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Parents' experiences with a home-based upper limb training program using a video coaching approach for infants and
Anke Pm Verhaegh1,2, Nienke B Nuijen3, Pauline Bm Aarts3,4
1Department of Pediatric Rehabilitation, Sint Maartenskliniek, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. a.verhaegh@maartenskliniek.nl.
Insights
Parents found early home-based upper limb training programs beneficial but challenging. Video coaching and therapist support are crucial for parental perseverance and program success in children with cerebral palsy.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric rehabilitation
- Occupational therapy
- Child development
Background:
- Early home-based upper limb training programs show promise for infants and toddlers with or at risk of unilateral cerebral palsy.
- Understanding parents' experiences with these programs is limited.
- Video coaching was utilized to support parents in delivering home-based training.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate parents' experiences with an early home-based upper limb training program.
- To identify factors influencing parents' engagement and program adherence.
- To optimize implementation strategies for home-based pediatric rehabilitation.
Main Methods:
- Qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with 13 parents.
- Participants' children were aged 8-36 months and had unilateral cerebral palsy.
- Interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic content analysis.
Main Results:
- Three overarching themes emerged: Parental learning (competencies, video coaching role), Parental load (flexibility, support, demands, child's state), and Parental perseverance (beliefs, observed improvements).
- Video coaching facilitated parental learning and skill development.
- Parental load was influenced by program flexibility, social support, competing demands, and the child's condition.
Conclusions:
- Support systems, including therapists and social networks, are vital to alleviate parental load.
- Observing functional improvements in children via video coaching enhances parental motivation.
- Positive feedback from occupational therapists boosts parental perseverance and training competence, crucial for successful program implementation.
Background:
Although early home-based upper limb training programs are promising, in-depth understanding of parents' experiences with these programs is still limited. We developed an early home-based upper limb training program for infants and toddlers (8-36 months) with or at risk of unilateral cerebral palsy using video coaching for parents. The aim of this qualitative study was to evaluate parents' experiences with the home-based training program using a video coaching approach in order to optimize implementation strategies.
Methods:
We held semi-structured interviews with parents of 13 children with unilateral cerebral palsy, who participated in our program in the period from 2014 - 2017. On average, parents had delivered two training periods of the program at the time of the interviews. Interviews were analyzed using inductive thematic content analysis.
Results:
We identified three overarching interacting themes that shaped the experiences of parents with the program: 1) Parental learning comprising the subthemes parents' training competencies and the facilitative and reinforcing role of video coaching, 2) Parental load comprising the subthemes flexibility of the program, supportive network, competing demands, and child's mood and functional capacities, and 3) Parental perseverance comprising the subthemes beliefs and expectancies and seeing child's functional improvements.
Conclusions:
For successful implementation of an early home-based upper limb training program using video coaching, support in delivering home-training from a therapist or from others within parents' social network, is needed to relieve parental load. Seeing functional improvements of their child on the videos increased parents' motivation to continue with the training. Positively phrased feedback from an occupational therapist stimulated parents' perseverance and training competency.
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