Comparison of Patterns of Time Use between 7-12 Year-Old Children with Cerebral Palsy and Children with Typical Development

Pattern of time use refers to a branch of social science and science studies in occupational therapy and occupational science that focuses on "What was it?" and "Why do we use time?" Children's growth is the result of a set of their experiences. Study of how to use the time helps us to understand these children’s experiences. A balance among different areas of occupation is also very critical to support this growth and provides an opportunity to grow wider life skills for mental health, and physical well-being. It appears that children are at the risk of imbalance in their occupation within which they spend less time in activities associated with the movement. The aim of the present study was to investigate the activity patterns of children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) compared to those with typical development using a use-of-time approach.
A cross-sectional design study was carried out on 28 children with CP and 28 typically developed children who were matched for age, sex, and socio-economic status. Participants were interviewed using a time use diary. Independent t-test and analysis of variance were run to analyze the values obtained in SPSS22.
Statistically significant differences were observed in sleeping and playing as well as education and play areas on weekdays, leisure activities on holidays, and everyday life activities on both weekends and holidays (P 0.05). Children with CP were observed to spend more time on the activities of daily living and leisure; they also found to spend less time on play and sleep (P>0/05), yet there were no significant differences in other areas between the two groups.
By and large, the activity patterns of children with CP were observed to be similar to those of their Typically Developed peers. The results highlight the activities of daily living, in children with CP, which can an area for future interventions.