| Summary: | The present thesis consisted of four studies to investigate the influence of using bimodal stimuli on aiming, unimanual and bimanual prehesion skills in children. Employing auditory and visual stimuli that are spatially and temporally co-incidental shown within the present studies provides bimodal stimuli that were known so far for enhancing sensory information. Reach to touch, and reach to grasp were examined in fourteen children with cerebral palsy (CP) and eleven of their typically developing peers (TD). 3D kinematic analyses was used to capture the aiming movement of participants while they were presented with either auditory (pure-tone sound/broadband sound), visual (light only) for '"! 'h~'" ~')I' unimodal conditions, or as a combined visual -auditory stimulus for bimodal conditions in a randomised order. Unimanual and bimanual prehension (congruent vs. incongruent) were also investigated. The data revealed group differences in the integration of bimodal stimuli that were characterised by reduction in participant reaction time for the TD children but not the CP children. Unimanual and bimanual reaching and grasping skills were influenced in both groups as shown from velocity profiles, kinematic landmarks and inter limb coupling. Results showed that enhancing the environment with sound and light resulted in more controlled and coordinated movements for both groups of children.
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