IRCCS Fondazione Stella Maris

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if a two month training with the Agilik powered orthosis improves the knee extension or the endurance in pediatric patients with Cerebral palsy and a crouch gait. It will also learn about the safety of Agilik. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Does the Agilik powered orthosis increase the value of the knee extension during walking? What medical problems do participants have when using the Agilik powered orthosis? Researchers will compare a group of patients using the Agilik powered exoskeleton with a group of patients treated with standard therapy.
Participants will:
Use Agilik at home or perform standard therapy for 2 months Visit the clinic at the beginning of the study, after 3 months and after 1 additional month.

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn if LEGO therapy can enhance social skills in children aged 10-14 diagnosed with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. The main questions it aims to answer are:
Does LEGO therapy improve social communication and interaction skills in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder? Do children show behavioral improvements in social skills after participating in LEGO therapy? Researchers will compare children receiving LEGO therapy to a control group (who will not receive LEGO therapy but continue their usual treatments) to see if LEGO therapy leads to greater improvements in social skills.
Participants will:
Complete behavioral tasks, including a LEGO construction test, at the beginning (T0) and after 3 months (T1).
Attend weekly LEGO therapy sessions for 90 minutes, over the course of 3 months (12 sessions).
Complete questionnaires about social behaviors, both parents and children, at T0 and T1.

Cerebral palsy (CP) is an umbrella term, covering a group of disorders of movement and posture. It is now accepted that CP represents much more than a disorder of movements considering the frequent association with a broad range of impairments, including cognitive impairments. In general, multiple clinical characteristics that define and determine different functional profiles. Several studies on children with unilateral and bilateral CP have been shown that, despite the overall preserved intellectual functioning, there are specific neuropsychological impairments distinguishing the two forms, including deficits in different Executive Functions (EF) components. Executive Functions (EFs) represent a complex cognitive domain consisting of a set of top-down functions essential for adaptive goal-directed behaviour, allowing to formulate, plan, and organise ideas, cope with challenges and novelties, resist temptations and stay focused. EF represents general domain abilities transversal to several cognitive processes and underling different daily life activities and school learning skills. Empowering EF becomes therefore crucial in children with CP both to strengthen specific functional EF weaknesses and to achieve far transfer effects on other compromised domains, such as motor planning, academic skills,and/or visuospatial processing. To pursue this, the EF training needs to be integrated into the complex and multidisciplinary care context promoting innovative intervention methodologies based on scientific evidence. Recent researches and clinical practice, carried out in our Institute, supports the effectiveness of innovative interventions on EF using new technologies in typical and atypical development, such as Self-adapting web based softwares, Game-based tools or Educational Robotics. Literature suggests these technologies allow to promote timely intervention within a user-friendly context, while respecting the key criteria of evidence-based neuropsychological rehabilitation, both reducing hospitalisation times and supporting interest and motivation for participation. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the applicability of technological intervention integrated with psychomotor activities to promote EF and then secondary to measure the effect on the functional profile of children with CP, including motor planning, visuo-spatial processing and learning skills, evaluating both short-term (T2) and long-term changes (T3).