CIT -- also known as CI Therapy or CIMT (Constraint Induced Movement Therapy) -- is a therapy designed to vastly improve the function of the weaker arm and hand. A removable cast is placed on a hemiplegic child's dominant side that covers their arm, wrist, and hand, effectively restricting the use of that side and forcing the use of their weaker arm and hand to accomplish tasks.

The CIT cast is removable, and should be worn by the child for up to six hours per day for up to a month at a time. During those six hours, the child should be involved in activities that force him or her to use their affected arm. Numerous studies have shown that CIT drastically improves the use of their affected arm for the rest of their life.

The CIT casting should be done once every six months if possible, leaving the five months in between casting for the child to practice using both arms together.

Children's brains have the amazing ability to "rewire" neurological pathways to accomplish tasks. This fact is why it is so critical for HemiChildren to receive proper OT and PT therapies, including CIT, as soon after birth as possible. Therapy missed during these early years cannot be replaced later in life.

CI Therapy was developed by Dr. Edward Taub at the University of Alabama Birmingham (UAB). Dr. Taub first tested constraint therapy on monkeys after observing that the primates ignored the affected limb through "learned non-use." He found that by constraining the stronger limb, the monkeys were forced to use their affected limb, resulting in increased capacity and willingness to use the affected limb.

Dr. Taub's CI Therapy (now widely termed CIT or CIMT) was groundbreaking, and is increasingly practiced with stroke patients, pediatric and adult, around the world. According to Dr. Taub's profile on the UAB website, "His body of CI therapy research was named by the Society for Neuroscience as one of the top 10 Translational Neuroscience Accomplishments of the 20th century (2003) and one of the 10 'most exciting lines of neuroscience' being carried out (2005)." You can read more about his CIT research on the UAB website.

1. Treatment of Congenital Hemiparesis With Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy, by Edward Taub, PhD, Angi Griffin, MA, OTR/L, Gitendra Uswatte, PhD, Kristin Gammons, MS, OTR/L, Jennifer Nick, MS, OTR/L, and Charles R. Law, MD.
2. Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy in a Young Child With Minimal Active Arm Movement, by Anne E. Dickerson and LeeAnn Eagle Brown.
3. Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT): Pediatric Applications, by Kathleen Brady and Teressa Garcia, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD.
4. Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy for a Young Child With Cerebral Palsy: Two Episodes of Care, by Stephanie C DeLuca, Karen Echols, Sharon Landesman Ramey, and Edward Taub.
5. Efficacy of constraint-induced movement therapy for children with cerebral palsy with asymmetric motor impairment., by Taub, E; Ramey, SL; DeLuca, S; and Echols, K.
6. Multicenter Randomized Controlled Trial of Pediatric Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy: 6-Month Follow-Up, by Jane Case-Smith, Stephanie C. DeLuca, Richard Stevenson, and Sharon Landesman Ramey.

These are but a few of the more than 700 papers that have been published about the positive effects of Constraint Induced Therapy¹.

1. UAB - Department of Psychology - Dr. Edward Taub profile.