, frequent coughing, choking and excessive drooling affecting their health and quality of life. The brain damage in CP is permanent that cannot be fixed however different oral motor exercises, oral facial facilitation and oral sensorimotor interventions are widely used for drool reduction and feeding difficulties in children with CP. Spastic cerebral palsy is one of most prevalent type of CP that is characterized by increased tone and stiffness of muscles. This research will be conducted to evaluate the comparative effects of oral motor facilitation technique (OMFT) and traditional oral motor exercises on drooling and feeding skills of children with spastic CP. OMFT is a complete protocol with a combination of techniques to deal with oral motor difficulties This study will be a randomized control trial. A total number of 12 children with Spastic cerebral palsy ( GMFS III-V) both male/female, between age range 3-12 and with feeding difficulties will be included in the study. Children with cerebral palsy and other co morbidities, seizures, risk of aspiration and who are on tube feeding will be excluded. Participants will be randomly allocated to two groups, either Group A (receiving OMFT) or Group B (receiving traditional oral motor exercise). Baseline scores will be recorded by using standardized tools OMAS for oral motor skill during feeding and DIS for drool severity with the consent of authors. Therapeutic sessions will be scheduled 3 days per week and 30 min a day for each group. The effects of interventions on drooling and feeding skills will be assessed after 8 and 16 weeks of sessions. Recorded data of all variables will be analyzed by using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) for Windows Software, version 21.