Danielle Blum

ECE 252

Research Article
Question:

Can play based assessments be reliable tools to assess cognitive and motor skills in children

from birth to 36 months of age who could benefit form early intervention?

Hypothesis:

Play is crucial and helps infants and young children learn. Play suppprts and helps develops

both motor and cognitive skills. The assessments will hit all five developmental domains

focusing on infants from birth to toddlers up to 36 months of age and help clinicians determine

which type of assessment is best to supplement the traditional standardized development test-

which don’t often use play as part of their standard testing.

Method:

Prior to the study search criteria was required to develop into identify studies that met the

requirements for inclusion and exclusion criteria. The studies focused on infants form 0 to 36

months. Participants could be developing typically, been diagnosed with a disability or have

delays. AN assessment for content validity was conducted to assess the motor skills over 45

weeks for children’s 3-12 months, 13-24 months, and 25-36 months. A responsiveness study

was conducted to measure a child response time, this only focused on motor skills for children

3-36 months.

Conclusion:

The studies found that individual paly based assessments indicate structural validity

correlations yet poor to fair methodology quality. Standardized tests are crucial while
determining the need of intervention. However therapists have not found the right tool to help

them succeed. Although play based assessments have great potential to reliable and valuable

tools.

Published:

This article was published in August of 2014 for the American Physical Therapy Association.

Physical Therapy, 95(1), 25–38.

My Critique:

I found this article be informative as far as the importance of play for cognitive and motor skill

development. I didn’t find that the research really found out anything new besides that there is

still much work to be done and to improve theses assessments for therapists to be able to use

these assessments for treatments plans or diagnose.

Early Childhood Application:

Childcares and preschool should communicate the importance of play and how children are

doing more than just playing. They are developing cognitive and motor skills that are crucial for

their overall development. Preschools and childcares could include the topic in a monthly

newsletter that has a monthly highlight section and give examples to parents and what they can

do at home. Parents also should be educated and informed about the importance of early

intervention. The schools should have flyers on the topic and available local resources for the

families to find help for their child or children.

 Citations

Ogrady, M. G., & Dusing, S. C. (2014). Reliability and Validity of Play-Based Assessments of Motor and

Cognitive Skills for Infants and Young Children: A Systematic Review. Physical Therapy, 95(1), 25–38. doi:

10.2522/ptj.20140111