Household task participation of children and adolescents with cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and typical development

•Examined household task participation of youth with cerebral palsy (CP), Down syndrome (DS) and typical development (TD).•DS and CP groups were similar on task performance and assistance; CP group had a higher independence index.•Patterns of household participation show that children and adolescents with CP and DS are actively engaged in a number of daily self-care and family-care tasks.•All parents agreed on importance of household tasks participation. This cross-sectional study compared patterns of household task participation (e.g., performance, assistance and independence) of youth with cerebral palsy (CP), Down syndrome (DS) and typical development (TD). Parents of 75 children and adolescents were interviewed to report on their youths’ active engagement in daily self-care and family-care tasks, using the children helping out: responsibilities, expectations and supports (CHORES) questionnaire. Groups were equivalent in age (mean=9.3 years; SD=2.2 years), sex (male=39; female=36), respondent education, presence of maid, and number of siblings at home, but differed on child cognitive function and family socioeconomic status, with the DS and the CP groups scoring lower than the TD group but not different from each other. ANOVA revealed group differences on CHORES performance of self-care tasks (p=0.004), on total participation score (p=0.04) and on assistance scores (p