Morgan C, Darrah J, Gordon AM, Harbourne R, Spittle A, Johnson R, Fetters L. Effectiveness of motor interventions in infants with cerebral palsy: a systematic review. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2016 Sep;58(9):900-9.

Finch-Edmondson, M., Morgan, C., Hunt, R. W., & Novak, I. (2019). Emergent Prophylactic, Reparative and Restorative Brain Interventions for Infants Born Preterm With Cerebral Palsy. Frontiers in physiology, 10, 15. doi:10.3389/fphys.2019.00015

Principles of Experience Dependent Neuroplasticity

Kleim and Jones describe activity-dependent neuroplasticity principles that should be applied to rehabilitation programs in humans with brain damage, stressing the importance of active engagement of neural circuits to avoid degradation and enhance function (Kleim and Jones, 2008). Although primarily focused on adult and animal studies these principles (task specificity, repetition, salience, timing, and intensity) also apply to infants with brain damage who need to learn for the first time, rather than re-learn, how to move, think, and communicate. Thus the principles of neuroplasticity along with environmental enrichment strategies should be applied in infant early intervention, with reference to the child's context—most importantly the parent-child relationship. Attachment to a primary caregiver is paramount for early brain development as studies of institutionalized children attest (Fox et al., 2011). Early intervention programs for infants with brain injuries should support not only the parent (Benzies et al., 2013), who are at higher risk of poor mental health (Whittingham et al., 2014) but also provide support to the child-parent relationship in order to maximize outcomes.

Das, S. P., & Ganesh, G. S. (2019). Evidence-based Approach to Physical Therapy in Cerebral Palsy. Indian journal of orthopaedics, 53(1), 20–34. doi:10.4103/ortho.IJOrtho_241_17

Thirty-four systematic reviews were identified that distinguished 15 different interventions. Moderate evidence of effectiveness was found for constraint-induced movement therapy for upper limb recovery, goal-directed/functional training, and gait training to improve gait speed. Conflicting evidence was found for the role of exercises on strength training and cardiorespiratory training. Intervention such as neurodevelopmental therapy (NDT) was found ineffective.