Effectiveness of Kinesiotaping as an Adjunctive Therapy to Improve Dysgraphia in Children with Hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy

Background: Studies have reported that the upper limb in cerebral palsy features a functionless hand, exhibited as a flexed elbow with pronated forearm and flexed wrist and fingers with spasticity and weakness, thumb in adduction and loss of sensation and proprioception. An alternative approach without compromising the child's ability to move freely and without limiting the sensori motor experiences would be to use the kinesiotape, which allows free movement and encourages a relaxation of soft tissue with improvement in lymphatic flow, thereby reducing pain and swelling. The elastic properties of the kinesiotape provides support and helps to reduce muscle fatigue. This study was a preliminary attempt to assess the effectiveness of Kinesiotaping as an adjunctive therapy to improve dysgraphia in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. The results of our study showed a strongly significant difference of p value for the word component, letter component and the numeral component between the scores of the children, who received Kinesiotaping as an adjunctive therapy and the children who did not receive Kinesiotaping and indicate that the children who received Kinesiotaping as an adjunctive therapy wrote more legibly at the end of two weeks.