Freya is a 6-year-old girl with ataxic cerebral palsy. She moved to California from Iowa last month and has been prescribed six months of physical therapy. Freya’s parents are concerned; she has been having difficulty going down the front stairs of their new home. As her physical therapist, do you have a standardized test that will measure her initial gross motor function? In six months, how will you determine whether Freya has made progress?
GMFM-66 Quick Facts:
- 5mo-16 years
- Cerebral palsy or Down Syndrome
- Test re-test reliability GMAE-scoring method: 0.9932
- Most sensitive to change in children 5 years and younger
- Motor growth curves link
My Gross Motor Function Measure User’s Manual is tattered. I could not work without the GMFM! Like all things that are well designed, the creators have taken a complex concept and made it logical and simple. The GMFM is an evaluative measure that assesses change in motor function over time. I can test Freya in January, provide PT 1x/week and then retest in July to determine if she has made significant progress. In addition, I won’t overlook Freya’s inability to reach across midline while I am heavily focused on her stair skills; the test covers all domains from lying and rolling up to running and jumping, with each skill being incrementally harder than the last (in the GMFM-66). Continue reading “How to Use the Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-66)”
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