Montaño J (2015) Cerebral palsy and Halliwick (Ms thesis in Spanish)

INTRODUCTION: Cerebral Palsy (CP) is the main cause of physical disability in early childhood. This disabling condition remains throughout the life of the affected children, significantly interfering with the function and independence thereof. Aquatic therapy is one of the most usual physical therapy methods used in the management of children with CP, and the Halliwick’s 10-Point program is one of the forms of Aquatic Therapy more used in the holistic treatment of this subject.

OBJECTIVES: To determine the degree of independence and functional skills acquired after the application of an intervention based on the Halliwick’s 10-Point program, compared to a functional training program on land.

HYPOTHESIS: the Halliwikc’s 10-point program produces improvements on functionality and independence in children with CP, both on land and aquatic environment, being able to relate these benefits with the activity, participation, and environment factors components of the ICF.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: This is a randomized control trial whose sample is composed by children (ages 2 to 8 years) with Cerebral Palsy diagnosis from FEPROAMI. The experimental group will undergo functional training program on land (3 days a week) in addition to the intervention study based on the Halliwick concept (2 days a week), while the control group will participate only in the functional training on land for a period of 10 weeks. To evaluate the results on function and independence of the subjects will be used the following scales: WOTA2, GMFM and PEDI.

Keywords: Cerebral Palsy, physical therapy, Aquatic Therapy, Halliwick concept, function, independence.