Featured Expert:
Johns Hopkins and Kennedy Krieger Institute pediatric neurologist Laura Malone recaps a study she led with a multidisciplinary team of clinicians at Kennedy Krieger and Johns Hopkins that was designed to understand what types of limitations exist in motor impairment tracking assessment tools that are used for children who have had stroke. Because children are continuing to develop skills, it can be hard to track motor impairment over the course of age, and Malone’s team wanted to address this issue. The researchers began by surveying clinicians across the United States and asking about the tools they used and limitations they encountered. Based on what was learned, the researchers developed a novel pediatric stroke hemiplegic motor impairment measure to address some of the limitations that exist in the community. The measure is observation-based and can be used via telehealth, it takes five to six minutes to complete and it is reliable for use across disciplines. Results also correlated well with existing measures.