Validation of the PDMS-2 scale in the Spanish population. Evaluation of physiotherapy intervention and parental involvement in the treatment of children with neurodevelopmental disorders

Aim. Cross-culturally adapt the PDMS-2 scale from Spanish-Mexican to Spanish-Spanish and evaluate its validity. To determine the efficacy of physiotherapy treatment (number of physiotherapy sessions and activities proposed by the physiotherapist and performed by the parents) in children with neurodevelopmental disorders between the ages of 0 and 3 years. Subjects and methods. A first prospective descriptive study of validation of the PDMS-2 scale including 74 subjects with neurodevelopmental disorder with aged from 0 and 3 years old. A second randomized clinical trial to evaluate the physiotherapy (Bobath concept) intervention in the experimental group (EG) (n = 37) who received unique 30-minute weekly sessions for 8 weeks against the control group (CG) (n = 37) that did not receive physiotherapy using the PDMS-2 scale for evaluation. Results. An adequate inter-rater reliablity was found (ICC = 0.76). The scale showed also a yen; good internal consistency (alpha = 0,99). Significant differences between both groups at 8 weeks. EG obtained better scores in the postest after administrating the physiotherapy treatment (p < 0.001) Moderate and significant correlation coefficients were found between the number of physiotherapy sessions and Total Motor Quotient (TMQ) (r = 0.38; p < 0.05) and the home actitvities with TMQ (r = 0.46; p = 0.005). Conclusions. The Peabody PDMS-2 scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure gross and fine motor development in children with neurodevelopmental disorder aged from 0 and 3 years old. Physiotherapy is useful for helping children with delayed neurodevelopment improve. The number of physiotherapy sessions and the activities proposed by the physiotherapist and performed at home by the parents show a direct and positive relationship with the results obtained in motor development.