Differences in patterns of physical participation in recreational activities between children with and without intellectual and developmental disability.

Background: Children with intellectual and developmental disability (IDD) are at risk of experiencing limited participation in recreational activities, where they may be present but not physically engaged.

Aim: To compare patterns of physical engagement in recreational activities between children with and without IDD.

Methods And Procedures: Fifty children with IDD (26 boys, 24 girls; mean age 8.

Simulation in Occupational Therapy Curricula: A literature review.

Background/aim: Simulated learning experiences are increasingly being used in health-care education to enhance student engagement and provide experiences that reflect clinical practice; however, simulation has not been widely investigated in occupational therapy curricula. The aim of this paper was to: (i) describe the existing research about the use and evaluation of simulation over the last three decades in occupational therapy curricula and (ii) consider how simulation has been used to develop competence in students.

Methods: A literature review was undertaken with searches of MEDLINE, CINAHL and ERIC to locate articles that described or evaluated the use of simulation in occupational therapy curricula.

An exploration of the relationship between two measures of children's participation.

Purpose: To investigate the relationship between the Children Participation Questionnaire and the Children's Assessment of Participation with Hands.

Materials And Methods: Two researchers classified the item contents independently using the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health-Child and Youth version as a guide. Parents of 51 children with intellectual and developmental disabilities completed both measures within one month.

Occupational therapists' and physiotherapists' perceptions of implementing Occupational Performance Coaching.

Purpose: Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC) has been proposed as an intervention for working with caregivers towards achievement of goals for themselves and their children. Preliminary studies indicate the effectiveness of OPC; however, translation into practice requires an understanding of therapists' perceptions of applying OPC in their service delivery settings. This study explored physio- and occupational-therapists' experiences of using OPC and their perceptions of the contextual factors which influence its implementation.

Human rights in occupational therapy education: A step towards a more occupationally just global society.

Background/aim: Education on human rights will place occupational therapists in a strong position to address societal inequities that limit occupational engagement for many client groups. The imminent changes to the Minimum Standard for the Education of Occupational Therapists engender efforts towards social change and will require university-level human rights education. This education might enhance the profession's influence on disadvantaging social structures in order to effect social change.

Improving Transfer of Learning: An Innovative Comentoring Program to Enhance Workplace Implementation After an Occupational Therapy Course on Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Introduction: Research suggests that learning gained through training is infrequently implemented in the workplace. A short-term postcourse comentoring program was developed with the aim of facilitating workplace implementation of learning after a 3-day course for occupational therapists. The program was evaluated for usefulness, successes, challenges, recommended improvements, and associations with changes in self-rated knowledge and confidence.

Strategies Identified as Effective by Mothers During Occupational Performance Coaching.

Aims: This study examined strategies mothers reported as effective in facilitating children's successful performance in activities they identified as goals during Occupational Performance Coaching (OPC).

Methods: Twenty-nine mothers of children with occupational performance issues engaged in OPC. A random sample of 44 /157 (28%) coaching sessions were video-recorded from which the audio recording was analyzed using a general inductive approach to explore the nature of strategies reported as effective by mothers.

Sensory Processing and Its Relationship with Children's Daily Life Participation.

Aims: To investigate whether children with probable or definite differences in sensory processing (SP) had participation restrictions, and the relationship between Short Sensory Profile (SSP) scores and children's participation.

Methods: The participants were parents of 64 children (mean age 8 years 1 month); 36 with potential impairments in regulating sensory input and filtering out unnecessary stimuli (29 boys, 7 girls) and 28 with typical SP abilities (25 boys, 3 girls). Parents' completed the SSP and Participation in Childhood Occupations Questionnaire (PICO-Q).

Cost-Effectiveness of a Nonpharmacological Intervention in Pediatric Burn Care.

Objective: To report the cost-effectiveness of a tailored handheld computerized procedural preparation and distraction intervention (Ditto) used during pediatric burn wound care in comparison to standard practice.

Methods: An economic evaluation was performed alongside a randomized controlled trial of 75 children aged 4 to 13 years who presented with a burn to the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia. Participants were randomized to either the Ditto intervention (n = 35) or standard practice (n = 40) to measure the effect of the intervention on days taken for burns to re-epithelialize.

Development and Psychometric Evaluation of a New Measure for Children's Participation in Hand-Use Life Situations.

Objective: To describe the development of the Children's Assessment of Participation with Hands, a parent-report questionnaire that assesses children's participation in life situations requiring hand use specifically, and to investigate its construct validity (using Rasch analysis and known-group comparison) and reliability (test-retest reliability and internal consistency).

Design: Cross-sectional, validation, and test-retest studies.

Setting: Schools.

Living with autism spectrum disorder in Hanoi, Vietnam.

There is limited understanding of Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Vietnam. This ethnographic study aimed to explore how ASD is represented and managed in the cultural, social and economic contexts of Vietnam, and describe the experiences of families with children with ASD in Hanoi, Vietnam. This study was conducted from 2011 to 2012 in Hanoi and employed a range of methods, including participant observation, in-depth interviews with 27 parents of children with ASD and 17 key informants, and online survey.

Evaluation of Autism-Related Health Information on the Web.

Background: The Internet is a frequently accessed source of information for parents of a child with autism. To help parents make informed decisions about treatment options, websites should contain accurate information. This study aimed to evaluate the quality of information in a sample of autism-relevant websites.

Examining the inter-rater and test-retest reliability of the Student Practice Evaluation Form-Revised (SPEF-R) for occupational therapy students.

Background/aim: The Student Practice Evaluation Form-Revised Edition (SPEF-R) is widely used in Australian universities to evaluate occupational therapy students' performance in practice education. Reliable completion of the SPEF-R by practice educators is critical for students and universities from a quality assurance perspective. This study used standardised video vignettes to examine the inter-rater and test-retest reliability of practice educators when completing the SPEF-R.

Optimizing participation of children with autism spectrum disorder experiencing sensory challenges: a clinical reasoning framework.

Background: Remedial sensory interventions currently lack supportive evidence and can be challenging to implement for families and clinicians. It may be timely to shift the focus to optimizing participation of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) through accommodation and self-regulation of their sensory differences.

Purpose: A framework to guide practitioners in selecting strategies is proposed based on clinical reasoning considerations, including (a) research evidence, (b) client- and family-centredness, (c) practice contexts, (d) occupation-centredness, and (e) risks.

Early intervention services of children with physical disabilities: complexity of child and family needs.

Background/aim: To gain insight into the special issues confronting parents when accessing early intervention for children with physical disabilities where child and/or family characteristics indicate complex needs within the unique Australian context.

Methods: Qualitative interviews with families receiving early intervention for their children with physical disabilities (N=10). Families with complex circumstances such as having children with high support needs, those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and single-parent families were recruited to the study.

A comparison of the play skills of preschool children with and without developmental coordination disorder.

Play is commonly acknowledged as being important to children's development. School-aged children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are known to be less involved in play and more socially isolated than their typically developing peers, but little is known about play of preschool children with DCD. Using a quasi-experimental design, developmental play skills and frequency in engagement in play of two independent groups of preschool children aged 4 to 6 years with (n = 32) and without (n = 31) probable DCD were compared.

Comment on: 'An intervention for sensory difficulties in children with autism: a randomized trial' by Schaaf et al. (2013).

The purpose of this letter to the editor is to comment on a recently published paper in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 'An Intervention for Sensory Difficulties in Children with Autism: A Randomized Trial' by Schaaf et al. (2013). The authors are commended for undertaking a randomised clinical trial (RCT) examining the efficacy of occupational therapy using sensory integration (OT/SI).

Student Practice Evaluation Form-Revised Edition online comment bank: development and reliability analysis.

Background/aim: The reliable evaluation of occupational therapy students completing practice education placements along with provision of appropriate feedback is critical for both students and for universities from a quality assurance perspective. This study describes the development of a comment bank for use with an online version of the Student Practice Evaluation Form-Revised Edition (SPEF-R Online) and investigates its reliability.

Methods: A preliminary bank of 109 individual comments (based on previous students' placement performance) was developed via five stages.

Biological markers of stress in pediatric acute burn injury.

Background: Burns and their associated wound care procedures evoke significant stress and anxiety, particularly for children. Little is known about the body's physiological stress reactions throughout the stages of re-epithelialization following an acute burn injury. Previously, serum and urinary cortisol have been used to measure stress in burn patients, however these measures are not suitable for a pediatric burn outpatient setting.

Autism in context 2: Assessment, intervention and services in Australia.

Continuing from part 1, part 2 of the autism spectrum disorders review explores clinical practice and service delivery aspects of autism spectrum disorders including current assessment approaches in Australia, family-centred models of care, and key service structure and delivery issues. Treatments including behavioural interventions, established and emergent medication, and complementary and alternative therapies are discussed. The key role of paediatricians as both individual child and family care providers and advocates, as well as agents of service reform in Australia, is evident.

Autism in context 1: Classification, counting and causes.

This review paper describes our current perspective of autism spectrum disorders (ASD), taking into account past, current and future classification systems and the evolving definitions of ASD. International prevalence rates from 1965 to 2012 are presented and key issues, including whether there is an epidemic of autism and what this means in terms of thinking about possible causes of autism, are discussed. Also discussed is the need for high quality national data collection in Australia and the evidence, and lack of evidence, for the many theoretical causes of ASD.

Play and heal: randomized controlled trial of Ditto™ intervention efficacy on improving re-epithelialization in pediatric burns.

Background: The relationships between pain, stress and anxiety, and their effect on burn wound re-epithelialization have not been well explored to-date. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the Ditto™ (a hand-held electronic medical device providing procedural preparation and distraction) intervention on re-epithelialization rates in acute pediatric burns.

Methods/design: From August 2011 to August 2012, children (4-12 years) with an acute burn presenting to the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane, Australia fulfilled the study requirements and were randomized to [1] Ditto™ intervention or [2] standard practice.

Learning experiences on role-emerging placements: an exploration from the students' perspective.

Background/aim: Occupational therapy educators are challenged to provide students with practical experiences which prepare them for ever changing health-care contexts on graduation. Role-emerging placements have been widely used internationally to help meet this challenge, but research into the learning experiences of students during these innovative placements is limited. This research investigated the enablers and barriers to learning from the perspectives of students on such placements from two European universities.

Establishing the Validity and Reliability of the Student Practice Evaluation Form-Revised (SPEF-R) in Occupational Therapy Practice Education: A Rasch Analysis.

This study investigated construct validity and internal consistency of the Student Practice Evaluation Form-Revised Edition Package (SPEF-R) which evaluates students' performance on practice education placements. The SPEF-R has 38 items covering eight domains, and each item is rated on a 5-point rating scale. Data from 125 students' final placement evaluations in their final year study were analyzed using the Rasch measurement model.