This session discusses current research about how motor experience interacts with cognitive development in infants and young children. The presenter will discuss how the brain changes at the ICF impairment level as developing skills interact at the activity and participation levels. Topics include use of power mobility, mobile prone standers and gait trainers to facilitate learning with mobility. Finally, the session offers suggestions for applying principles of neuroplasticity to increase the effectiveness of intervention, focusing on early power mobility and overground training (gait trainers).

Ginny Paleg is an NDT certified pediatric PT from Silver Spring, Maryland. She has worked at NIH, a pediatric rehab hospital (for 8 yrs), and in schools (9 yrs). She currently works for her local school system in their early intervention program. Ginny earned her Masters Degree in Physical Therapy at Emory University and her DScPT at the University of Maryland Baltimore. She is on the editorial board of Rehab Management Magazine and the APTA Pediatric Section reimbursement representative for the state of Maryland. Ginny has presented and published nationally and internationally including APTA, Medtrade, Canadian Seating and Mobility, World Physical Therapy Conference, European Seating Symposium and AACPDM. She is an author of two RESNA position papers (Supported Standing Devices and Pediatric Power Mobility). Ginny was a keynote speaker at the European (in 2011) and Nordic Seating and Symposiums in 2012. Ginny also presented a long program on the effects of mobility on cognition at APTA’s CSM in Chicago in February, 2012.