ACQUIRE therapy and CASK

ACQUIRE Therapy is a home-based intensive rehabilitation method delivered by trained therapists. It targets motor development, communication skills, and motor-cognitive pairing — the ability to connect physical movements with thought processes.

The study examined 20 girls with CASK mutations aged 1–10 years. Participants received approximately 64 hours of therapy over four weeks, with therapists focusing on trunk control, communication, attention and action-thought pairing.

Findings: All the children showed progress in understanding and responding to communication. Motor improvements included better trunk control, reaching (21%), fine motor skills (19%), head control (15%) and mobility (12%). Children successfully paired physical actions with mental processes, such as grasping objects on command. Younger children showed greater responsiveness to therapy, particularly in motor skill development.

ACQUIRE Therapy can meaningfully improve quality of life for children with CASK-related disabilities. Researchers identified needs for standardised progress measurement tools and continued investigation into long-term outcomes and alternative therapeutic approaches.