The first meeting will be all about the assessment. It is a thorough process which starts with taking the history. I will talk to you, and your child if possible, to get an insight into the problem. It’s important to know what the problem exactly is what your child’s abilities and limitations are, how it started, and what your child and your expectations are regarding the therapy and its outcomes. Following this conversation, I will observe your child. I will look at your child’s body and their spontaneous behavior. I will not only observe the gross and fine motor skills, but I will also look at communication skills, play, cognition, and social-emotional development. This provides valuable information on your child’s challenges and helps me form a complete picture of your child. After the observation, I will perform a more targeted and specific assessment. The assessment tools I use are accurately chosen based on their characteristics.

A good assessment is standardized, has high validity and reliability, and preferably has norm values so a child’s performance can be compared to its peers. There are multiple qualitative and quantitative assessments I can use, depending on what we want to measure. For example:

• 6-Minute Walk Test or Treadmill Test: aerobic exercise capacity
• Alberta Infant Motor Scale (AIMS): motor development babies
• Amiel Tison: muscle tone
• Basic Motor Skills of Children with Down’s Syndrome; functional skills Down Syndrome
• Bayley Scales of Infant Development: motor development
• Bruininks Osteretsky Test of Motor Proficiency (BOTMP)): motor development
• Bulbena or Beighton: generalized hypermobility
• Functional Muscle Power and Motor Function Measure (MFM): functional muscle power
• Geometry: active and passive range of motion of joint mobility
• Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFMCS): functional classification Cerebral Palsy
• Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM): motor development Cerebral Palsy
• Manual Muscle Testing (MMT): muscle power
• Movement Assessment Battery for Children (M-ABC2): motor development
• Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI); functional performance
• Sensory Profile: sensory processing
• Tardieu Scale: muscle resistance/spasticity