The Evaluation of Social Interaction (ESI; Fisher & Griswold, 2008) assesses a person's performance of social interaction skills in the natural context with typical social partners during any area of occupation. We used Rasch analysis of 175 observations of 128 people, ages 4-73, to examine internal scale validity, the items' skill hierarchy and intended purpose, and the ESI's ability to differentiate between people with and without disabilities. The ESI demonstrated validity for 24 of 27 skills and six intended purposes, with a hierarchy of performance. Of the observations, 95.3% demonstrated goodness of fit to the Rasch model, indicating person response validity. People without a disability demonstrated significantly higher social skills performance than those with a known disability (t= 4.468, df= 83 p= .000). The ESI has the potential to provide a quantitative assessment of social interaction performance in the natural context of a person's desired occupation and may be useful for intervention planning and outcome measurement.

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We examined the effect of quizzing on students' ability to apply lecture content to clinical examples on an in-class exam. Fifty-six occupational therapy students in a graduate-level course completed three online modules that included lectures, slide presentations, demonstrations, and video clips. Throughout each module, students were given "Learning Moments," in which they were asked a question (Question condition); were asked to read a statement confirming the content presented (Study condition); or were not asked to do anything (Not Asked condition). The Question condition resulted in better exam performance than the combined Study and Not Asked conditions (p < .01), whereas performance on Study and Not Asked questions did not differ (p = .67). Students performed better on material on which they had been previously quizzed (i.e., testing effect). Quizzing may be a good strategy to prepare students for clinical practice.

The results support the use of the ESI to measure quality of social interaction in a natural context.

Using the Classroom Observation Guide, occupational therapists can recommend classroom activities that suit a particular teacher's style. For example, working with a teacher who prefers structural activities with clear time and space boundaries for one specific purpose, a therapist might suggest organized sensorimotor games with a distinct purpose to be carried out for a given time period.

This process of studying a practice setting in order to develop a model for fieldwork that addresses the uniqueness of the setting may be used to develop fieldwork opportunities in other practice settings as well.

The purpose of this study was to examine the utility of the Evaluation of Social Interaction (ESI) in a community-based program for persons with traumatic brain injury (TBI), as well as its effectiveness in measuring occupational therapy intervention. Ten people who experienced a TBI and were participating in a community-based program were a convenience sample for this study. The Occupational Therapy Intervention Process Model (OTIPM) provided the theoretical framework. The ESI provided a pre-test performance measure and also served as a guide for an eight-week occupational therapy intervention program, and as a post-test to measure intervention effectiveness. This study showed that the ESI was effective in guiding therapist intervention related to social skill performance of participants during their participation in a community-based program. As a group, the difference between pre and post ESI logit measures was also significant (t=4.977, p=0.001). The study provides initial considerations for the utility of the ESI to guide intervention related to social skill performance during daily occupations. It further documents the effectiveness of the ESI in measuring occupational therapy intervention, based on OTIPM, and supports occupational therapy services provided in a community-based program context for those living with TBI.

Date Presented 4/17/2015 This study presents validity and reliability evidence for the Assessment of Compared Qualities—Occupational Performance (ACQ–OP), an innovative occupation-focused tool designed to measure the extent of the discrepancy between two perspectives: a person’s self-report and direct observation.