# National Pediatric Rehabilitation Resource Center: Techniques Development

> **NIH NIH P2C** · VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV · 2020 · $156,468

## Abstract

Project Summary (Techniques Development)
The National Pediatric Rehabilitation Resource Center (PedRehab Ctr) will engage in development of techniques
we consider highly promising, responsive to critical gaps in methods or technology in the field, and potentially
multi-purpose in their application. Specifically, the areas we propose to pursue have application for both research
and clinical practice. Pediatric rehabilitation research would benefit immensely from more sensitive, valid, and
reliable approaches to measuring the emergence of new skills and their use in everyday function. Many tools in
the new Common Data Elements (CDEs) for Cerebral Palsy were developed initially for typically developing
children; others apply to only limited age ranges but often are used “off label;” and some designated as
“exploratory” or “highly promising” lack confirmation (and likely further refinement) of their psychometric
properties. Another major problem in pediatric rehabilitation trials has been the failure to measure Fidelity of
Treatment (i.e., adherence to intended treatment protocols). Our PedRehab Ctr scientists have been active in
developing and validating novel assessment tools from sophisticated kinematics to parent report tools; creating
first ever Fidelity of Treatment tools for pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy and Bimanual treatment;
and exploring the incorporation of various neuroimaging approaches to document treatment-induced
neuroplasticity. Our specific aims for Techniques Development are:
 1. To obtain confirmatory documentation of assessment methods for function, skill, and behaviors that go
 across laboratory and real-world environments. This includes use of kinematics and video-, game-,
 robotic-, and wearable-devices to supplement traditional standardized tests and systematic methods for
 establishing clinically meaningful thresholds for gain and losses;
 2. To standardize modifications and summary scoring methods of currently used tools to allow for greater
 specificity and for use with children who vary widely in age, severity, and etiologies of neuromotor
impairments;
 3. To advance the development of Fidelity of Treatment measures to provide much-needed
 documentation of the actual delivery of rehabilitation interventions; and
 4. To explore novel neuroimaging strategies for use as individual biomarkers and as valid, reliable
 indicators of treatment-induced neuroplasticity.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9967656
- **Project number:** 1P2CHD101912-01
- **Recipient organization:** VIRGINIA POLYTECHNIC INST AND ST UNIV
- **Principal Investigator:** JILL C. HEATHCOCK
- **Activity code:** P2C (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $156,468
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9967656

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9967656, National Pediatric Rehabilitation Resource Center: Techniques Development (1P2CHD101912-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9967656. Licensed CC0.

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