Exploring the Participation Patterns and Impact of Environment in Preschool Children with ASD

Abstract

Participation in everyday activities at home and in the community is essential for children’s development and well-being. Limited information exists about participation patterns of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examines these participation patterns in both the home and community, and the extent to which environmental factors and social communication abilities are associated with participation. Fifty-four parents of preschool-aged children with ASD completed the Participation and Environment Measure for Young Children and the Autism Classification System of Functioning: Social Communication. The children had a mean age of 48.9 (8.4) months. Patterns of participation were studied using descriptive statistics, radar graphs, and Spearman correlations. Children with ASD participated in a variety of activities at home and in the community, but showed a higher participation frequency at home. Parents identified different barriers (e.g., social demands) and supports (e.g., attitudes) in both settings. There was a moderate positive association between children’s social communication abilities and their levels of involvement during participation and the diversity of activities. This study highlights the importance of social communication abilities in the participation of preschool children with ASD, and the need to support parents while they work to improve their child’s participation, especially within their communities.

Participation patterns and predictors of participation in preschool children with developmental disability

“…Our findings also indicated that children with developmental disability generally have lower rates of participation in community settings when compared to other settings, which was also found in other studies (Di Marino et al, 2018; Khalifa et al, 2020; Khetani, 2015). Interestingly, although the number and frequency of activities performed were the lowest in the community, parents indicated the lowest need for change in this setting.…”

“…Lithuanian children with developmental disability quite rarely (on average from once each week to several times in the last month) participated in household chores, such as meal preparation, taking care of family members, and laundry handling. Similar data can be found in the literature on home participation of preschool and school-aged children with different types of disability in different countries (Bakaniene and Prasauskiene, 2020; Di Marino et al, 2018; Khalifa et al, 2020; Larson and Verma, 1999). We do not have data on the participation of typically developing Lithuanian children household chores and in general, therefore we cannot conclude whether the participation of children with disability in household chores is lower or not.…”

“…This study applied the YC-PEM to build culturally and clinically relevant knowledge about participation patterns and participation predictors in preschool children with developmental disability. Study results are consistent with and expanded upon prior research (Albrecht and Khetani, 2017; Benjamin et al, 2017; Di Marino et al, 2018; Khalifa et al, 2020; Khetani, 2015; Lim et al, 2016) on the participation of young children and participation predictors, the most important of which were environmental supports.…”

“…The mean frequency of participation in in-group learning was 6 (out of 7), for socializing with friends 5.5, and for field trips and events 3. These frequencies of participation of Lithuanian children with disability are higher than that of their peers with disability living in North America (Benjamin et al, 2017; Khalifa et al, 2020; Khetani, 2015) and almost the same as in typically developing North American children (Benjamin et al, 2017; Khetani, 2015). These differences in results may have been due to differences in the study population (e.g., children with a specific diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder vs developmental disability), instrument used to measure participation, and national education policies.…”

“…The YC-PEM is found to have good psychometric properties and can distinguish the participation and perceived supportiveness of the environment between children with and without disabilities (Khetani, 2015). Several studies (Albrecht and Khetani, 2017; Benjamin et al, 2017; Di Marino et al, 2018; Khalifa et al, 2020) have been conducted on young children’s participation using the YC-PEM. Most of them are limited in the types of diagnoses (Khalifa et al, 2020) and settings (Albrecht and Khetani, 2017; Benjamin et al, 2017; Khalifa et al, 2020; Lim et al, 2016), and the majority involves children from North America (Albrecht and Khetani, 2017; Benjamin et al, 2017; Di Marino et al, 2018; Khalifa et al, 2020).…”