'Peds Class' Is Not Enough! leveraging Pediatric Clinical Specialists and Community Infant/caregiver Groups to Augment Pediatric Physical Therapy Education

Purpose: To describe a novel 8-week experiential-based learning (EBL) seminar provided to Doctor of Physical Therapy (DPT) students following completion of their 3-credit pediatric physical therapy course.

Description: This university-sponsored seminar combined didactic learning with hands-on practice in the context of a community-recruited infant/caregiver group hosted by the DPT program. The purposes were: 1) to provide DPT students further training in infant development, movement assessment, and psychosocially sensitive interaction; and 2) to offer local families of typically-developing infants a rich educational and collaborative developmental learning group.

Summary of Use: Twelve DPT students voluntarily participated in the seminar which was offered at no-charge to all second-year DPT students regardless of pediatric interest. Commitment entailed one hour per week of didactic curriculum and one hour per week of mentored interaction with 12 infant/caregiver pairs in a community group. Curriculum was developed and delivered by an ABPTS Board Certified Pediatric Specialist (PCS) who is also a full-time pediatric teaching assistant, in consultation with the pediatric PT faculty. Learning objectives reflected content beyond that offered in the required pediatric PT course, focusing on infant development, appraisal of movement and overall development, and psychosocially sensitive interaction with infants and families. Weekly didactic learning included video movement analysis, case discussion, preparation for infant/caregiver interaction, and guided self-reflection. The goal of each EBL session was collaborative learning alongside an infant/caregiver pair. This hour followed a framework of “Discuss/Watch/Assess/Teach”—for example, discuss emotional regulation observations and strengths, watch the infant play in prone, assess movement and exploration, and teach caregivers how to set up the environment to promote crawling. Formal debriefing after each community group session was an essential component for student clinician development. In addition to the rich EBL experience for students, the weekly group offered caregivers tailored developmental education and positive interaction with other local families of infants from 2 to 11 months of age.

Importance to Members: Preparing new DPT graduates for pediatric practice with infants is challenging within the pediatric PT curriculum. The 8-week EBL experience described here is novel in that it: 1) dives deeply into infant movement development within in a family-centered collaborative learning environment; 2) allows students to follow the same infants across two months of development; 3) targets students more likely to go into pediatric practice, yielding high return-on-investment for our pediatric specialty; and 4) simultaneously offers local families of infants a supportive, collaborative learning group. Specialty training and close familiarity with the required pediatric PT course content means PCS teaching assistants are well-positioned to provide focused, integrative learning opportunities to better prepare new DPT graduates for independent practice with infants and families.