Pediatric Standardized Assessments – An Introduction for PT Students

Pediatric Standardized Assessments – An Introduction for PT Students

By: Ben Carrion, SPT

Background:

My passion for working with kids began sixteen years ago when I first became an uncle to my newborn niece. Over the course of my Doctorate of Physical Therapy education, I have fostered this interest by participating in an outpatient pediatric clinical experience, volunteering at the Helping Kids with Hemiplegia summer camp and becoming a teaching assistant for the motor development course.

One significant aspect of pediatric physical therapy involves performing standardized assessments on children. We were all introduced to these assessments in the motor development course, but during my rotation I was unable to recall all of the specifics of these assessments. I recognized the need for online educational resources for the pediatric student to feel better prepared while in the clinic. During my clinical recap with Dr. Dana McCarty, she suggested that I partner with her to develop online resources that can be used in the first year physical therapy curriculum content. This curriculum content would then be available to students while they transition into the clinic and into their career. It is my hope that this capstone project will provide clarification when utilizing the Alberta Infant Motor Scale.

Purpose:

The purpose of this project is to provide first year physical therapy students with an online educational resource describing the proper application of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale. The narrated module will be available for the students while they take the motor development course, and will remain available when they later transition into the clinic. The module will also be a prerequisite prior to the baby lab that first year students participate in during their spring semester.

It is important for the students to have a prior knowledge of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale prior to baby lab in order to increase comfortability and maximize the learning experience. Baby labs have been shown to be an innovative and effective interprofessional learning experience that introduce a collaborative practice experience into the classroom.⁸ Students gain real-life interactions with children and family members, which improves students’ confidence when working with the pediatric population.⁷ This experience also builds inter-professional communication skills and assists in clinical application of content and concepts learned in the course.⁷

Statement of Need:

This project will meet a need in the motor development course (PHYT 701). My investigation of this need primarily came through verbal communication with the instructor, Dr. McCarty. I have also discussed with many students the need for learning tools like voicethread (power point presentation and transcript) to enhance student engagement and online presence.

Learning Objectives:

1. To outline and define the Alberta Infant Motor Scale and identify strengths and limitations of use.
2. To understand how to interpret the test results, and how to use tests and measures to formulate evaluation, diagnosis, prognosis and intervention.
3. To prepare first year UNC DPT students for the upcoming baby lab
4. To discuss key concepts of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale

Products:

The final product is a voicethread with video administration of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS), associated readings, supplemental resources, and case studies. I also provided material on baby lab preparations towards the end of the presentation. The goal of this project is to provide curriculum content that will: a) educate students on the motor development outcome measure (AIMS) and b) provide students instruction on the upcoming baby lab.

Associated Work:

My critically appraised topic (CAT) that I wrote during the evidence based practice II course is related to my capstone project. My CAT compared the reliability and validity of the Peabody Developmental Motor Scale, and the Alberta Infant Motor Scale for measuring motor development in an infant with Down Syndrome. The literature review displayed the results and associated statistical analyses for each of the outcome measures. This information was imperative when discussing the statistical analyses of the AIMS in the introduction of the voicethread presentation.

Evaluation:

Dr. McCarty worked closely with me throughout this project. She provided weekly feedback on the project and helped with recruitment of infants for the video demonstration aspect. Dr. Stoker was my clinical preceptor during the summer of 2016. She has a long history of working in inpatient and outpatient pediatrics. She is very familiar with the Alberta Infant Motor Scale and provided feedback on the final project. Dr. McCulloch provided feedback at each milestone of the project. Each member of the committee was provided an evaluation survey to be completed.

Self-Reflection:

Now that the finish line is in sight, I came to the conclusion that this project provided me with helpful opportunities and experience. Through this project, I had the chance to become the teaching assistant for the motor development course. This enabled me to collaborate with the first year class about the details and usefulness of the voiethread project. I was also able to create new networking connections during the recruitment process for baby lab.

This project is closely related to my clinical practice and professional development goals. I would thoroughly enjoy working in the pediatric acute care setting, and knowledge and administration of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale is fundamental. I also have aspirations to teach for a physical therapy program. I have taken steps to pursue this goal, such as choosing to enroll in the teacher/scholar elective in the spring of 2018. This capstone project is an additional step to further my understanding of teaching in a physical therapy program.

Acknowledgements:

I would like to express my very great appreciation to Dana McCarty, PT, DPT, PCS, C/NDT for her valuable and constructive suggestions during the planning and development of this project. Her willingness to give her time was very much appreciated.

I would also like to thank Mary Francis Stoker, PT, MDA., DPT for her guidance, enthusiastic encouragement and useful critiques for this project.

Thank you to Karen McCulloch, PT, PhD, NCS for your encouragement and feedback throughout the process.

References:

1. Piper MC, Pinnell LE, Darrah J, et al. Construction and validation of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale. Can J Public Health. 1992;83:S46-50.

2. Darrah J, Piper M, Watt MJ. Assessment of gross motor skills of at-risk infants: predictive validity of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1998;40:485-491.

3. Piper MC, Darrah J. Motor Assessment of the Developing Infant. Philadelphia, PA:     WB Saunders; 1994.

4. Fetters L, Tronick EZ. Discriminate power of the Alberta infant Motor Scale and the Movement Assessment of infants for Prediction of Peabody Gross Motor Scale scores of infants exposed in utero. Pediatr Phys Ther. 2000;12:16-23.

5. Liao PM, Campbell SK. Examination of the item structure of the Alberta Infant Motor Scale. Pediatr Phys Ther. 2004;16:31-38.

6. Fleuren KM, Smit LS, Stijnen T, Hartman A. New reference values for the Alberta Infant Motor Scale need to be established. Acta Paediatr. 2007;96(3):424-427.

7. Tovin M, Fernandez A, Smith K. Pediatric Integrated Clinical Experiences: Enhancing Learning Through a Series of Clinical Exposures. Journal of Physical Therapy Education. 2017;31(2):137-149

8. Birkmeier M, Plack M, Wentzell E, Maring J. A Course of Its Own: A Stand-Alone Pediatric Course Designed to Meet the Essential Core Competencies and Program Goals. Journal of Physical Therapy Education. 2017; 31(2): 97-107.