Therapy Groups

Rolling Rugrats: Baby Intervention Group:

‘A BIG group for little people’

What is it?
Baby Intervention Group (BIG), or ‘Rolling Rugrats’ is a premature baby follow up group at Campbelltown Hospital Paediatric Allied Health Unit. Babies who live in the local area usually meet us in the Special Care Nursery (SCN) and are invited by an allied health clinician to attend.
Any premature babies who were born:
- Less than 34 weeks gestation
AND
- Less than 2000 grams birth weight
will be invited to attend the group.

Research shows that it is important to monitor the development of premature babies. We are able to provide information to families on how we can support them as their baby grows and develops. This may involve assessment, therapy ideas, and education.

Once home, we encourage families to visit BIG once a month to discuss any concerns or queries they may have about their baby’s development in the first year.

Why come to BIG?
- Access specialist assessment and monitoring of your baby’s development
- Learn more about your baby’s strengths
- Have a local service that can liaise with your doctors and growth and development clinics
- Access early intervention that is evidence based and is developmentally sensitive
- Connect with other local families

Who will be there?
When visiting BIG, you will have the opportunity to meet other families who have a baby born prematurely. There are also a range of allied health professionals who will meet up with you to track your baby’s development in a range of areas.

Occupational Therapists – Look at learning and attention, thinking and play skills, hand skills (fine motor coordination), interaction, and sensory preferences throughout day to day activities
Physiotherapists – Look at gross motor movement such as, rolling, sitting, crawling, and walking. They can also look at a baby’s head shape development and muscle development.
Speech Pathologists – Look at a baby’s feeding and communication development (understanding and talking, speech sounds)

Developmental Milestones
Children develop at their own pace. For your premature baby, we measure their age and what is expected of them from their original due date – we call this their ‘corrected age’. So if your baby was born early, it’s like they have two birthdays – the day they were born is their official date of birth, but the original due date is also important when thinking about their developmental milestones.

A BIG group for little people!