Needs assessment of rehabilitation specialists for training in child development (0-8 years old)

Introduction: This study intends to determine the needs assessment of rehabilitation specialists for training in child development (0-8 years old).Material and Methods: This study is a cross -sectional, descriptive- analytic. At the first, a questionnaire was made for the assessment of the knowledge and skills of the specialists that work in the rehabilitation team of the children with developmental disorders (occupational therapy, speech therapy, physiotherapy, technical orthopedics, preschool children education, audiometry, social working and psychology of children with special needs). The content and face validity and reliability of the questionnaire were determined. Then 400 rehabilitation specialists fill in the questionnaires. After data collection and analysis, the needs of these specialists were determined.Results: The Cronbach's Alpha of questionnaire was 0.93, which was good. One hundred and four persons (43.2%) knew the most necessity to skill increasing in normal children development indexes as the first priority. Sixty-four persons (26.1%) knew the most necessity in primary prevention methods from developmental disorders as the second priority and 66 persons (27.2%) knew the methods of early detection and intervention in developmental disorders as the third priority. One hundred and twenty five persons (45.1%) knew the most necessity to knowledge increasing in normal children development indexes as the first priority. Seventy- six persons (27.4%) knew the most necessity to the methods of early detection and intervention in developmental disorders as the second priority and 74 persons (26.2%) knew the primary prevention methods from developmental disorders as the third priority.Conclusion: It is necessary to plan and perform training of the different rehabilitation specialists for increasing the knowledge and skills in children development themes that they have sensed as the most necessities.