Finding Solutions: Augusta University ‘Baby lab’ gives hands-on learning

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -Augusta University has opened a new “baby lab” where infants help train the next generation of occupational physical and speech therapists.

The program allows therapy students to observe and interact with babies to develop skills they cannot learn from textbooks alone. Students from three different therapy programs work together to assess different aspects of infant development.

“The occupational therapy students may be looking more at the baby’s fine motor skills, their play skills, where as the PT students may be looking more at their gross motor skills and our speech language students may be looking at communication skills and feeding skills,” said Mallory Rosche, associate professor of occupational therapy at Augusta University.

Students gain real-world experience

For students like Chesnee Freeman, an occupational therapy major, the lab provides practical training for her future career.

“I know it’s definitely going to help out when I go into my field work getting to draw on real life experience other than what I learned in books and lectures,” Freeman said.

Parents benefit from developmental assessments

The program also serves participating families by helping parents track their children’s developmental progress.

Yuli and Luis Rodriguez, parents of baby Alessandro, said the experience helped them understand their child’s development.

“I think it was giving us an opportunity to kind of figure out where he is out in his milestones and just figuring where he is at compared to other babies and making sure he is on course to meet everything,” they said.

The grant-funded program launched this month. Three large classes allow students to participate once per semester, with each session lasting about 20 minutes.

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