Upper Extremity Function Before and After Hippotherapy in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder and/or Cerebral Palsy
NCT Number: NCT06530680
Status: COMPLETED
Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
Phases: NA
Conditions: Autism Spectrum Disorder|Cerebral Palsy
Interventions: BEHAVIORAL: Hippotherapy
Sponsor: Ohio State University
Collaborators: Nationwide Children's Hospital|University of Montana
Sex: ALL
Age: CHILD
Enrollment: 12
Study Design: Allocation: RANDOMIZED|Intervention Model: PARALLEL|Masking: NONE|Primary Purpose: TREATMENT
Start Date: 2021-06-14
Completion Date: 2023-02-03
Locations: The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, 43210, United States

Summary:
The goal of this feasibility trial is to learn if hippotherapy and physical therapy in the equine environment can be used to improve upper extremity function in children with cerebral palsy or autism spectrum disorder who present with motor delay or impairment in the upper extremities. The main questions it aims to answer are:

Can the upper extremity-focused treatment using hippotherapy and the equine environment be delivered to fidelity?

Is the treatment acceptable to participants and therapists?

Is the randomized-controlled trial protocol feasible to scale to a larger study, including recruitment and retention rates and suitability of selected outcome measures?

If there is a comparison group: Researchers will compare participants receiving treatment to a waitlist control to see if participants are retained in the control group and if differences are detected between the control and treatment groups on selected outcome measures.

Primary Outcome Measures: Reach-and grasp protocol, Reach-and-grasp protocol: Participants were recorded while performing a reach-to-drink task. For each trial, participants were instructed: "Reach for the bottle, pick it up, pretend to take a drink, return the bottle to the marked position on the table, and return your hand to the start position. Do this twice." Movement of the upper extremities was recorded from reflective markers on the hands, wrists, elbows, shoulders, and sternum by a 10-camera VICON Motion Capture system at 120 Hz and filtered at 4 Hz with a low-pass Butterworth filter., 1 week pre- and post- 4-week waitlist control period and within 1 week pre- and post- 4-week treatment period.|PEM-CY, Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth; higher scores mean better; participation scores range 0-7, involvement scores range 1-5., 1 week pre- and post- 4-week waitlist control period and within 1 week pre- and post- 4-week treatment period|PRIME-O, Pediatric Rehabilitation Intervention Measure of Engagement - Observation; higher scores = more engaged; score range = 0-40 (0-4 per item), 1 time per week during the 4-week intervention period|PRIME-SP, Pediatric Rehabilitation Intervention Measure of Engagement - Service Provider; not scaled, 1 time per week during the 4-week intervention period|Enjoy, Self-report measure of enjoyment of an activity. The scale has 25 statements that respondents rate on a 7-point Likert scale the degree to which they agree or disagree with each statement. There are 5 sections of the measure that cover different components of enjoyment: pleasure, relatedness, competence, challenge/improvement, and engagement. higher scores = more enjoyment; scores range 1-7 per item., 1 time per week during the 4-week intervention period|VABS, Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale 2nd Edition; high scores mean better; Adaptive Behavior Composite standard score range: 20-160., 1 week pre- and post- 4-week waitlist control period and within 1 week pre- and post- 4-week treatment period|CAPE/PAC, Child Assessment of Participation and Enjoyment / Preference for Activities in Children; higher scores mean better; score range CAPE = 55-275 (1-5 per item), PAC = 55-165 (1-3 per item), 1 week pre- and post- 4-week waitlist control period and within 1 week pre- and post- 4-week treatment period