title: Feasibility of caregiver-directed home-based hand-arm bimanual intensive training: a brief report.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine feasibility of a home-based, intensive bimanual intervention with children with unilateral spastic cerebral palsy.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eleven children (aged 29-54 months) received 90 hours of home hand-arm bimanual intensive therapy (H-HABIT) provided by their trained caregivers. Parenting stress levels and compliance were monitored using the Parenting Stress Index and daily logs. Quality of bimanual performance and changes in performance/satisfaction of functional goals were assessed using the Assisting Hand Assessment (AHA) and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), respectively, at two pretreatment baseline sessions and two posttreatment sessions (immediate and six months).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten children completed the study with caregivers completing on average 85.6 hours of H-HABIT. Daily logs indicated high caregiver compliance. Stress levels remained stable across the intervention. Children demonstrated significant improvements in the AHA and COPM.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  H-HABIT is a feasible intervention for improving hand function and merits further investigation in a randomized-control trial.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biobehavioral Sciences, Teachers College, Columbia University , New York, NY , USA .
authors.forename: Claudio L
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Ferre
authors.forename: Marina B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Brandão
authors.forename: Ya-Ching
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Hung
authors.forename: Jason B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Carmel
authors.forename: Andrew M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Gordon
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017028:Caregivers / Q000193:education / Q000523:psychology*; D002547:Cerebral Palsy / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D002648:Child; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D006225:Hand / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009048:Motor Skills; D026741:Physical Therapy Modalities
keywords: Bimanual training; family focused; hand rehabilitation; hemiplegia; home-based therapy; unilateral cerebral palsy; upper-limb function