A comparison of Canadian and Australian paediatric occupational therapists

Abstract

Paediatric occupational therapists were surveyed regarding their practices in Canada and Australia. Two hundred and eighty-nine Canadian occupational therapists and 330 Australian occupational therapists participated representing response rates of 28.9% and 55% respectively. The majority of respondents were female (98%), between 30 and 49 years of age (69%), had a bachelor's degree, worked on average 10.5 years in paediatrics and spent well over 50% of their work time in direct client care. The largest client diagnostic groups in both countries were those with developmental delays, learning disabilities and neurological disorders. Diagnostic groups were used as an organizing framework to portray theory, assessment and intervention use. Overall, the theoretical models cited most frequently in both countries were: Sensory Integration, Sensory Processing/Sensory Diet, Client-Centred Practice, and Occupational Performance Model. Australian therapists employed the Occupational Performance Model (Australia) for all groups, while it was rarely utilized in Canada. Common assessment tools in both Australia and Canada were the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, Developmental Test of Visual Motor Integration, and the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency. Intervention methods focused on: parental/care-giver education; activities of daily living/self-care skills training; client education; environmental modification; assistive devices; sensory integration techniques; sensory stimulation and sensory diet treatment methods; and neurodevelopmental techniques.

Visual perception of five-year-old English-speaking children in Bloemfontein using the Beery VMI-6, DTVP-3 and TVPS-3

“…Standardised measuring instruments provide occupational therapists and other professionals with a reliable measure of a child's perceptual abilities, to guide goal setting and evaluate intervention outcomes 1 . Internationally, previously released versions of the Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-motor Integration (Beery-VMI), the Developmental Test of Visual Perception (DTVP) and the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (TVPS) are among the most commonly used measuring instruments used by occupational therapists to assess the visual perception and visual-motor abilities of children [2][3][4] . Even among South African occupational therapists, these three tests are mostly preferred, despite all of them having been developed and , the DTVP-3 in 2014 7 and the TVPS-3 in 2006 1 .…”

“…Even among South African occupational therapists, these three tests are mostly preferred, despite all of them having been developed and , the DTVP-3 in 2014 7 and the TVPS-3 in 2006 1 . Over an extended period, research on the previous versions of these three tests had been conducted in numerous countries across the world 2,3,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24] . Some of these studies also investigated aspects of the validity and reliability of the tests [9][10][11] .…”

Assessing Volition in Pediatrics: Using the Volitional Questionnaire and the Pediatric Volitional Questionnaire

“…Within pediatric occupational therapy, these concepts are gaining momentum with the development and research of occupation-based pediatric assessments (Brown & Bourke-Taylor, 2014) and the increasing use of occupation-based interventions (Estes & Pierce, 2012;Kreider, Bendixen, Huang, & Lim, 2014). Despite these developments, pediatric occupational therapists are frequently, and sometimes predominantly, using impairment-focused theoretical frameworks, such as sensory integration, neurodevelopmental therapy, and typical development theories (Brown, Rodger, Brown, & Roever, 2005;Brown, Rodger, Brown, & Roever, 2007;Case-Smith & O'Brien, 2015;Kadar, McDonald, & Lentin, 2015). Pediatric occupational therapists also report frequent barriers to implementing evidence-based practice (Brown, Tseng, Casey, McDonald, & Lyons, 2010), as well as a lack of knowledge and use of conceptual occupation-based models in practice (Benson, 2013 (Bagatell, Hartmann, & Meriano, 2013;Brown et al, 2005;Brown et al, 2007;Kramer, Bowyer, O'Brien, Kielhofner, & Maziero-Barbosa, 2009).…”

“…Despite these developments, pediatric occupational therapists are frequently, and sometimes predominantly, using impairment-focused theoretical frameworks, such as sensory integration, neurodevelopmental therapy, and typical development theories (Brown, Rodger, Brown, & Roever, 2005;Brown, Rodger, Brown, & Roever, 2007;Case-Smith & O'Brien, 2015;Kadar, McDonald, & Lentin, 2015). Pediatric occupational therapists also report frequent barriers to implementing evidence-based practice (Brown, Tseng, Casey, McDonald, & Lyons, 2010), as well as a lack of knowledge and use of conceptual occupation-based models in practice (Benson, 2013 (Bagatell, Hartmann, & Meriano, 2013;Brown et al, 2005;Brown et al, 2007;Kramer, Bowyer, O'Brien, Kielhofner, & Maziero-Barbosa, 2009). Most of these assessment tools are "bottomup" (Coster, 1998) and primarily identify impairments in body functions or performance skills without directly assessing other factors, such as the environment.…”

Occupational therapists prefer combining multiple intervention approaches for children with learning difficulties

“…Some frames of reference and intervention approaches have been specifically developed for use with children with LD (Brown, Rodger, Brown & Roever, 2005;Storch & Eskow, 1996). These include SI, which aims to address sensory-processing deficits that impact on a child's ability to produce an adaptive response (Kimball, 1999).…”