The START-Play (Sitting Together and Reaching to Play) early intervention aims to promote development and readiness to learn in babies with motor delays or challenges. Sitting and reaching skills are critical to early development and help babies explore, interact with others and learn about their world.
Sitting allows babies to orient themselves to important features in the world.
Early reaching and object exploration skills in the first year of life relate to future cognition.
These motor skills aid in problem-solving play scenarios to build critical cognitive abilities.
Our research team investigates how babies with motor delays develop motor skills and thinking abilities, and how the START-Play intervention affects babies with motor delays differently than the care usually offered to them.