Statistical analyses
Categorical variables from the baseline demographic data and clinical characteristics were analysed by Fisher’s exact test. The other baseline functional outcomes, such as GMFM-66, GMPM, and BSID-II scores, between different groups were compared by the Kruskal‒Wallis test with post hoc analyses. To compare differences between the four groups, the Kruskal‒Wallis test was used for the outcome values at the 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month follow-ups. For all the functional outcome measures, changes in raw scores from two baselines (T0 and T15) were compared between the four groups at each follow-up time point (T18, T21, and T27). The changes in the outcome measures were also divided by their baseline values, expressed as a change ratio to adjust the baseline function as (