The role of physiotherapy

Pre-term infants are at high-risk for developmental delays due to a multitude of factors that range from impairments in CNS structure and function to the inability of the developing brain to effectively cope with the 'sensory' inputs of the external environment. This latter concept is illustrated in the figure below:

The role of physiotherapy is to ameliorate the complications of prematurity by providing 'developmentally supportive' care.
In this section of the learning module, we will introduce the fundamental principles of developmentally supportive care; the care of pre-term infants in the neonatal ICU, however, is highly specialized and therapists develop expertise in this area through peer mentorship, supervised hands-on training, and post-graduate courses.