Summary

Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. CP is the most common motor disability in childhood. Cerebral means having to do with the brain, and Palsy means weakness or problems with using the muscles.

McMaster researchers created a software that is an application version of the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM), a clinical tool designed to evaluate change in gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy.

The app incorporates the original 88-item measure (GMFM-88), the more recent 66-item measure (GMFM-66), and five Motor Growth Curves describing patterns of motor development found among a sample of 650 children in Ontario with cerebral palsy. The GMFM relies on statistical programming known as the Gross Motor Ability Estimator (GMAE) to convert individual item scores to an interval level total score; the most current GMAE scoring algorithm is embedded in the application.

The app can evaluate changes in gross motor function over time or with intervention in children with cerebral palsy. It can be helpful in both clinical and research settings. A single-user desktop version of the app is available for MacOS and Windows.

Contact

Taj Sarin
Business Development Officer