Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Scholarly Project

Degree Name

Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Kelly Dornbier

Abstract

Background: Early intervention services are provided for children ages birth to three years who have identified developmental delays (North Dakota Health and Human Services, n.d.). Services that are provided in early intervention include home visits, consultations, and parent coaching from a multidisciplinary team (North Dakota Health and Human Services, n.d.). The health-related practices of parents during the first two years of their children’s lives plays an important role in terms of influencing children’s health and development (Boelsma et al., 2021). It is the responsibility of the caregivers to utilize the information that is provided and implement within the child’s daily routine to overall support the development of the child in their early years (Kaelin et al., 2021).

Purpose: This doctoral experiential capstone aimed to create caregiver education tools based on the developmental milestones of children ages birth to three years. The purpose of educational handouts includes being a source for caregivers to provide guidance, promote competence, and encourage the carry over of skills being taught within early intervention services.

Methodology: An extensive literature review was conducted through evidenced-based resources from a combination of online databases, professional organizations, published books, and governmental websites. The Model of Human Occupation (MOHO) guided the scholarly project (O’Brien, 2017). The MOHO model was used to analyze the areas of volition, habituation, performance capacity, and environment of caregivers receiving early intervention services and determine how those concepts are affecting the caregiver’s performance in learning and utilizing strategies to support their child’s overall development.

Results: The final product includes two groups of multimodal handouts each stating developmental milestones for children form ages birth to three years. The handouts focus on feeding and dressing routines with activities for caregivers to implement during those routines. The activities aim to support the child’s development based on their age.

Conclusion: The educational handouts are intended to address the barriers that caregivers may be facing in the areas of MOHO including volition, habituation, performance capacity, and environment to enhance their occupational performance (O’Brien, 2017).

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