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Hands-On Pediatric Therapy
Peek-A-Boo, where are you? In Connie Blow’s baby lab! Blow, PT pediatric clinical instructor, has taken an inventive approach to teaching her students about the field of pediatric therapy. Blow thinks hands-on labs are key elements to proper learning so she brings the babies to her students.
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Photos by Cheri Ghan and Karen Hecksel
Watching babies at play helps physical therapy students learn about their movement patterns.
During the lab, Blow brings infants into her classroom for students to learn about normal motor development. The infants provide the students with a live model and show them a variety of movements.
“It is much easier to apply information when students can see a real infant’s movement patterns,” says Blow. “It is hard for students to get that perspective from a book or a video.” The activities that occur with the infants range from rolling over to stacking blocks to standing. During the infants’ show of talents, students are required to catalog posture, movement, gross and fine motor skills, along with social and verbal skills. “I want the students to view a child holistically,” says Blow.
The lab also provides physical therapy students with the opportunity to observe infants’ early walking patterns. The bottoms of the infants’ feet are painted and then they are urged to “walk” across a large piece of paper placed in front of them. This measurement of an infant’s gait is referred to as a pedograph. “Since children’s gait patterns are much different than adults, we like to compare the two measurements,” says Blow.
The students aren’t the only ones benefiting from the hands-on lab; parents really get a kick out of the experience as well. “Parents don’t usually hear about their infant’s motor movement in such a detailed manner,” says Blow.
These hands-on labs expose Mizzou physical therapy students to normal development and help build a foundation to enable them to recognize atypical movement patterns or delayed development in their pediatric patients.
“Pediatric labs help me to have more hands-on experience and really apply what we are learning in class,” says Hillary Overfelt, DPT-Class of 2011. “Pediatric patients require a whole new way of thinking to facilitate therapy and that's why the labs are so important.”
—Caitlin Dawdy
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Students in Connie Blow’s pediatric PT classes quickly learn that working with babies can be unpredictable and fun.
Because adult and infant gaits are so different, students learn by observing infants early walking patterns. The lesson starts by painting the bottoms of the babies’ feet. The infants are then urged to “walk” across a large piece of paper to create a pedograph
Page last updated on: October 26, 2009
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