Effects of positive and negative normative feedback on the learning of throwing task in children with spastic hemiplegic cerebral palsy

Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of positive normative feedback on the learning of a throwing task in children with spastic hemiplegic cerebral pals.

Methods: Twenty-four children with cerebral palsy aged 8-10 years participated in an experimental design with acquisition-retention test. The children received positive or negative normative feedback after each practice of learning of throwing task. The positive feedback group received feedback after each block 20% higher than the average score of each block, whereas the negative feedback group received feedback 20% lower than the average score after each block. The control group received normal feedback. A retention test without any feedback was run 48 hours after the practice phase. Statistical tests including one-way analysis of variance and follow-up tests were used to analyze the data.

Results: The results showed both in the acquisition stage (p = .001) and retention test (p = .001), the positive normative feedback group had better performance compared to the two other groups.

Conclusions: The results demonstrated that positive normative feedback has a significant motivational effect that enhances the learning of a throwing task in children with cerebral palsy.