async lecture 1: child development principles for intervention

neurodevelopment review: learning

• infants are born with an overabundance of neurons, but with a normal process of synaptic pruning, they narrow down less-used/less important connections

  • possible considerations that children with dysfunctions have too much synaptic pruning

• learning= connections (made through e.g., touch and vision)

  • there are critical periods of development/optimal times for development, with myelination of brain areas (e.g., visual cortex develops at about 4 months)

    • development can happen later, but it’s less optimal

      • early intervention is critical!

neurodevelopment review: neuroplasticity

neuroplasticity= brain changes in response to environmental demands; principles

1. use it or lose it

   1. neurodevelopment improves with exposure and usage

2. use it and improve it

   1. neurodevelopment improves with exposure and usage

3. specificity

   1. children need to be exposed to certain types of stimulus (e.g., visual, auditory, tactile, etc.)

4. repetition matters

   1. needed for mastery and brain adaptation

5. intensity matters

   1. neurodevelopment happens with the correct level of challenge and demand; varying difficulty also helps

6. time matters

   1. neurodevelopment happens over time

7. salience matters (motivation/attention)

   1. children must be intrinsically motivated and attentive to the task you want them to attend to (i.e., make it interesting)

8. age matters

   1. there are critical periods of development (e.g., it is less effective to teach a child to tie their shoes at 12 than it is to teach them at 5)

9. transference

   1. i.e., being able to learn how to do a task and then to apply that to different, usually real-life, contexts (e.g., tying shoe-laces on a practice board with laces—> typing shoe-laces on an actual shoe on their foot)

10. interference (bad habits)

    1. i.e., skills being learned in a dysfunctional way (e.g., writing letters in their atypical structure); children should learn to un-do these habits

occupational performance: development

“milestones” and threats due to physical, cognitive, emotional, or environmental changes; we want to work on

• social participation

  • want to foster w/ parents, family, friends, and within a social group

• ADLs

• IADLs

  • want to foster the drive to independence within children- sense of self efficacy in kids, so that they continue to move up/progress in their development stages!

• rest and sleep

  • from infants to adolescents

• education

  • home centered-school centered

• play (work)

  • fosters development in all of the above

occupational therapy principles of change:

top-down:

participation in occupations —> specific client factors

• e.g., improve participation in the occupation of cutting —> improve the specific client factors that may be inhibiting their ability to cut

occupational therapy principles of change:

bottom-up:

specific client factors —> participation in occupations

• e.g., address motor issues in a child with cerebral palsy, who may have hemiplegia in 1 arm —> makes them unable to participate in the occupation of cutting

occupational therapy principles of change:

interaction:

specific client factors <—> participation in occupations

• both top-down and bottom-up approaches must be addressed for a child to progress + to make successful interventions

occupational therapy principles of change:

just-right challenge:

an activity which

• builds on current skills; asks for a stretch in their baseline

  • “zone of proximal development”

• is motivating; holds attention

  • self-efficacy is very motivating and gives a sense of mastery (—> feel good about yourself!)

• has self-directed learning

  • must be active, intentional, intrinsically rewarding

• requires great attention, but keeps other components simple

  • focus on only what you’re trying to work on/the skill being addressed