Chest Wall Development in Infancy & Beyond: Live Webinar with Mary Massery
Chest Wall Development in Infancy and Beyond: What to Watch and When to Worry
Live virtual webinar taught by Mary Massery
Credits: 2 continuing education hours (.2 CEUs); clock hours available upon request
Audience: PTs, OTs, SLPs (pediatrics - from birth to young adults)
Level: Intermediate
Class Starts: 3:30 pm (PDT) / 4:30 pm (MT) / 5:30 pm (CT) / 6:30 pm (ET)
Class Ends: 5:30 pm (PDT) / 6:30 pm (MT) / 7:30 pm (CT) / 8:30 pm (ET)
Newborns, struggling to survive from prematurity, heart/lung conditions, rare syndromes, etc., work hard to breathe. This often creates atypical mechanical forces on their rapidly developing chest walls and may result in acquired chest wall deformities. We’ll look at how the chest wall develops in healthy 0-12-month-old babies and compare that to infants struggling to survive (increase work of breathing). We’ll follow at-risk children for secondary chest wall deformities and reflect on clinical signs that therapists could use to screen babies/young children for earlier interventions. We will also discuss congenital chest wall deformities vs. acquired deformities.
Objectives
Upon completion of this course participants will be able to:
- Identify normal chest wall development trends of 0–12-month, healthy, full-term infants.
- Identify adverse biomechanical forces that contribute to consequential chest wall deformities for infants/young children with conditions that cause them to increase their work of breathing or other survival strategies.
- Identify the difference between congenital and acquired chest wall deformities and how the origin of the chest deformity might change how you treat that child.
- Choose clinical screening tests for your clients to identify signs of at-risk secondary chest wall deformities.
- Correlate consequential chest wall deformities to potential adverse health and postural development through long-term case studies.
- Apply therapy interventions to mitigate (as able) atypical biomechanical forces on infant and young children’s developing chest walls and resultant posture.
Schedule
3:30–4:30 pm (PDT): Focus: Rib cage and spine anatomy of a newborn. Typically, chest wall maturation in the first year of life in healthy infants. Comparisons to babies at-risk for secondary chest wall deformities. How does an increased effort to breathe adversely affect the developing rib cage?
4:30–5:30 pm (PDT): Focus: Clinical signs of adverse chest wall development. Suggested therapy interventions. When is a referral to a specialist (therapist or doctor) warranted? Multiple long-term cases: acquired and congenital chest wall deformities. Therapeutically, what works, what doesn’t.
About the presenter
Mary Massery, PT, DPT, DSc
Dr. Massery has been a practicing physical therapist for 40+ years. Her doctoral research pioneered the concept of managing trunk pressures as a new way to visualize core stabilization. She has presented over 1,000 lectures and courses linking motor behaviors to breathing and postural mechanics in all 50 US states and in 18 countries.
Dr. Massery has received the American Physical Therapy Association’s highest clinical award, The Florence Kendall Practice Award, for "outstanding and enduring contributions to the practice of physical therapy,” and she was named Outstanding Alumnus of the Year by each of her three universities. She continues to maintain a private practice in Chicago, specializing in breathing and postural dysfunction.