Hello

From your description it sounds like this infant is quite a challenge.

I would suggest you take a task/context based approach to intervention. The basic principle is that you start with what the infant can do - and then find ways to engage the child in goal directed actions so that she increases her ability to do things by exploring different ways to achieve the goal. In this way you slowly but surely build the infant's capacity for action.

One of the earliest postural skills an infant learns is to keep the head steady so that she can look around and visually explore the environment, either in lying when being supported by a care. Visual reach and search requires a steady head - and this early looking action is a major stimulus for the development of head control and stability.

When the infant is being held by a carer, what does she do? Is she interested in looking at things? Hpw much support does she need in order to keep her head steady so that she can look. What does she like looking at?

How old is the infant now? This makes a difference to what task you can expect her to do. At seven months I would mostly be looking at what she does when lying on the floor and how she responds to the challenges of sitting on an adults lap and being picked up and carried around.

Esther suggested you look at my site for ideas on task based approaches - just to mention that it has moved to Home | SfA Webmanual

Pam