Effect of rhythmic auditory stimulation on cadence and gait speed in spastic cerebral palsy

Abstract

The purpose of this research was to assess whether any improvement is seen in Cadence and Gait speed by giving Gait training with Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) along with general mobility strengthening exercises in spastic cerebral palsy (CP). It is seen that spastic CP have impaired internal cueing, co-contraction of agonist with antagonist instead of normal reciprocal relaxation persists, the chain of muscles used for movements have abnormal firing & abnormal gait pattern with affected gait parameters such as reduced cadence and gait speed, reduced step and stride length, and RAS has an effect on improving the internal cueing which may in turn help improve the affected gait parameters. In this study 31 subjects were selected all of them were given conventional physiotherapy exercises & gait training for 20 minutes individually; 16 were given gait training with RAS(experimental) & 15 were given conventional gait training without RAS(conventional). It was seen that the experimental group had a much more efficient and significant improvement in cadence & gait speed as compared to the conventional group, suggestive of RAS providing an efficient added effect over conventional physiotherapy exercises in spastic CP.