Life skills programmes for university-based wellness support services for students in health sciences professions: a scoping review.

Background: Student wellness is a major concern during the educational programme of health professionals, as mental distress impacts negatively on students' academic performance and success. Available literature indicates that improving student wellness has the potential to increase academic performance and success for students. Medical schools implement various forms of support to lessen student distress and enhance wellness.

Perspectives of rehabilitation professionals on assistive technology provision to young children in South Africa: a national survey.

Purpose: Various factors influence the selection of assistive technology for young children within a context with limited resources, such as South Africa. Rehabilitation professionals are required to weigh up different factors as part of their professional reasoning process when making assistive technology (AT) selections. Insight into the perceived influence of different factors may assist in understanding how professionals make decisions about AT in this context.

Children in South Africa with and without Intellectual Disabilities' Rating of Their Frequency of Participation in Everyday Activities.

In a low-and middle-income country (LMIC) such as South Africa, not much is known about how children with intellectual disabilities (ID) participate in everyday activities, as no studies to date have compared their participation to peers without ID from the same background. Using a newly developed, contextually valid measure of participation, Picture my Participation (PmP), 106 children with (73) and without ID (33), rated their frequency of participation in activities of daily living. Previous international research has established that children with ID tend to participate less frequently than children without ID in everyday activities outside of the school setting.

Multilingualism and augmentative and alternative communication in South Africa - Exploring the views of persons with complex communication needs.

Background: Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) can assist persons with complex communication needs to communicate competently with a variety of communication partners in a variety of contexts. However, AAC systems and intervention often do not take multilingual aspects into consideration.

Objective: This small-scale exploratory study had three aims, namely: (1) to describe the self-reported language skills of multilingual South African adults using AAC, (2) to describe the languages and communication modalities they used in interaction and (3) to obtain their views regarding access to various languages.

AAC services for multilingual populations: South African service provider perspectives.

Background: In South Africa, many persons in need of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) come from multilingual backgrounds. There is as yet a limited evidence base (locally and internationally) for the provision of AAC services to multilingual populations. The perspectives of service providers can assist in gaining an understanding of current practices and the factors that influence these.

Influences on selection of assistive technology for young children in South Africa: perspectives from rehabilitation professionals.

Unlabelled: Selection of assistive technology for young children is a complex process. Within a context with limited resources, such as South Africa, research is needed to determine the factors influencing the assistive technology selection process, as these could ultimately either facilitate or hinder the availability and accessibility of affordable, adaptable, acceptable, and high quality assistive technology for this age group.

Method: Two asynchronous online focus groups were conducted with 16 rehabilitation professionals to identify the factors they perceived to influence the selection and provision of assistive technology to young children within the South African context.

Factors Perceived by Rehabilitation Professionals to Influence the Provision of Assistive Technology to Children: A Systematic Review.

Background: The use of Assistive Technology (AT) by children with disabilities has been associated with significant development and improvement in outcomes within all spheres of life. However, AT is often underutilized. Appropriate selection of AT by rehabilitation professionals could improve the satisfaction of the user and their family with their AT.

Eye gaze technology: a South African perspective.

Purpose: Based on the bioecological model by Bronfenbrenner, this paper will provide a broad perspective on factors that need to be taken into account in order to facilitate communication and participation in preliterate children making use of electronic Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems accessed through eye gaze.

Method: Two case studies of children who have been provided with the technology described are presented. The case studies were analysed using the four nested systems of the ecology as a framework to describe not only the environment, but also the processes and interactions between the persons and their context.