PI: Reggie Harbourne
Project Title: Validation of the Individual Growth & Development Indicators (IGDIs) for use In Children with Cerebral Palsy
Grant Agency: American Physical Therapy Association
Award: $39,379
Purpose: Tests of active abilities for young children with special needs that are responsive to developmental changes enhanced through early intervention programs are needed for research and clinical practice. The overall purpose of this project is to assess the use of an increasingly popular new test of this type, the Individual Growth and Development Indicators for Infants and Toddlers (IGDIs) in young children with cerebral palsy (CP).
The IGDIs are a group of tests in which children up to 3 years age are videotaped interacting with adult and standardized toys for 6 minutes per general outcome area. Videos are scored for specified behaviors that the child performs within five outcome areas, Movement, Communication, Social, Problem-solving, and Parent-child interactions. The IGDIs are reliable and valid in children without significant motor impairments. The clinical gap addressed by this project is the lack of bench testing and adaptation of the IGDIs with young children with motor impairments. Our primary purpose of this project is to assess IGDIs reliability and validity in young children with CP. Secondary purposes are to develop standardized adaptations of the IGDI for use with children with motor impairments.
Relevance: Results will provide empirical support for: a) the use of the IGDIs with our proposed intervention effectiveness research in young children with CP, and b) the broader clinical use of this test in early intervention settings.
