Pediatric physical therapy : the official publication of the Section on Pediatrics of the American Physical Therapy Association
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Physical therapists (PT) must be competent to treat patients across the lifespan, from pediatrics through geriatrics. Increasing the amount of experiential learning (EL) in pediatrics presents an opportunity for students to improve their self-efficacy in communication and patient handling. The purpose was to investigate changes in PT students' perceived self-efficacy in communication and patient handling following a structured and focused 8-week EL opportunity with a pediatric population. ⋯ Our findings reinforce the benefits of incorporating pediatric EL opportunities into the DPT curriculum as an effective learning strategy in pediatric education.