Effects of Rhythmic Exercise Variability on Auditory Memory and Visual Attention of Adolescents with Diplegia Cerebral Palsy

Background: This study has been conducted aimed to investigate effects of rhythmic exercise variability on auditory memory and visual attention of adolescents with diplegia cerebral palsy. Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental intervention with an applied purpose, as a single-subject study with multiple baselines design across different subjects during a 1-month follow-up period. Three exceptional 14- to 16-year-old students of Taha Physical Motor Complex in Isfahan were purposefully selected according to the inclusion criteria. The research tools included Wechsler auditory memory and Toulouse-Pieron visual attention tests. The participants were trained in 16 sessions of 30 min of researcher-made rhythmic exercises in such a way that along with changes in rhythm speed, the speed of the exercises also changed. For data analysis, describing the scores of research variables before and after the intervention, increase in scores, Cohen variability, effect size and linear diagram of scores were used. Results: Evaluations showed that rhythmic exercise had a positive effect on improving auditory memory of all three subjects. Also, visual attention of the first subject had a large increase, visual attention of the second subject had a moderate to high increase, and visual attention of the third subject had a moderate increase. Conclusion: According to the results of the present study, it can be concluded that variable rhythmic exercise can be used to improve auditory memory and visual attention in adolescents with cerebral palsy.