|
Abstract:
Objective:
Can osteopathic treatment reduce the symptoms of language associated perception disorders, diagnosed in young school children at the beginning of first grade.
Design:
A non-randomized, controlled clinical study in “waiting-list design” with a 9 week period of no treatment followed by 5 osteopathic treatments.
Setting:
The study was lead by two-trained osteopaths in their private practices.
Patients:
152 school children (male and female) in first grade of school at the age of 6 and 7 years, selected from 3 different schools in Lower Saxony, were tested for language associated perception disorders with the means of Discrimination-Test 1 (DP 1, developed by Breuer-Weuffen). According to the test results 30 children needed to be supported and were accepted with it into this study. The group of children consists of 10 girls and 20 boys at the average age of 6, 8 years.
Intervention:
A waiting period of 9 weeks with no treatment was followed by 5 osteopathic treatments, at the distance of two weeks. Three weeks after the last treatment the children were tested again for their language perception skills. The osteopathic diagnosis was done without a fixed scheme after the “black-box-principle”. The individual osteopathic dysfunctions were treated according to the osteopathic principles in the cranial, visceral and parietal system.
Main outcome parameter:
Degree of the language associated perception disorder tested through Discrimination Test 1 (DP1).
Results:
Through osteopathic treatment the language associated perception disorders improved by an average of 46 to 94 percent of the DP 1 (improvement of 51 %, p < 0,001), while compared to the waiting period they aggravated by 13 percent. The direct comparison of waiting period and treatment period shows a favorable statistical significance (p < 0,001) on behalf of the osteopathic treatments.
Conclusions:
It seems possible to decrease diagnosed language associated perception disorders of children in first grade with osteopathic treatments, tested at the beginning of school. Further studies should prove if there is also along-term effect and if it is possible to make generalization for different age steps.
|