Patterns of Physical and Occupational Therapy Implementation in Early Motor Intervention

Abstract

A primary component of a comprehensive program evaluation report in early intervention is a detailed account of the intervention. Careful analysis of the program documentation requires a description of the amount and type of intervention. As one component of a larger evaluation project, the present interim report describes the implementation variation of physical and occupational therapy for 43 infants with motor delays across six early intervention programs. A hierarchical regression analysis was used to determine the influences of infant, family, and program variables on the actual therapy services administered over a 6-month data collection period. Variations in the intensity of intervention were related to therapist availability and the severity of infant motor delay; variations in the setting and service mode were poorly predicted by the variables identified. This article demonstrates how implementation, considered as an independent variable for program evaluation documentation, can be examined as a dependent variable to help explain factors affecting the degree and structure of therapy implementation.