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. 2024 Jan 1;36(1):9-17.
doi: 10.1097/PEP.0000000000001063.

Early Mobility and Crawling: Beliefs and Practices of Pediatric Physical Therapists in the United States

Kari S Kretch  1 , Stacey C Dusing, Regina T Harbourne, Lin-Ya Hsu, Barbara A Sargent, Sandra L Willett
Affiliations

Early Mobility and Crawling: Beliefs and Practices of Pediatric Physical Therapists in the United States

Kari S Kretch et al. Pediatr Phys Ther. .

Abstract

Purpose: To characterize beliefs of pediatric physical therapists (PTs) in the United States regarding the role of crawling in infant development and clinical practice.

Methods: Pediatric PTs reported their beliefs about early mobility and crawling, clinical approaches related to early mobility and crawling, and agreement with the removal of crawling from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s updated developmental milestone checklists in an online survey. Analyses examined associations between information sources and beliefs, between beliefs and clinical approaches, and between beliefs and CDC update opinions.

Results: Most participants believed that crawling was important (92%) and linked to a variety of positive developmental outcomes (71%-99%) and disagreed with its removal from the CDC checklists (79%). Beliefs were linked with clinical approaches focused on promoting crawling and discouraging other forms of mobility.

Conclusions: Further research is needed to determine whether pediatric PTs' beliefs and clinical practices are supported by evidence.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of responses to items about (A) overall beliefs about crawling and independent mobility, (B) clinical approaches surrounding crawling and early mobility, and (C) removal of crawling from the CDC developmental surveillance checklists. Text is identical to the questionnaire items as presented to participants.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Years of experience in pediatric PT, grouped by response to each item. Center lines depict medians. Hinges (outer bounds of the boxes) depict the 25th and 75th percentiles. Whiskers depict the range of values within 1.5 times the interquartile range from the hinges. Dots depict outlier points beyond 1.5 times the interquartile range from the hinges. Asterisks indicate responses that were significantly associated with years of pediatric PT experience. Plot titles are abbreviated; see Figure 1 for exact text of questionnaire items.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of responses to items about specific effects of crawling. Text is identical to the questionnaire items as presented to participants.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

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