Purpose: Empowering parents to deliver evidenced-based interventions improves outcomes for children with or infants at risk of cerebral palsy (CP), by integrating repetition and contextual learning into daily routines. We aimed to identify the barriers and facilitators to parent-delivered interventions and suggest practice improvements guided by behaviour change models.
Methods: Eight electronic databases were searched to identify studies presenting parent and therapist perspectives on parent-delivered interventions in CP. Included studies were critically appraised using validated checklists. Barriers and facilitators to parent-delivered interventions were identified and categorised into subcomponents of The Capability Opportunity and Motivation Model of Behaviour (COM-B), the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) and the Behaviour Change Wheel to formulate appropriate practice recommendations.
Results: Thirty-four studies were identified which mainly used qualitative or randomised control trial designs. Barriers to parent-delivery included insufficient parental knowledge, lack of confidence and time. Facilitators included staff continuity, empowering parents, efficient resource utilisation and flexible delivery. Practice recommendations emphasise realistic goal setting, tailored parental education and enhancing the coaching skills of therapists.
Conclusions: Fostering parent-delivered interventions requires addressing knowledge gaps, skill and capacity of parents and therapists. Therapists forming strong alliances with parents and setting collaborative realistic goals are key to successful parent-delivered interventions.
Keywords: Parents; cerebral palsy; child; intervention; parent-delivered; participation; rehabilitation; therapy.
Enhancing parents’ skills and knowledge regarding CP interventions can increase their confidence (psychological capability) in actively participating in intervention delivery.Structuring services to accommodate family schedules and providing adequate resources (physical and social opportunity) reduce the burden on families and facilitate their engagement.Providing training and resources to therapists enhances their skills and knowledge (psychological capability) in coaching and educating parents effectively.Emphasizing the value of collaborative goal setting in achieving positive outcomes for the child and acknowledging progress (reflective and automatic motivation) motivates both parents and therapists to actively engage in intervention delivery.