Early Intervention Physical Therapy
Amanda Reed
Hello, and thank you for your interest in my capstone project! Growing up with a mother who worked in special education I always knew I wanted to work with children. Once I started teaching dance classes and swim lessons to children with disabilities in high school I knew that physical therapy was my dream job. Prior to my last clinical rotation most of my experience was with children ages three and up, but after my rotation with the Children’s Developmental Services Agency (CDSA) in Boone, NC I realized how rewarding working with ages 0-3 can be. I absolutely loved getting to treat in the home environment, the family centered aspect of care, and helping patients reach their major motor milestones. I also realized that before my rotation with the CDSA I knew very little about early intervention. Because of this I decided to create on online education module on early intervention for my capstone project, with the hope that it will increase awareness and get other DPT students as excited about early intervention as I am!
For my project I created a voicethread presentation that will be integrated into the Motor Development (PHYT 701) curriculum in the spring of 2013. This course is taught by Kathleen Ollendick PT, DPT, OCS in the spring of the first year curriculum, and the module will follow a lecture given on physical therapy in the NICU.
Click on the link below to access the presentation ( log in to your UNC voicethread account to view):
http://voicethread.com/share/2968906/
PDF version of the presentation without added commentary:
Early Intervention Physical Therapy
After reviewing the presentation students will be required to complete a Quiz to test their knowledge of the information presented within the module. Quiz completion will be required to get participation credit for the course. Students will also be asked to fill out an Evaluation form following completion of the module in order to assess the effectiveness of the presentation, and provide feedback.
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In preparation for this project I completed previous coursework that was related to the topic. During my evidenced based practice course I created an Evidence Table and Research Paper based on the following PICO question: For treatment of children ages 0-3 with developmental delays in the early intervention program, is family-centered natural environment therapy more effective than traditional therapy in a clinical environment to help the child reach their motor development milestones? The evidence table is referenced during the presentation, and will be provided for reference to the students completing the online module.
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A special thank you to Karen McCulloch who was my project adviser, and Margo Haynes and Susan Hopson who were committee members.
I would also like to thank Sadye Paez Errickson, Katie Ollendick, and Debbie Thorpe for their help with the selection of the course this online module will be presented in. As well as Randah Whitley who helped with the case study.
8 Responses to “Early Intervention Physical Therapy”
Amanda Reed
Thank you all for viewing my capstone and your wonderful comments and feedback!! Kmac, thank you for pointing out the error in including Little Miss L’s first name on one of the video links (this has now been fixed). I do have the consent form from her parents as well which I will drop in your box. I also agree with you and Katie that the quiz could be altered to include questions related to the case study as well. Thank you Margo for your great feedback and the wonderful suggestion of adding a copy of an IFSP for the students to view, I think this is a great idea and will look into finding an IFSP form that can be attached.
Mandy, if you are interested in getting involved in early intervention the best advice I can give you is to find an early intervention therapist who you can shadow to act as your mentor. I was lucky enough to have two great CIs during my early intervention rotation who taught me so much….although I still have a lot more to learn! As far as specialized tests, I used the Bayley and the AIMS most frequently during my rotation. Take a look at my attached evidence table for reading ideas on early intervention; these articles will give you a good overview of EI and the research and concepts behind it. There is also a great article titled “Maximizing your role in Early Intervention” by Michelle Vanderhoff in the December 2004 edition of PT Magazine that I found very helpful.
Susan Russell
Amanda,
Nice job! I found your voice thread to be a great review before going into home health pediatrics! I really appreciated the family interview information that you provided after the case and will keep in mind some of the feedback that the mother gave. The case helped tie in how early intervention can help a child! Your project makes me think of how it could be connected with another project on transitioning into the school system and how IDEA changes for school aged children! Thanks for the great information!!!
Margo Prim Haynes
Hi Amanda,
What a nice job you did organizing and sharing the information on Early Intervention. The voice thread was most impressive and you were able to bring in some important information that all therapists beginning a career in Early Intervention should know. I liked the detail that you provided on the IFSP [slide 16] that was on the voice thread. This is important for therapist to know. It would be a good place to add an additional slide or perhaps attach a copy of an IFSP with some of the important areas that you talked about actually filled out for others to review. The case study was lovely with video clips showing the therapist and family members working together – important in early intervention. I also liked your family interview and your question that lead mother to share strategies for the therapist to emphasize (only 2 suggestions at one time) and reviewing the suggestions and recommendations at the end of the session. Simple comments but actually very important. So an excellent point to share in this module. Nice job and it is excellent that you will have an opportunity to share this information in the Motor Development Curriculum. It is exciting that you are interested in starting your career in pediatrics. So welcome aboard!
Margo
Brittany
Amanda,
Great job! After getting all the information together pulling the VoiceThread together and be an interesting process. I’m very glad to see that you got the videos to work, they are a fantastic way to demonstrate interventions as well as how cute the clients can be. I think this will be a great way to supplement a lecture on early intervention. You gave great details on the availability of early intervention as well as the process to become enrolled in a program. You did a fantastic job and I think this will be a valuable tool for PHYT 701.
Brittany
Mandy
Hey Amanda,
Being interested in pediatrics myself, I found your module very informative. I have only worked with older children in the school system and soon in outpatient, never the early intervention aspect. I feel like we did not have a lot of information about this type of physical therapy in our education even in our motor development class and pediatric lectures. Therefore I am glad that future classes will be able to enjoy and learn from your presentation. I think you did a very good job at covering a wide range of topics related to early intervention including state policies, how to contact local CDSAs, who qualifies for services (developmental delay and specific conditions), and what goes into IFSP forms (different sections) as well as the concepts of early intervention, supportive research, and an informative case study.
I found that I learned a lot about how the specific process of getting a child into and accessed by early intervention. I’m glad to see that multi-disciplinary teams are being used to address specific impairments in these young children to maximize functional potential. If I wanted to be really picky in order to give you some constructive feedback I realized that you covered only two of the three concepts of early intervention individually but not the third (looked more specifically at natural environments and family centered care). I was waiting to hear more about a multi-disciplinary team but nothing came.
I think one of the most powerful aspects of your presentation was the case study. I liked that you gave examples of activities worked on as well as videos showing intervention techniques. I think that this will engage the audience and get them thinking about other way in which to facilitate the child’s movement. I liked that you had the mom’s feedback as well including the ideas of one habit per week, 2 to 3 activities to work on, and having the parent demonstrate the activities.
So the only question that I have for you is what kind of advice would you give someone looking into entering early intervention. Are there particular scales or specialized tests that you used a lot, how is the best way to approach a treatment session, any specific reading you found particularly helpful?
Thanks and great job!
Mandy
Katie Ollendick
Amanda,
Nice job pulling on this together. It will be a pleasure to include this in PHYT 701 next year and will be a nice fit with the NICU information from Dr. Reilly. I agree with kmac’s comments above about the quiz, as you certainly want to keep everyone engaged all the way through the case study (which is great!). Thanks so much.
Karen McCulloch
Hi Amanda,
Your voicethread is GREAT – you’re a good narrator and have done a nice job of integrating video clips with your case example included. I did notice that the first clip looks to be named with little miss L’s first name, so you may want to resave that clip with a different title and relink to voicethread if you/family are concerned about complete confidentiality. I think the quiz could easily be built in Sakai as a little online quiz that is completed prior to the class (instead of readings?) If that route is taken, I would add some questions about the case study into the quiz. I think the questions on the quiz are pretty simple and possibly guessable without looking at the entire module, so make sure you don’t have people who drop out of module viewing when it seems about laws and regulation and then miss the case example that illustrates things so nicely. We should have a copy of the consent for the videotaping in our records, so make sure you provide us with that if you haven’t already.
Really really nice job and great initiative on your part to get it all pulled together.
I’m waiting on cmte feedback from your folks but think you did a super job!
kmac
Kyle Rascoe
Amanda,
This is so great! I love early intervention and I’m so glad you are shedding some light for other PT students! I gained my knowledge of early intervention in undergraduate and while on my pediatric clinical rotation, even though it was an outpatient clinic. Is this what you hope to practice when you are licensed?