Family-Professional Collaborative Physical Therapy Intervention via Telehealth for Children with Developmental...

Area of Science:

• Pediatric Physical Therapy
• Telehealth Interventions
• Disability Services

Background:

• Children with disabilities often require consistent physical therapy.
• Traditional therapy models face accessibility challenges.
• Telehealth offers a potential solution for delivering pediatric physical therapy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate attendance, engagement, and parental perceptions of a collaborative telehealth physical therapy intervention for children with disabilities.
• To assess the feasibility, acceptability, family-centeredness, and individualized outcomes of this telehealth model.
• To identify facilitators and barriers to telehealth adoption in pediatric physical therapy.

Main Methods:

• A mixed-method design was employed with 15 families and 17 children (4-90 months) with disabilities.
• Data collection included parent logs of home activity time, the Measure of Processes of Care (MPOC-20), the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), and Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS).
• Semi-structured interviews explored parental perceptions of the telehealth service.

Main Results:

• Parents attended an average of 8.29 out of 9 telehealth sessions, dedicating approximately 1.32 hours daily to therapy activities.
• Services were rated as highly family-centered, and children generally achieved their individualized goals.
• Facilitators included therapist collaboration and information sharing; barriers involved parental self-efficacy and technical issues; empowerment and engagement were key benefits.

Conclusions:

• Collaborative telehealth physical therapy is perceived as feasible and acceptable by parents for addressing children's needs.
• The intervention facilitated individualized goal achievement and active family engagement.
• Telehealth presents a viable option for delivering family-centered pediatric physical therapy.