Gross Motor Milestones in Early Intervention

Gross motor developmental milestone delay is common in many children who were born prematurely, as well as many with given DSM diagnoses. Achievement of gross motor milestones is critical for proper development of all other developmental milestones across all pediatric domains, which include fine motor, adaptive, social-emotional, cognitive, and speech (both receptive and expressive).

Gross motor milestones are a set of benchmarks that represent important steps forward in a child’s life. These milestones reflect how a child’s brain develops and include thinking, learning, exploring, and problem-solving skills. When your child accomplishes a milestone within a timely manner, it’s an adequate indicator that they’re progressing and developing at a good pace.

Learn about the postural reflexes – both righting responses and equilibrium reactions, as well as the many primitive reflexes that appear, diminish at specific time intervals as a function of integration - and in some instances, persistently retained - in the life of a newborn, infant, and toddler. Learning when to expect these early primitive reflexes is critical to evaluating and developing a treatment protocol within the context of early intervention therapy. Mediated by extrapyramidal functions, these reflexes are suppressed and integrated as the frontal brain lobes myelinate, whereas their persistence suggest a neurological problem or at the very least, a possible developmental delay.

Learning the timelines of these postural and primitive reflexes are part of the essential repertoire and arsenal of the competent physical and occupational therapist service the early intervention (birth-3) population. Moreover, intimate knowledge of which milestones are achieved at particular age will help in evaluating the special needs child and facilitate the formulation of short- and long-term goals that address the delay and expedite its management.

Therapists play an important role in fostering a child’s gross motor skills through incorporating developmentally appropriate activities, tracking key milestones, and acting early if there are any concerns. This primer is a MUST READ for all early intervention and pre-school therapists and educators who service the professional needs of the infant, toddler, and child with developmental delay.

EITTOC is an AOTA Approved Provider of professional development. Course approval ID# 8922. This distance learning-independent is offered at 0.40 CEUs, introductory, OT service delivery/foundational knowledge. The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA or indicate AOTA approval of a certification or other professional recognition.

- Meets NY State (NYSOTA) Continuing Compliancy Requirements for continued Core Competency Hours (CCH) -

APPROVED BY THE ILLINOIS EARLY INTERVENTION TRAINING PROGRAM FOR EARLY INTERVENTION CREDENTIAL CREDIT for 4.0 Hours

Approved as a Core of Knowledge Training by the Office of Childcare: Maryland State Department of Education

Disclosure: Disclosure: David C Saidoff PT - course developer/presenter - has the following relevant financial relationships to disclose: he receives monetary compensation for the preparation of this course, in addition to a percentage of company sales, and has the following relevant non-financial relationships to disclose: EITTOC Board of Directors: volunteer member. Melissa Whelan, OTR - course developer/presenter - has the following relevant financial relationships to disclose: she receives no monetary compensation for the preparation of this course, in addition to a percentage of company sales, and has the following relevant non-financial relationships to disclose: EITTOC Board of Directors: volunteer member. Nancy L. Beckerman, LCSW, DSW - instructor has the following relevant financial relationships to disclose: she receives no monetary compensation for the preparation of this course, in addition to a percentage of company sales, and has the following relevant non-financial relationships to disclose:EITTOC Board of Directors: volunteer member. KristenO’Leary,SLP, has the following relevant financial relationships to disclose: she receives monetary compensation for the preparation of this course, in addition to a percentage of company sales, and has the following relevant non-financial relationships to disclose:EITTOC Board of Directors: volunteer member. Dr. Robert Koppel, M.D.,FAAP, Diplomate of the American Board of Pediatrics has the following relevant financial relationships to disclose: he receives monetary compensation for the preparation of this course, in addition to a percentage of company sales, and has the following relevant non-financial relationships to disclose: EITTOC Board of Directors: volunteer member. Rebecca Stern Lamm, MSW, LCSW has the following relevant financial relationships to disclose: he receives monetary compensation for the preparation of this course, in addition to a percentage of company sales, and has the following relevant non-financial relationships to disclose: EITTOC Board of Directors: volunteer member. Declaration: Approval of this course does not necessarily imply that any of the governing bodies (e.g., West Virginian Board of Physical Therapy, or other such governmental or NGO’s supports the views of the presenter or sponsor. Information provided should be used within the scope of practice. No relevant financial or non-financial relationships exists between EITTOC or the products discussed any course; no such relationship or endorsement exists for any products mentioned in any courses sponsored by EITTOC, or in any of the items (such as specific AED or Epinephrine injection product) or any testing instrument used to evaluate children; the above course is specific to said-topic, and may not be extrapolated to any other course or topic outside the scope of this course. Course instructor(s) have no other financial or non-financial remuneration - whether prior to or following course delivery; the above advertisement is made available to all physical therapy (and other) licensee on a non-discriminatory basis. Ascend has approved this course and may be contacted about any concerns. Information provided should be used within scope of practice. AOTA does not endorse specific course content, products, or clinical procedures. The onus of responsibility for this course – granted contact hours by the AOTA – is for each OT professional to check with their State board of OT to see if this course meets licensure requirement for continuing education.