Effectiveness of Family-Professional Collaboration on Functional Goals Achievement of Children With Cerebral Palsy and Caregivers' Quality of Life and Burden

Effectiveness of Family-Professional Collaboration on Functional Goals Achievement of Children With Cerebral Palsy and Caregivers' Quality of Life and Burden: A Randomized Control Trial

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of implanting the family-professional collaboration practice model on the functional goals achievement of children with CP and their caregivers' quality of life and burden. The children will be treated by physical therapists who will be assigned to two groups (control and experimental).

A randomized, single-blinded control study involved 28 physical therapists and 44 pairs of children with CP aged 2-12 years old and their caregivers will be assigned randomly into experimental and control groups. Physical therapists in the experimental group will receive two instructional sessions (3 hours each) to implement collaboration during the therapy sessions and physical therapists in the control group will receive no instructions. Children will receive 45- 60 minutes therapy sessions (5 sessions/week) for six weeks. Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) to measure the children's goals achievement change rate, the Arabic version of the World Health Organization Quality of Life Brief (WHOQOL- Brief) to examine the caregivers' quality of life, and the Zarit Burden Interview Arabic Abridged version (ZBI-A) to evaluate the caregivers' burden will be used.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Physical therapists with at least one year of experience in pediatric physical therapy.
• Children with CP, aged between 2 to 12 years, Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) level I, II, and III, and attended the physical therapy sessions accompanied by their caregivers.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Physical therapists in the experimental group who rate their level of confidence to implement the collaborative strategies less than 4 out of 5.
• children who underwent recent surgery (6 months) or after Botulinum toxin injection treatment (3 months), had uncontrolled seizure disorder, or discontinued physical therapy sessions.