Injuries in Children Who Use Pediatric Mobility Aids

Pediatrics will be publishing research in the incidence of injuries related to pediatric mobility aids such as wheelchairs and crutches. US hospital records were analyzed from 1991-2008. Over 63,000 children, 19 years and younger, were evaluated in the emergency room for injuries related to mobility devices. The highest rate of injury occurred in wheelchair users […]

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Recommended Evaluation Tools for Developmental Coordination Disorder

Pediatric Physical Therapy has published research analyzing seven performance based measures of gross motor skill development for use with children with developmental coordination disorder. The Movement Assessment Battery for Children (MABC – Version 1)and the Test of Gross Motor Development Version 2 scored highest on the comparison. The researchers recommend starting with these two previously […]

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Modified Constraint Induced Movement Therapy and Gait Characteristics

In a recent issue of Disability and Rehabilitation there was research published on an intervention using modified constraint induced movement therapy (mCIMT) wtih 12 preschool children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy. The intervention consisted of mCIMT for 5 consecutive days at 6 hours per day. Following the experiment, the data was analyzed revealing a significant decrease […]

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Mother’s Touch Effects on Brain Development

Recent research published in the Journal of Neuroscience, indicates that a mother’s touch not only provides security, comfort and love but also cognitive function and stress reduction. This study was performed using rats. The results indicated that “sensory stimuli from maternal care can modify the gene that controls a key messenger of stress called corticotropin-releasing […]

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Early Childhood TV Watching and Effects Later in Life

The Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine published research on television watching at 2 and 4 years of age and its effects when the children are 10 years of age. Parents reported how much television was watched during the early years. Parents and teachers also reported on academic, psychosocial, and health behaviors and body mass […]

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Disadvantaged Preschoolers Exhibit Gross Motor Delays

Two recent studies report that disadvantaged preschoolers exhibit gross motor delays on the Test of Gross Motor Development – 2. Goodway et. al. reported in the Research Quarterly for Exercise and Science that 86% of Midwestern and southwestern preschoolers were delayed in locomotor and object control skills (Woodward and Yun report in Early Child Development […]

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Track Physical Activity with the iPhone

There is an interesting free app for the iPhone entitled Walk n’ Play. Developed by Chinmay Manohar in the Department Endocrinology, Nutrition and Diabetes of the Mayo Clinic, Walk n’ Play tracks normal day to day physical activity. Once you put in the height and weight of the user, it tracks your movements and tells […]