National Study Examining Excellence and Value in Physical Therapist Residency Education: Part 1-Design, Methods, and Results.

Objective: A challenge in health professions is training practitioners to navigate health care complexities, promote health, optimize outcomes, and advance their field. Physical therapist residency education offers a pathway to meet these needs in ways that "entry-level" (professional) education may not. Identifying key aspects of excellence in residency education and understanding its value in developing adaptive expertise will help devise strategies to enhance program, resident, and patient outcomes.

National Study Examining Excellence and Value in Physical Therapist Residency Education: Part 2-A Call to Action.

This Perspective provides a crucial set of actions with corresponding recommendations aimed at propelling the physical therapy profession toward excellence in residency education. The conceptual model includes elements of excellence in the delivery and outcomes of physical therapist residency education and the domain of value experienced by stakeholders impacted by physical therapist residency education. Linked to the conceptual model, the 15 actions, and 28 recommendations draw from (1) the Physical Therapist Residency Excellence and Value (PT-REV) study, (2) the Physical Therapist Education for the 21st Century (PTE-21) study, and (3) research in the learning sciences.

No More Excuses: Strategies for Inclusive Pediatric Physical Therapy Education.

Purpose: The purpose of this special communication is to provide practical, evidence-based recommendations and examples of inclusive and accessible teaching practices that can be effectively used in pediatric physical therapy (PT) education to: (1) ensure equity in education, (2) elevate all voices, and (3) facilitate anti-oppressive learning environments.

Summary Of Key Points: Concrete action items and strategies addressing these 3 recommendations are provided at all levels of the ecological model framework.

Statement Of Conclusions And Recommendations For Clinical Practice: Pediatric PT clinical and academic educators must work proactively to ensure learning environments are inclusive of everyone.

Revision of the Essential Core Competencies: Domains of Competence and Associated Competencies for Pediatric Physical Therapy Professional Education.

Purpose: The purpose of this Special Communication is to describe the processes of Education Summit III, sponsored by the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy, with an emphasis on the review, update, and integration of contemporary language and the Competency-Based Education framework into a revision of the Essential Core Competencies (ECCs).

Summary Of Key Points: The Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy has consistently supported pediatric professional education, including sponsoring 3 Education Summits in 2012, 2016, and 2023. The most recent summit focused on a revision of the ECCs and the development of materials to support their implementation.

An analysis of interagency collaboration: Lessons learned from Colorado's early intervention program.

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to describe interagency collaboration in Part C Early Intervention (EI) programs.

Methods: Between 18 April and 9 May 2022, 48 EI service coordinators (SCs) from 14 programs in one state completed adapted versions of the Interagency Collaboration Activities Scale (IACAS) and Relational Coordination Survey (RCS). Assessing perceptions of shared structures (IACAS) and coordination quality (RCS), these combined measures summarized interagency collaboration with 11 organizations.

Identifying Perspectives on Physical Therapist Residency Program Goals: Hallmarks of Success and Excellence.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe common perspectives important to achieving excellence and success in physical therapist residency education programs.

Methods: Individuals with direct responsibility for creating and revising physical therapist residency program goals participated in a mixed-methods study using Q-methodology. They sorted 31 goal topics based on the level of importance for achieving excellence and success in physical therapist residency education.

Changing Practice: Clinical Application of Resistance Training Evidence for Children With Cerebral Palsy.

Purpose: Describe the development and application of a progressive resistance exercise (PRE) program for children with cerebral palsy (CP), which became a standard care model at an urban specialty hospital network.

Summary Of Key Points: Muscle structure and performance have been shown to impact function and participation in children with CP. Use of PRE to achieve function and participation goals is supported by a growing body of evidence.

Collaborative Therapist-Patient Decision Making: A Power-Based Exercise Program for an Adolescent With CMT1A.

Purpose: The purpose of this case report is to describe an episode of care for an adolescent with Charcot Marie Tooth disease (CMT) using a power-based progressive resistance exercise (PRE) and balance program to improve performance of participant-defined goals with added description through the voice of the patient as "participant lived experience."

Summary Of Key Points: Participant discussion demonstrates improvement of functional performance for an adolescent with CMT subtype 1A (CMT1A), a progressive neuromuscular disorder. Function and participation-specific movement observation, clinical evaluation, and resistance training fostered appropriate program design and intervention dosing.

An Assessment of Essential Anatomy Course Content in an Entry-Level Doctor of Physical Therapy Program.

Unlabelled: Anatomical knowledge is the foundation of the educational curricula in most healthcare programs. The varying scopes of practice between healthcare professions require anatomy educators to determine what content is essential to cover in a finite time with learners. When possible, the anatomy educator bases this decision on clinical experiences; this is a more significant challenge for the non-clinician educator teaching in a health profession curriculum.

The How and the Why of Including Children: Experiential Learning in Teaching Physical Therapist Students.

Purpose: This study describes experiential learning (EL) activities with children and the rationale for using EL. Experiential learning with children in entry-level doctor of physical therapy (DPT) education has not been described.

Methods: Eighteen pediatric educators from accredited DPT programs participated in semistructured, in-depth interviews.

Changing the Paradigm of School-Based Physical Therapist Service Delivery: Using Evidence to Support Intensive Intervention.

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to highlight the paradigm shift away from the typical model of direct service delivery of consistent frequency and duration in the school setting to accommodate an intensive progressive resistive exercise intervention. School-based physical therapists describe how they applied an evidence-based intensive intervention with multiple students in an urban public school district.

Summary Of Key Points: The school-based physical therapists had to modify the typical service delivery model and overcome other challenges to implement this intensive intervention approach.

Experiential Learning in Pediatric Physical Therapist Education: Challenges and Facilitators.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to conduct an in-depth investigation of physical therapist educators' challenges to and facilitators of the use of experiential learning (EL) with children. Although EL with children has been called an essential component of doctor of physical therapy (DPT) education, variability in the amount of EL used among DPT programs indicates that educators may experience different challenges and facilitators of the use of EL.

Methods: Eighteen pediatric DPT educators participated in a semistructured interview.

Experiential Learning in Pediatric Physical Therapist Education: Faculty and Student Perceptions.

Subjects: Faculty teaching pediatric content in accredited doctor of physical therapy programs was recruited; 106 responded. Students representing 20 participating programs were also invited to participate; 23 responded.

Methods: Participants received an online questionnaire including closed- and open-ended questions regarding EL with children.

Development of a Grading Rubric to Assess Learning in Pediatric Physical Therapy Education.

The purpose of this perspective article is to describe the development and potential use of a grading rubric to assess pediatric psychomotor and clinical reasoning skills in professional pediatric physical therapist students. Feedback from focus groups made up of pediatric physical therapy educators informed development of the rubric. In addition, preliminary reliability and feasibility of the rubric were evaluated using videotaped student performance on a related pediatric case.

Associations of Gross Motor Delay, Behavior, and Quality of Life in Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Background: Young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have gross motor delays that may accentuate problem daytime behavior and health-related quality of life (QoL).

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the degree of gross motor delays in young children with ASD and associations of gross motor delays with problem daytime behavior and QoL. The primary hypothesis was that Gross motor delays significantly modifies the associations between internalizing or externalizing problem daytime behavior and QoL.

Therapy Use for Children With Developmental Conditions: Analysis of Colorado Medicaid Data.

Study Purpose: To examine therapy use and spending for Medicaid-enrolled infants and toddlers with developmental conditions.

Methods: Sample infants and toddlers had a diagnosis (eg, cerebral palsy) or developmental delay (DD). Colorado Children's Medicaid administrative outpatient therapy claims (2006-2008) were used to estimate differences, by condition type and number of comorbid chronic conditions (CCCs), of any physical therapy (PT)/occupational therapy (OT) and Medicaid PT/OT spending.

Physical Therapy for a Child With Infantile Idiopathic Scoliosis and Motor Delay.

Purpose: The purpose of this case report is to describe physical therapy (PT) for a child with infantile idiopathic scoliosis and motor delay.

Key Points: A 10-month-old boy with a 28° left thoracolumbar scoliosis was referred for PT and was seen weekly in his home over a 6-month period following a diagnosis of scoliosis and delayed gross motor milestones. Before the initiation of PT, the child was scheduled to undergo serial casting for correction of the spinal curve and was not yet rolling or transitioning in or out of sitting.

Analysis of Reach-to-Grasp by School-Aged Children with Down Syndrome Elucidates Limitations in Upper Extremity Motor Control.

Aims: To identify limitations in preparatory planning (PP) and movement execution that constrain performance of reach-to-grasp (RTG) movements in school-aged children with Down syndrome (DS) and examine the effect of chronological age (CA) on performance.

Methods: Nine children with DS ages 6 to 12 years and nine with typical development (TD) participated in this pilot descriptive study. Three-dimensional kinematic analysis was applied to RTG movements performed in the context of two functional tasks.