Walking and physical activity monitoring in children with cerebral palsy

Interventions, surgery, and rehabilitation strategies for children with CP are often focused on enhancing walking and physical activity. Until recently, outcomes to capture the effectiveness of these interventions have been primarily measures of mobility that were collected within laboratory and clinical settings. Monitoring of walking and physical activity via accelerometry allows ecologically based measurement of treatment outcome. Advances in accelerometry technology, transfer of data, and processing software now allow the clinician and researcher the ability to quantify walking and physical activity within the context of daily life. This chapter (1) provides an overview of walking (WA) and physical activity (PA) measurement within the context of The International Classification of Functioning and Disability Framework, (2) describes current methodology for monitoring walking and physical activity in context of daily life, (3) summarizes walking activity (WA) and physical activity (PA) via activity monitors in cerebral palsy (CP), and (4) reviews proposed implications for clinical community monitoring of WA and PA in CP.