A Kinesio Tape ® Protocol to Improve Postural Stability and Mouth Closure for Feeding and Eating in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Kinesio tape ® (KT) has been used in the rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy (CP) due to its ability to increase sensory input, normalize muscle tone, improve postural stability, and improve range of motion (ROM). KT can be applied and left on the skin for multiple days, allowing the tape to simulate the effects of manual therapy techniques outside of the outpatient setting. However, its use within occupational therapy (OT) to address the occupations of feeding and eating is limited, despite it being an effective treatment method when used in conjunction with traditional OT. Gaps in research limit occupational therapists\u27 utilization of KT to promote postural stability and mouth closure for feeding and eating in children with CP.Therefore, this doctoral capstone aimed to address gaps in the literature, to promote occupational therapists\u27 knowledge of and utilization of KT to support feeding and eating in children with CP, and to improve carryover from the outpatient pediatric therapy setting to the child’s home and community settings. The KT protocol focused on providing guidelines to apply tape to the lower trapezius and pectoralis major muscles to promote postural stability, and the orbicularis oris muscle to promote mouth closure and swallowing. Although there were no statistically significant differences in parent/caregiver knowledge of, and confidence in applying and removing KT positive increases in mean pre-and post-parent/caregiver education scores may indicate that statistically significant changes may have been observed in a larger sample