Igniting Mobility in Adolescents and Young Adults With Cerebral Palsy

The therapeutic gait training protocol will consist of 24-treatment sessions that will be performed 3 times-a-week for an 8-week period. All therapeutic exercises will be performed under the direction of a licensed pediatric physical therapist. Any sessions missed will be added on to the 8-week period. Each intervention session will consist of over-ground gait activities that will be completed in a 60 minute session with rests as needed. The key ingredients of the therapy will include: 1) activities of adequate intensity that promote gait adaptation and gait speed sustainment, 2) exploratory activities that enhance the somatosensory experience through rich/novel movement, and 3) optimally challenging activities that emphasize planning and problem solving that requires altering the leg kinematics to meet the environmental and task constraints.