Abstract
Parental lack of knowledge of typical child development hinders children’s ability to receive early intervention in a timely manner. Improving parents’ understanding of typical developmental milestones can help decrease disparities in parent knowledge and identification of their child’s developmental delays. This poster will identify parent interventions to increase knowledge of child development so that parents can seek the appropriate professional help for their children.
Primary Author and Speaker: Shanteria Carr
Additional Authors and Speakers: Stephanie Munson, Lisa Mische Lawson
According to Zukerman et al. (2018), developmental disabilities affect 1 in 6 children in the U.S. Accurate identification of developmental disabilities in children is necessary to ensure the child receives early intervention to foster developmental growth (Zukerman et al., 2018). A contributing factor in detecting developmental disabilities in children is considering whether parents know about child development. Parental lack of knowledge of typical child development hinders parents’ ability to identify potential delays in their children’s development which interferes with the child’s ability to receive early intervention services in a timely manner. Disparities exist among parents’ knowledge of child development that impacts early detection and diagnosis of developmental disabilities in minority populations (Zukerman et al. 2018). Particularly, research indicates parents from disadvantaged backgrounds may differ from other parents in their understanding of developmental milestones and parenting. Early detection of children’s developmental delays can lead to the earlier provision of intervention services by occupational therapists to foster the developmental growth of children from minority populations. This systematic review investigated the parent interventions to improve parental knowledge of child development and parents’ ability to identify developmental delays so that they can talk to their pediatricians and seek the appropriate professional help for their children. Databases of CINAHL Plus, PsycNET (with PsycINFO), and MEDLINE via PubMed were searched from 1990- January 2020 for potential articles. Articles were included in the review only when they met the predetermined inclusion criteria: interventions that included parent education of child development, parents with children ages birth to five years old, outcomes related to parental knowledge, quantitative research, and publication dates between 1990 and January 2020. Thirteen articles met the inclusion criteria. Evidence from 12 out of the 13 studies demonstrated a positive impact between parents’ education on child development leading to their increasing ability to identify developmental delays in their child through acquired knowledge about child development. Improving parent understanding of typical developing milestones can help decrease disparities in parent knowledge and identification of their child’s developmental delays (Graybill et al., 2016). Parents’ and caregivers’ acquiring knowledge of child development increases the possibility of parents seeking the appropriate professional help to foster age-appropriate child development. It is imperative occupational therapists play a role in helping educate parents about child development to assists in increasing access to occupational therapy services during children’s early development years. The following implications were concluded for occupational therapy practice: 1. Therapists should provide culturally appropriate educational material to parents to educate parents on their child’s next developing milestones and provide strategies to help facilitate those skills as part of the family’s treatment plans. 2. The use of commercial and government educational resources was effective in educating parents on child development. Therapists can use these resources to educate parents to improve parental knowledge of child development to detect developmental delays. 3. Therapists should educate parents on their role in identifying developmental delays. This will allow parents to be confident and to advocate to physicians about their concerns regarding their children. As more parents can identify developmental delays of their children, parents will be able to seek early intervention services by OTs.
Graybill, E., Self-Brown, S., Lai, B., Vinoski, E., McGill, T., & Crimmins, D. (2016). Addressing disparities in parent education: Examining the effects of Learn the Signs Act early parent education materials on parent outcomes. Early Childhood Education Journal, 44(1), 31-38. https://doi-ord.proxt.library.nyu.edu/10.1007/s10643-014-068-3
Zuckerman, K.E., Chavez, A. E., Murillo, C.R., Lindly, O.J., & Reeder, J.A. (2018) Disparities in Familiarity with developmental disabilities among low-income parents. Academic Pediatrics, 18(8), 944-951. doi.org/10.1016/j.acap.2018.06.011