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Child-Caregiver Interactions During a Collaborative Motor Task in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Descriptive Exploratory Study

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Abstract

Caregiver support is an important contextual factor in the daily functioning of children with cerebral palsy (CP), but few studies have examined child-caregiver interactions during collaborative motor tasks to identify characteristics of effective support that should be promoted in clinical interventions. The aims of this exploratory study were to (1) describe the interaction dynamics of children with CP and typically developing (TD) children with their respective caregivers during a collaborative motor task and (2) develop clinically relevant hypotheses regarding features of child-caregiver interactions that relate to effective caregiver support. Twelve child-caregiver dyads (6 including children with CP, 6 including TD children) participated. Each dyad attempted to construct the tallest tower structure in 10 min using marshmallows and raw spaghetti. Time-series of upper extremity positions were obtained through motion capture and used to examine child-caregiver movement coordination. Videos were coded for language structure and number of building materials used. Five TD dyads and one CP dyad successfully constructed a free-standing tower. During periods of increased tower breakage, TD dyads demonstrated increased movement coordination compared to CP dyads. Unsuccessful dyads (most of whom were CP dyads) demonstrated interaction dynamics characterized by the child leading in movement during periods of increased tower breakage. Overall, in TD dyads, caregivers used more interrogatives than imperatives, and children used more imperatives than interrogatives. This pattern was reversed for CP dyads. From these results we identified future hypotheses about aspects of interactions that may facilitate collaborative motor performance (and thus caregiver support) between children with CP and their caregivers.

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Data Availability

Conversation coding manual, conversation code, and movement coordination code available on the Open Science Framework (OSF): https://osf.io/stc83/

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank Isabella Cipollone (UConn) and Sean Roach (UConn) for their contributions to video transcription. We would also like to thank the participants of this study.

Funding

This work was funded in part by an Ohio Physical Therapy Association Research Grant and Foundation for Physical Therapy Research Promotion of Doctoral Studies (PODS) Level I and Level II Awards supported by the American Physical Therapy Association Scholarship Fund and the Rhomberger Fund (SMS). This material was also based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. (2035701) (NSC). Any opinion, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation. The funding sources had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, or manuscript preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Cognition, Action, & Perception, Department of Psychology, Edwards Center 1, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0376, USA

    Sarah M. Schwab, Nicole S. Carver, Tehran J. Davis, Michael A. Riley & Paula L. Silva

  2. College of Medicine, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA

    Maia H. Forman

  3. Developmental Dynamics Lab, Department of Psychology, University of Georgia, Athens, GA, USA

    Drew H. Abney

  4. Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Alexandra Paxton

  5. Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA

    Alexandra Paxton

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  1. Sarah M. Schwab
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  2. Nicole S. Carver
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  3. Maia H. Forman
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  4. Drew H. Abney
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  7. Alexandra Paxton
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  8. Paula L. Silva
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Contributions

Sarah M. Schwab: Conceptualization; Data curation; Formal analysis; Funding acquisition; Investigation; Methodology; Software; Visualization; Writing—original draft; Writing—review & editing. Nicole S. Carver: Data Curation; Formal analysis; Software; Writing—original draft; Writing—review & editing. Maia H. Forman: Formal analysis; Writing—review & editing. Drew H. Abney: Conceptualization; Methodology; Software; Writing—review & editing. Tehran J. Davis: Software; Writing—review & editing. Michael A. Riley: Conceptualization; Supervision; Writing—review & editing. Alexandra Paxton: Conceptualization; Methodology; Writing—review & editing. Paula L. Silva: Conceptualization; Methodology; Supervision; Writing—original draft; Writing—review & editing.

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Correspondence to Sarah M. Schwab.

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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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All participants > 18 years provided informed consent. Participants < 18 years provided informed assent, and their parents provided informed consent.

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Schwab, S.M., Carver, N.S., Forman, M.H. et al. Child-Caregiver Interactions During a Collaborative Motor Task in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Descriptive Exploratory Study. J Dev Phys Disabil 34, 255–277 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-021-09798-6

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