Principal Investigator: Andrew Gordon, Ph.D.

Supervising Institution:  Columbia University

Study Term:   Three Years

Grant Award:  $160,000

Location:  New York, New York

Dr. Andrew Gordon, Ph.D.,  is a Professor of Movement Science and Neuroscience & Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is the Project Director of the Center For Cerebral Palsy Research In Hand Motor Control at the university, and has been intimately involved in studies of hand motor control in healthy individuals and cerebral palsy since 1990.   Dr. Gordon has authored more than 90 publications to date. He has focused the knowledge gained from these studies into modifying and testing constraint induced use therapy for use in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy since 1998, and has been the Principal Investigator on a CI therapy trial funded by the National Institutes of Health.

Hand/Arm Bimanual Intensive Training (HABIT) is a new therapy developed at Columbia University.  Its primary aim is to improve the use and coordination of both arms in daily living.  Unlike constraint-induced movement therapy, which focuses on only the use of the hemiparetic arm and hand, HABIT focuses on improving the ability to perform bimanual activities.

This study,  which will commence summer of 2013, will include ten children post-hemispherectomy who will receive 90 hours of Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Training (HABIT).  Children will undergo clinical hand testing three months before and immediately before attending a camp, and then immediately and three months after camp.  The study will also include neuro-imaging.

STATUS:  Completed. Protocol #11-204CR2.