Introduction: Cerebral palsy (CP) is a neurological disorder that impacts motor skills and daily functioning in children. While conventional occupa- tional therapy aims to improve these areas, newer approaches like ‘Cognitive Orientation to Daily Occupational Performance’ (CO-OP) and ‘Goal-Directed Training’ (GDT) show promise. However, their comparative effectiveness in enhancing occupational performance and functional status in children with CP remains underexplored. This study aimed to investigate and compare the effects of the CO-OP and GDT on the occupational performance and func- tional status of children with CP.
Methods: Sixty children were randomly assigned to three intervention groups: CO-OP approach in addition to conventional occupational therapy (COT) (Group A; n = 20), GDT in addition to COT (Group B, n = 20), and only COT (Group C; n = 20). The outcomes regarding occupational performance via the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure and functional status via the Paediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory were evaluated by the blind eval- uators before and after the interventions. All participants received two sessions per week over a 12-week period.
Consumer and Community Involvement: No consumer and community involvement in these studies.
Results: All groups demonstrated statistically significant improvements in occupational performance and functional status (p < 0.001). Between-group comparisons revealed that Group A achieved greater improvements in occupa- tional performance and functional status, which particularly in the areas of self-care, mobility, and total Paediatric Assessment of Disability Inventory (PEDI) scores (p < 0.05), compared to the other groups.
Conclusions: Although significant gains were achieved on occupational perfor- mance and functional status levels of both the CO-OP approach and GDT, it was revealed that the group receiving the CO-OP approach had superior effects.