Measurement of Spasticity:

Clinicians in the field of developmental disabilities are frequently called on to measure spasticity for the purpose of describing a child, prognosticating outcome, or evaluating change over time or after treatment. Many methods of measuring spasticity have been described. We have proposed a framework to guide clinicians in the selection. We have proposed a framework to guide clinicians in the selection of the most suitable measures, and illustrate these guides with a review of several approaches suggested in the literature. The guides include consideration of clinical utility, instrument development, standardization procedures, reliability, validity and responsiveness. The difficulties of establishing the validity of measures of spasticity in view of the lack of a widely accepted criterion measure are discussed.