Socio-Emotional Development in Young Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Scoping Review.
Julie Enkebølle Hansen, Laura Lærkegård Støve, Mette Skovgaard Væver and 1 others
PMID 40605235WHAT IT FOUND
Socio-emotional difficulties are common in young children with cerebral palsy.
Severity of motor disability, communication delays and parenting difficulties were consistently linked to poorer outcomes. Most evidence relies on parent reports and cross-sectional designs, limiting causal conclusions.
Key findings
01Socio-emotional difficulties are commonly reported in young children with CP, with prevalence estimates ranging from 14% to 65% across studies.
02Severity of motor disability, language/communicative impairments and parenting difficulties are consistently found to be significant risk factors for nonoptimal socio-emotional development.
03The evidence base is dominated by cross-sectional designs and parent-reported questionnaires, with very few studies using observational methods or including infants.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The evidence is largely cross-sectional, so it cannot determine whether motor or communication difficulties cause socio-emotional problems or if they co-occur due to other factors. Most data comes from parent reports, which may be biased by parental stress or distress, and only four studies used observational methods. Prevalence estimates varied widely (14%–65%) due to inconsistent use of measurement tools and cut-off scores. No studies focused exclusively on infants, and very few included children under 1 year, limiting knowledge about early attachment and pre-verbal socio-emotional development. The majority of included studies were from Western high-income countries, restricting generalizability to other cultural contexts.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the identified risk factors as causal. The predominance of cross-sectional designs and parent-reported measures means the association between motor severity, communication delays and socio-emotional difficulties may reflect shared underlying impairments or reporting bias rather than a direct effect.