Effects of Cuevas Medek Exercises on Balance and Postural Control in Children With Spastic Cerebral Palsy

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a disorder characterized by abnormal tone, posture and movement and clinically classified based on the predominant motor syndrome-spastic hemiplegia, spastic diplegia, spastic quadriplegia, and extra-pyramidal or dyskinetic (1). Children born preterm account for one-third to one-half of CP diagnoses in HICs, although this proportion is much lower in low-income countries (LICs), where mortality of very preterm babies remains high . Clinical prediction models and neuroimaging have been used to diagnose CP before the age of 2 years, but further research is necessary (.

The CPs share a common clinical sign of non-progressive dysfunction of posture and movement control but not a common diagnosis. Although there are many CP types, many causes, and now many associated pathogenic genetic variants, it is probably not advisable to change the clinical diagnosis of CP made by specialist pediatricians in cases that fulfill the clinical definition.

In order to prevent greater developmental motor delay, a physiotherapy intervention focusing on optimizing neuroplasticity must be done, stimulating the child to achieve the developmental motor milestones . Cuevas Medek Exercises (CME) is a pediatric physiotherapy approach for children with developmental motor delay impacting the central nervous system. According to Ramon Cuevas, who developed the therapy, CME are mainly based on the principle of provoking novel automatic motor reactions using exercises against gravity with progressive distal holding CME therapy is a physiotherapy approach to treat children with developmental motor delay by impacting CNS. Postural control and balance training are essentials for the children to be mobile. The aim of the study is to find the effects of Cuevas Medek Exercises on balance and postural control on children with spastic Cerebral Palsy so that the children with motor development disorders of neurological cause like cerebral palsy can develop automatic motor reactions which they would not be able to develop on their own, because of neurological injuries and help them to improve their quality of life.