Enhancing Motor Development in Infants and Toddlers: A Multidisciplinary Process for Creating Parent Education Materials

Pediatric therapists teach parents how to promote optimal movement to infants and toddlers with developmental delay. Current parent education resources for teaching motor development are dated and inconsistent with modern family centered care practice. The project was designed to develop an original series of parent education materials for infants and toddlers with developmental delay due to prematurity, abnormal tone, or generalized weakness. A comprehensive literature search was performed to determine the best method for teaching parents prior to designing a parent education program. Content experts in patient education and neurodevelopmental therapy assisted in designing the materials. Updated parent education materials that are consistent with modern family centered care practice were developed. Therapists within the Kaiser Permanente health care system can use the copyrighted parent education materials available online, and presented in this project, to assist families in becoming confident and self-reliant when working on motor development at home. Empowering the patient and family toward directed self-care is critical for achieving best outcomes for children with developmental delays.