PARENTAL KNOWLEDGE OF CHILDREN'S NORMAL MOTOR DEVELOPMENT AND ITS INFLUENCE ON THE DETECTION OF DEVELOPMENTAL DELAY IN SAUDI ARABIA

H. Almarzoug¹, N. Alhwoaimel²

¹Myoosteopathy, Peadtric Physical Therapy, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ²Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Physical Therapy and Health Rehabilitation, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Background: Parental knowledge of normal developmental milestones plays an important role in raising healthy children and preventing misdiagnoses of developmental delay (DD). However, the knowledge of children's normal Motor development among parents in Saudi Arabia remains uncertain, which causes serious concerns about children's health.

Purpose: This study was undertaken to explore parental knowledge of children's normal motor development and its influence on detecting DD. In addition, it investigates the association between parental knowledge and the participants' characteristics.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. An online survey was used to administer a four-part questionnaire designed for the purpose of this study. The first part of the questionnaire included demographic information, such as age, age at birth of first child and educational level. The second part asked birth-related questions about sources of information, and the third part included numerous questions about normal motor development. The fourth part was directed to those participants who had a child with DD. The data were analysed descriptively and reported using absolute and relative frequencies. Linear regression was used to investigate the association between parental knowledge level and gender, age, education, age when having the first child, number of children and level of knowledge rating.

Results: A total of 4,080 participants responded to the survey. Most subjects were female (n = 3,235). Most individuals revealed a low level of knowledge, as 88.87% of participants answered ≤ 50% of the developmental milestone questions correctly. In terms of DD, 4.6% of parents had a child with DD, of whom only 24.20% sought help from professionals early in the first month that the DD was present. Being a female and having a university education was significantly associated with answering a higher percentage of correct answers (p < 0.001 for both variables). Age was negatively significantly associated with answering a higher percentage of correct answers (p = 0.04), as younger participants gave more correct answers than older participants. There is no association shown between age when having the first child, the number of children, the level of knowledge rating and parental knowledge about normal physical development.

Conclusions: There is a lack of appropriate knowledge about normal motor development among parents, which reflects serious concerns about children's health in Saudi Arabia.

Implications:Effective health education programmes regarding normal developmental milestones should be implemented by the Ministry of Health to improve child development outcomes in Saudi Arabia.

Funding acknowledgements: This research received no specific grant. The authors would like to acknowledge Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University for their support

Keywords:
Motor development
Parental knowledge
Developmental delay

Topics:
Paediatrics

Did this work require ethics approval? Yes

Institution: Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University

Committee: Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University

Ethics number: RHPT/021/012