Collaborative Developmental Monitoring: Part 2

Overview

Part 2 of this online course focuses on applying the overall results of the Move & PLAY and On Track Studies. You can find Part 1 of this course here.

In this online pediatric course, participants will be introduced to a case study to illustrate how the scores on measures previously described can be used to understand individual children’s prognoses, relative strengths and limitations, and interpretation of change over time.

Probing questions will be used to explore how this detailed information, along with the results of the model testing of the Move & PLAY study, as well as family priorities, can shape intervention planning.

One weakness of the Move & PLAY study is that it was limited to children 18 months to 5 years of age. The On Track Study included children 18 months to 12 years of age.

The major barrier to implementing these results into practice is the therapists’ need for TIME to learn how to administer, interpret, and use these research outputs. We have purposefully worked hard to ensure that each therapist- and parent-administered measures can be completed in a timely manner, once learned.

Relevance to physiotherapy practice

Children with cerebral palsy are heterogeneous and complex. This precludes the exclusive use of evidence from randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to inform clinical decisions about services for individual children. We propose an evidence-based approach to complement RCTs using results from the Move & PLAY and On Track studies.

We advocate for a thorough comprehensive annual assessment of children with cerebral palsy, along with the interpretation of scores over time, to contribute to intervention planning in collaboration with children and families as a means to contribute to more effective and efficient rehabilitation care.

Audience

This course is appropriate for physical therapists working with children with cerebral palsy and their families who finished part 1 of this course. It is also appropriate for practitioners who have served as assessors in either or both of the Move & PLAY and/or On Track studies.

Learning objectives

Upon completion of these two online courses, participants will be able to:

1. Administer, score, and interpret (both at one point in time and over the course of a year) the comprehensive toolbox of measures developed in the Move & PLAY study.
2. Differentiate children who are progressing ‘as expected’ versus ‘more than expected’ or ‘less than expected’ (based on outputs of the On Track Study).
3. Create service plans collaboratively with children and families based on a comprehensive understanding of individual children’s prognoses, strengths, limitations, and progress over time, in the context of results of the Move & PLAY study (i.e. relationships between determinants and outcomes important to children and families).

Bonus Sections

There are two bonus lectures included in this course:

• Alberta Infant Motor Scale: A Clinical Refresher and Update on Re-Evaluation of Normative Data with Doreen Bartlett.
• Intensive Care Unit Acquired Weakness: Pathogenesis, presentation and the role of Physiotherapy in the ICU and beyond with Annie Newman.

Presenter

Doreen Bartlett, MSc, PhD, graduated from Queen’s University with her entry-to-practice physical therapy degree in 1979. After 10 years of clinical pediatric physical therapy practice in Newfoundland, Ontario and British Columbia, she embarked on graduate training and completed her MSc in Physical Therapy and Ph.D. in Rehabilitation Sciences with Martha Piper at the University of Alberta in 1992 and 1997, respectively.

Since completing post-doctoral training in Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western in 1998 she has been a faculty member in the School of Physical Therapy. She is currently a Professor Emerita of the School of Physical Therapy at Western and Scientist Emerita with CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University. Most of her research program over the past 20 years has focused on understanding the development and function of children with cerebral palsy.

This course is brought to you by the Paediatric Division of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.