PRESENTATION TITLE:
Promoting participation in physical activities in children with cerebral palsy including outcome measurement

PRESENTATION DESCRIPTION:
Allied health professionals are increasingly aware of the need to implement participation-focused interventions for people disabilities. This means, interventions that are focused on participation outcomes (compared to activity or body function and structures according to the ICF Framework). In the last 5 years there has been significant research investment into testing the efficacy of participation-focused interventions in children with disabilities, leading to a number of clinical trials. Examples of named interventions include ParticiPAte CP, Pathways and Resources for Engagement and Participation (PREP), Physical Activity on Prescription (PAP), and the Jooay© mobile app. Many clinicians remain unaware of these approaches and may experience barriers in knowledge and skill to deliver them.

This presentation will provide information for podiatrists about how to promote physical activity participation in children with cerebral palsy with the most up-to-date evidence from world-leading research programs. This will include how impairments and activity limitations are addressed by participation-focused therapies, environment and context-level interventions, the science of physical activity behaviour change, and measuring participation and physical activity outcomes.

BIO:
Dr Sarah Reedman is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Queensland Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation Research Centre group within the UQ Child Health Research Centre. Dr Reedman is passionate about enabling participation of young people with disabilities in sports and active recreation. She is currently overseeing the NHMRC-funded multi-site randomized trial of Participate CP, a participation-focused therapy intervention to promote physical activity participation in children with cerebral palsy that she pioneered during her PhD. She is interested demonstrating how paediatric allied health professionals are well-placed to deliver effective physical activity promotion interventions in young people with disabilities.