Investigation into the impact of cognitive load in children with and without identified postural control difficulties.

• Main Author: Bennie, Cheryl Christine
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: 2011
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10539/10581

This study investigates the effect of cognitive load on children with and without identified postural control difficulties. In addition the study investigates whether this difference, if any, is different between these two groups of participants. The study made use of Modified Chailey Levels of Sitting Ability to compare each child’s sitting postural control in the initial assessment (the baseline) to their sitting posture during the non-cognitive load and cognitive load conditions. The results of the study found that although there was an observable difference between the two groups the modified assessment was not sensitive enough to provide statistically significant results. In addition there was a difference seen clinically in the improvement of postural control while sitting when involved in a cognitively challenging task. The results of this study indicate that the use of cognitively challenging tasks in the treatment of postural control may be warranted, further study is however recommended.