PlayMoST - Playing-to-learn-to-Move – a Shared Therapeutic approach
Photo: Irina Schmidt (Mostphotos) In this project, we will investigate how healthcare and day care staff and caregivers can use a new PlayMoST approach to promote children's motor learning. The research will provide new knowledge on how to support children as playful and learning individuals throughout childhood and empower caregivers in providing their child with daily life motor learning through play. The project will start in 2026, a call for PhD candidate in the project will be published soon.
Children with motor impairments receive healthcare services throughout their childhood to promote learning and development. Play is fundamental to children's development, and more knowledge about how to combine play and therapy to support children's learning of new motor skills is needed. This study builds on previous observation and interview research on how physical therapists use play as a therapeutic tool, in which we apply the theoretical concept "enactive therapeutic sensorimotor play" to explain how children learn new skills through play. We now continue with this action research project to explore an interdisciplinary PlayMoST treatment approach based on these insights and gain insights into how this approach can contribute to interdisciplinary, playful motor learning in children's daily lives.
Our objectives are: 1) Explore and develop the PlayMoST approach in collaboration with caregivers, health care and day care staff. 2) Pilot intervention based on the PlayMoST approach and evaluate the experiences and effects of this intervention. The project runs through three phases: 1) PlayMoST approach workshops with participating healthcare and day care staff and caregivers of the children that are included in the project. 2) Goal setting session followed by two months of PlayMoST intervention for each child. We collect data to evaluate the outcomes with a single subject experimental design. 3) Joint workshop with all healthcare professionals, educational staff, and caregivers who participated in the project, to evaluate and further develop the PlayMoST approach.
The PlayMoST approach will offer new insights on how adults can support children as playful and learning individuals and provide them with enriching learning environments. The development of the PlayMoST approach will facilitate mutual understanding and interdisciplinary collaborations in playful motor learning for children with motor disabilities. The project will also serve as competency building in primary health care services as the participants engage in the interdisciplinary learning and application of the PlayMoST approach.
Participating municipalities are Bodø, Kristiansund and Stavanger. Additional municipalities are welcome, contact the project leader for more information: Ragnhild B. Håkstad
The project's research group members and collaborators are:
- Gunfrid Størvold, PT, PhD, associate professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
- Kine M. Tveten, PT, PhD, associate professor at Høgskulen på Vestlandet.
- Nina Kløve, PT, MSc, physiotherapist at NorCP/ Oslo University Hospital.
- Stacey C. Dusing, PT, PhD, Professor at University of Southern California.
Members:
Financial/grant information:
Fysiofondet: søknadsid 368882