NDTA Research Committee : Research Articles Summaries Project (2014-2020)

The NDTATM Contemporary Practice Model is a task oriented approach informed by current and evolving evidence. Intervention using the NDTA Contemporary Practice Model applies the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) model and a problem solving approach to address individual participation level goals of our clients. Task related posture and movement behaviours as established through the ICF are addressed through multimodal and graded treatment strategies. The NDTA Contemporary Practice Model may be applied throughout the lifespan to enable participation in meaningful activities.

To examine the current state of research publications related to the NDTA Contemporary Practice Model, a task force from the NDTA Research Committee initiated a literature search in 2020. In 2014 a similar literature search was conducted resulting in the creation of the document “Research Article Summaries” published on the NDTA website.

The 2020 search was conducted with the following steps:

1) PubMed and Cochrane databases were searched.

a. Search terms were

i. Neurodevelopmental treatment OR Bobath OR NDT

ii. AND

1. Physical Therapy OR Physiotherapy
2. Occupational Therapy
3. Speech Language Pathology OR SLP

The task force made the assumption that literature using the terminology “NDTA Contemporary Practice ModelTM” would be rare and that using the above search terms would still identify sources using that terminology.

b. Searches were filtered by year (2014-2020), English language, and Human subjects

c. 35 articles were identified

2) 4 additional articles were shared by email from other NDTA research committee members.

3) Reference lists were also requested from members of the NDTA Instructors Group and from members who presented webinars during spring/summer 2020. No additional resources were received.

4) Of the 39 sources identified we could not locate 5 (listed in Appendix B), and 4 were listed as trials, which left 30 articles to review.

5) These 30 articles were divided among task force members and reviewed according to the Research Articles Review Template.

6) The task force member who reviewed the article made the decision of whether or not to include the study in the new Research Articles Summaries document based on which aspects of the NDTA Contemporary Practice Model were referenced in the study.

7) Of the 29 articles reviewed 8 were included in the new Research Articles Summaries document. The full list of articles reviewed, but excluded can be found in Appendix A.

Some of the challenges of this project include:

• The terminology “NDTA Contemporary Practice Model” is recent and doesn’t appear in the literature.
• NDT or Bobath treatments are often used as the control group or conventional therapy in intervention studies
• Treatment interventions are not well described in many studies which makes fidelity of the treatment unclear
• The definitions of NDT, Bobath, and NDTA Contemporary Practice ModelTM have evolved and it was not always clear which definition the research groups were utilizing in their treatment protocols.

Despite these challenges, and the paucity of robust research, the Research Articles Summaries task force invites you to review the updated Research Articles Summaries (2014-2020) document. We hope this document will be useful to members in supporting their NDT practice and in planning future research studies.

Respectfully submitted by members of the Research Articles Summaries Task Force: Sarah Conci, Liz Ridgeway, Nancy Darr, Michelle Donelly, and Janet Tankersley.