RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FEEDING AND ORO-MOTOR SKILLS IN CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY

Abstract

Feedingandoro-motordeficitsare often associated with children with cerebral palsy, but most of the studies do not depictthe relationship between feeding and oro-motor problems objectively.Aim:To investigate the feeding and oro-motor skillsand to assess therelationship between twoinchildren with cerebralpalsy (CP).Method:To assess the feeding and oro-motor skills, the physicaldomain of Feeding Handicap Index (FHI) (Srushti, 2014)and the Com-DEALL oro-motor assessment checklist (Archana, 2008) respectively were administered on 60 children withCP in the age range of 2-10 years.Results:The results indicated feeding and oro-motor problems in children with cerebral palsy. There was a strongcorrelation between physical domain of FHI and the oro-motor scores obtained on the Com-DEALL checklist. Further, thecorrelation was much stronger for the dyskinetic, rather than the othertypes of CP. It was also seen that the feeding issueswere greatest in quadriplegics.Discussion: The findings of the present study revealed that feeding and oro-motorproblems were quite common in childrenwith CP. These findings were in consensuswithseveral studies reported in the literature. The findings also indicate thepossibility of a causal relationship between the two.Conclusion:It can be concluded that children with CP do have oro-motor and feeding deficits and there is a relationshipbetween the two. However future studies have to explore the relationship between feeding and oro-motor skills in depth.These findings have implications for intervention of feeding problems.