Sitting Together and Reaching to Play Physical Therapy Affects Dyadic Emotional Availability in Children With Neuromotor Delay and Their Families.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Emotional availability (EA) describes caregiver-child emotional attunement and is critical to fostering adaptive development. Although early physical therapist interventions adopt a family centered approach, the impact of interventions on families is often not quantified. This study compares EA in dyads receiving usual care-early intervention (UC-EI) versus sitting together and reaching to play (START-Play) in addition to UC-EI.

Methods

Data were drawn from 106 children with neuromotor delay who were 7 to 16 months old at baseline (mean = 10.5 months) and from their caregiver (91% were mothers). The EA Scale, Fourth Edition, was scored from 5-min videotaped interactions collected at baseline and at 3, 6, and 12 months after baseline. Piecewise multilevel modeling c

SUBMITTER: Molinini RM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11878780 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature