Hand Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy of Upper Extremities (HABIT) in Patients with Child Cerebral Palsy
Abstract
Cerebral palsy is a disease that has an undeniable effect on activities of daily living. It is often associated with hemiparesis, a partial paralysis of one half of the body.
Nowadays, there is a large variety of rehabilitation methods based on a very intensive training of the paretic upper limb. While a lot of these methods focus exclusively on the paretic upper limb, there are also less well-known methods exercising both the upper limbs simultaneously.
One of such methods is HABIT (Hand Arm Bimanual Intensive Therapy). It is a method which is based on very intensive training of cooperative tasks performed by both upper limbs at the same time.
Current research shows comparable results with methods such as CIMT (Constraint Induced Movement Therapy). Furthermore, HABIT does not require immobilization and it is therefore well tolerated even by children with cerebral palsy.