Evidence-based physical therapy for the management of children with cerebral palsy.

evidence base. Whilst the ICF model can provide a framework for clinical reasoning, i.e. it can help the therapist to decide ‘what’ to do, it cannot tell the therapist ‘how’ to do it in order to provide the most appropriate intervention in the light of emerging evidence. How can therapists translate the results from experimental trials into clinical practice to provide effective evidence-based intervention? Therapists can acquaint themselves with current literature and emerging ideas. But they also need a way to gain practical skills in applying these new – and probably some not so new – methods of intervention, such as muscle strengthening and task-specific training. It seems a worldwide problem that few possibilities exist for therapists to acquire clinical skills other than ‘on the job’, to attend neurodevelopmental (NDT/Bobath) or other ‘named-approach’ courses, or to participate in the limited variety of short course options. It is hoped that the increasing availability of specialist post-graduate degrees and short courses will gradually ensure that all paediatric physical therapists are given the appropriate clinical skills to put research findings into practice. Higher degree programmes already give therapists the opportunity to participate in ongoing research and to design and implement their own research projects. Such research will expand the therapeutic evidence base and can motivate therapists to participate in further research. It may take some time, but there is a growing confidence that sound, evidence-based physical therapy can, and so will, become a reality.