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New research to improve cerebral palsy assessments.

A photo of a tablet computer and physical notepad showing research notes.
Emma Myers

Apr 1, 2025

Children with cerebral palsy are set to benefit from new muscle-specific growth charts developed by researchers.

Growth charts are an important mechanism when it comes to assessing a child’s overall health and development over a period of time.

Dr Bart Bolsterlee, Senior Research Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia and UNSW Engineering, explains the reference curves help track children’s physical development and identify deviations from ‘normal’ growth.

Children with cerebral palsy have functional abilities that vary widely, but severe musculoskeletal problems are common.

Dr Bolsterlee

The Cerebral Palsy Alliance, a leading advocacy and research group, defines cerebral palsy as a broad group of movement disorders that affect movement and posture due to damage to the developing brain and suggest there are approximately 34,000 people living with cerebral palsy in Australia.

While it is a life-long physical disability, the way it presents can change over time. Symptoms often show up in the first years of a child’s life.

The Royal Children’s Hospital Melbourne states that altered growth can be an indicator of underlying health, development or social issues.

While past growth charts have measured the height and weight of a child, researchers have now developed new tools to improve understanding of muscle growth, which could assist in the assessment and treatment of cerebral palsy.

The muscle-specific reference curves may help identify muscle growth impairments in individual children with cerebral palsy, and in children with other conditions that impair muscle growth.

Dr Bolsterlee

The Research Scientist suggests further research is required, but he is hopeful more models can be developed to identify promising treatments for individual children.

“Getting this information more easily, may make it easier for individuals to get more targeted and tailored therapies and support.”