No abstract

Findings suggest that two raters can score the RKPPS with some consistency and that scores on this measure progress developmentally, thus supporting its construct validity.

The potential impact of peer-play opportunities on the overall development of young children has been well-documented in the social development, occupational therapy, and special education literature. However, the effect of peer characteristics on the manifestation and facilitation of specific types of play roles and behaviors has received little attention. This topic is of key importance to occupational therapists who are striving to develop interventions that enhance the development of social participation and play in preschool children. The purpose of this study was to examine the differences in initiation and response exhibited by preschool-aged children with social-play delays when participating in free-play dyads with peers of differing developmental levels. A single-subject alternating treatments design was replicated across five preschool-aged children with developmental play delays. Each child was paired with one peer who had lower developmental play skills and one peer who had higher developmental play skills. The arranged dyads were given the opportunity to play together in a specially designed playroom at their school. Their interactions were videotaped and later coded. All five children generally showed more initiation and response to initiation during play with higher-level peers, although one participant showed less differentiation for initiation than the other four children. An occupational therapist working with a preschool child with play delays and wanting to facilitate the child's initiation and response in play situations should consider pairing the child with play delays with a child who has higher play skills.

Currently, there is limited information to guide occupational therapy or physical therapy treatment of high-risk neonates with secondary orthopedic conditions in the Neonatal Intensive Care unit (NICU). This article describes one master of occupational therapy student capstone project that aimed to develop intervention protocols and parent education materials for the treatment of brachial plexus injuries (BPI) and clubfoot for a hospital NICU. A literature review and needs assessment were conducted to determine whether clinical practices and standards existed and to inform the development of the intervention protocols. The critical need to document, define, and examine best practices was validated. Clinical treatment protocols and parent education materials were developed and are presented.

Kari Tanta, PhD, OTR/L, FAOTA is the rehabilitation manager of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and the NICU follow-up (NFU) program at Valley Medical Center (VMC). To address the problem of decreased NFU attendance, the following clinical question was asked:"For families with an infant who has been discharged from a NICU, which factors promote or discourage utilization of follow-up services?" Numerous facilitators and barriers affecting attendance were identified relating to severity of infant illness, parent socioeconomic status and education levels, and pragmatic factors including timing of scheduling.Knowledge translation activities undertaken included collaboration with University of Washington (UW) students, collaboration with grant writer Leanna Birge, PhD, and submission of findings for publication. Due to conflicting schedules, collaboration with the UW students was limited to a brief telephone dialogue. The collaboration with Dr. Birge will directly support the acquisition of grants for informal quality improvement (QI) studies. The submitted article will potentially reach many readers specializing in pediatrics, though it is difficult to assess the true reach of the article. Further research should investigate effective methods for increasing NFU program service utilization. Campbell et al., 1993;Harmon et al., 2013;Tien, Peterson, & Shelley, 2002). A few studies implemented specific methods for increasing attendance and identified the following methods as successful: calling before appointments, eliminating morning appointments, reducing paperwork, scheduling appointments before discharge, and providing transportation to appointments (Catlett, Thompson, Jondrow, & Boshkoff, 1993;Patra, Greene, Perez, Silvestri, 2014). This knowledge has implications primarily for the providers of NFU services. NICU Follow-UpIdentifying the factors associated with under-utilization of follow-up services is the first step in implementing program changes that would increase service utilization. Providers must contemplate how they can compensate for the common barriers that prevent their clients from accessing and/or using services. For any NFU program facing the issue of decreased NICU Follow-Up 5 attendance, there is benefit in using the literature to determine which factors could be influencing their access to the NFU services for their specific population. To further improve results, providers can survey their clients directly to determine barriers and then share their findings to contribute to the current literature base on this topic.With these findings, we undertook the following knowledge translation activities: collaborating with University of Washington (UW) occupational therapy students, collaborating with grant writer Leanna Birge, PhD, and submitting findings for publication. Collaboration with the UW students and Dr. Birge did not result in a tangible outcome, but rather consisted of a dialogue aimed at sharing knowledge to further projects related to increasing attendance at the VMC NFU pro...