Study Team

Cynthia Dodds (PI), Diane Gallaher, Executive Director of HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy (CI), Marianna Gellert-Jones, MUSC (CI), Carolyn Jenkins, MUSC (Mentor)

What we wanted to learn and why it matters

The number of children with severe brain damage and complex disabilities is increasing. Having appropriate tools to identify and measure the subtle abilities and behaviors of children with severe brain damage is important for improving patient care, education and quality of life. Nonetheless, there are few measurement tools to assess cognitive awareness and sensory motor capabilities of children with severe brain damage. To address this need, our academic-community partnership, comprised of researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina and community stakeholders at HMS School, improved and validated the Pediatric Awareness and Sensory Motor Assessment and translated it into clinical use. In addition, the Pediatric Awareness and Sensory Motor Assessment is being validated against heart rate variability, which may serve as a non-invasion physiological marker to sensory stimulation in children with severe brain injury and complex disabilities. Collective information gathered from the Pediatric Awareness and Sensory Motor Assessment and heart rate variability values may improve examination and treatment of children with severe brain injury and complex disabilities.

What we did and learned

To date, children with severe brain injury and complex disabilities who obtain high scores on the Pediatric Awareness and Sensory Motor Assessment may be in inappropriate learning settings.
Analyses to identify physiological response to sensory domains within the Pediatric Awareness and Sensory Motor Assessment continue to be analyzed.
We hope to: 1) descript the heart rate variability in children with severe brain damage and complex disabilities, 2) identify sensory response that are sympathetic and parasympathetic in nature for children with severe brain damage and complex disabilities, and 3) refine the Pediatric Awareness and Sensory Motor Assessment