Abstract
In their first few years of life, children take part in a variety of activities in their homes, daycare/preschool, and communities. However, there are very few studies about infants and toddlers with biological developmental risk factors' participation and environments. Moreover, the relationship between a child's functional abilities, their motor and cognitive performance, and their participation and their environment is not yet clear. Objectives: To investigate associations of motor and cognitive development with participation at home, at daycare/preschool, and in the community, and with environmental barriers in infants and toddlers with and without developmental risk factors. Methods: 20 infants and toddlers with developmental risk factors (experimental group) and 20 infants and toddlers without risk factors (control group), aged between 0 and 3 years, along with their parents and guardians, will participate in this study. The study has been approved by the local Ethics Committee (CAAE: 22147119.2.0000.5504). After informed parent/guardian consent, the children's motor and cognitive development will be assessed through the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development - 3rd edition (BSITD-III), their functional abilities through the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), and their parents will answer the Young Children's Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM) form , an innovative tool which measures participation in activities at home, at school/preschool, and in the community. After the dataset distribution is determined, parametric or non-parametric tests will take place to assess: participation frequency and involvement; percentage of environmental barriers and facilitators in each setting, comparing the experimental and control groups; the correlation between the scores in the motor and cognitive domains according to the BSITD-III with participation frequency/involvement, and with environmental barriers and facilitators. Expected results: This study will collect unprecedented data about the participation and environment of Brazilian infants and toddlers. It is expected that participation frequency and involvement in activities at home, daycare/preschool, and community will be lower in those with developmental risk factors in comparison with those without them. The results from the environment section will reveal participation barriers and facilitators relevant to each context.
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