ABSTRACT:
Today’s children are tomorrow’s future. Cerebral palsy is the third most common major developmental disability. The diagnosis of cerebral palsy was not made in almost one third of cases till they were above two years of age. This indicates that majority of children with cerebral palsy are either referred late or parents try out other options before taking the child for treatment. Cerebral palsy can be prevented from occurring in the next child if the mother takes regular antenatal care and delivers in hospital Objectives 1. To assess the pretest knowledge regarding home care management of children with cerebral palsy among mothers 2. To assess the post test knowledge regarding home care management of children with cerebral palsy among mothers 3. To assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding home care management of children with cerebral palsy among mothers. 4. To associate the pre test knowledge regarding home care management of children with cerebral palsy among mothers with their selected demographic variables. Methodology: Quasi experimental one group pretest post test research design was adopted for the present study. The Structured Knowledge Questionnaire was developed to collect the data. The study was conducted at Aruna Chetana School for Children with Special Needs in Bangalore among 60 mothers of cerebral palsy children who were selected by using non probability convenience sampling technique and the data collected was analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Major findings and results ? The findings reveals that, in the post test majority of them 57(95%) had adequate knowledge and 3(5%) had moderate knowledge regarding home care management of children with cerebral palsy among mothers. ? The findings depicts that, the enhancement between pre test and post test was 50.4 and obtained paired‘t’ test value 35.2, it was highly significant at 5% level p< 0.05. This showed the effectiveness of structured teaching programme. Hence, research hypothesis (H1) was accepted. ? The association of demographic variables with pretest level of knowledge by using chi-square test revealed that there was statistically significant association with education status of mother at p < 0.05. Hence the research hypothesis (H2) was accepted. Conclusion: The present study attempted to assess the effectiveness of structured teaching programme on knowledge regarding home care management of children with cerebral palsy among mothers found that the teaching programme was effective in improving the knowledge of mothers regarding home care management of children with cerebral palsy.