Bone Abstracts

Background: ‘Play Plans’ are now being routinely used at the NHS England Sheffield Severe, Complex and Atypical Osteogenesis Imperfecta Service (SCAOI) as an intervention designed to enhance early development. These plans are MDT formulated and encompass carefully targeted activities designed to meet the child’s needs at their exact stages of development across five domains; Cognition, Social & Emotional Development, Motor, Adaptive Skills and Communication & Language. Presenting Problem. Infants with SCAOI often have delayed motor development due to a number of factors including physiology, fractures and positioning for protection of the spine. Historically OT/Physiotherapy focus was on motor development however now as an MDT we are integrating Bayley’s assessment with purposeful play to meet the global needs of infants including focus on cognition and attachment as well as motor skills. Evidence is limited regarding interventions to enhance early development in OI and as such a service evaluation is being undertaken at Sheffield Children’s Hospital to assess the effectiveness of targeted ‘Play Plans’. These plans carefully track the Bayley’s assessment domains and are aimed to enhance development by targeting next stage developmental gains.

Clinical management: This presentation details the service evaluation outcomes in terms of development of plans and perceived benefit by parents and professionals. Examples of plans developed from Bayley’s assessments are presented to demonstrate types of activity prescribed in conjunction with the desired developmental objective. One such example is targeting the lack of ‘object permanence’ (cognitive skill) in a 12 month-old by the recommendation of activities involving hiding and presenting of objects, toys and faces whilst also incorporating motor development by recommending positioning for this activity. The plans also include examples of toys specifically selected to be suitable for the motor ability of infants with OI whilst also being developmentally appropriate. These toys help advance learning rather than just being physically suitable. Parents have reported that knowing which toys to use and how to play with their child can be hard and as such have valued the guidance given in the plans.

Discussion: Play plans are perceived to be useful by families and clinicians in enhancing targeted developmental play.

Disclosure: The authors declared no competing interests.