Pediatric constraint-induced movement therapy: a promising intervention for childhood hemiparesis.

Experimental and clinical evidence is accumulating that supports the assertion that the damaged human brain is capable of responding to sensory stimulation in a sufficient manner to result in sustainable and useful benefits. The intensity and duration of therapeutic maneuvers that elicit improvement are under active investigation. Recent studies in animals, adults, and children with hemiparesis have shown that constraint of the less involved upper limb coupled with a behavioral program that repetitively encourages graded unilateral movements can result in long-term "new" functional activities.

Performance on measures of executive function following pediatric traumatic brain injury.

Objective: To investigate the relationships among age at injury, neuroanatomic lesion location, and measures of executive function (EF) following paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI).

Methods: EF was assessed in 68 children (aged 7-15) with moderate-to-severe TBI 1 year post-injury. EF tests included: (1) Tower of Hanoi (TOH), a measure of problem solving ability, (2) Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), a measure of categorization and ability to shift cognitive strategies, (3) Letter Fluency (LF), a measure of novel lexical search and rule-governed word generation.