Parent Perspectives of an Occupational Therapy Telehealth Intervention

Occupational therapy services delivered via telehealth can support families of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in everyday routines such as mealtime, bedtime, and play. The aim of the current study was to understand the lived experiences of parents who participated in a 12-week, telehealth-delivered occupational therapy intervention (Occupation-Based Coaching). We used semi-structured interviews and subsequent thematic content analysis to understand how parents perceived the mechanism of service delivery (i.e., videoconferencing) and the content of the intervention. Themes that emerged from the data included Compatibility with Everyday Life, Collaborative Relationship, and Parent Empowerment. Parents expressed how telehealth fit within their daily lives, how telehealth supported a collaborative relationship with the occupational therapist, and how the content of the intervention built a sense of empowerment

Exploring the Use of Ecological Momentary Assessment within a Telehealth Intervention for Families of Children with Autism

Background. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to measure parent self-efficacy and stress throughout a 9-week occupation-based coaching telehealth intervention for families of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods. The participants included seven families of children with ASD 2 to 6 years of age. The parents were sent emails to gather EMA measures weekly during the intervention. We used percentages to examine response rates to EMA surveys and a mixed-model regression to examine changes in parent-self efficacy and stress during the intervention. Results. The parents responded to 78.57% of EMA requests, with five parents completing all measures. Using mixed-model regression, findings suggest that EMA captured a significant increase in parenting self-efficacy (p \u3c .01) and a decrease in parenting stress (p \u3c .05) over the course of the intervention. Conclusion. EMA may be a useful method to gather measures of parent factors, and preliminary findings suggest that EMA may be an innovative way to measure outcomes of occupational therapy telehealth interventions for families of children with ASD

Sensory processing patterns and sleep quality in primary school children

ABSTRACTObjectives: Sensory processing and sleep quality affect children's academic performance and their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between sensory processing patterns and sleep quality in primary schoolchildren.Materials & Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 231 primary school students aged 7 to 12 years old (133 girls and 98 boys, mean age of 8.68±1.51) who were studying in schools in Tehran were randomly selected through cluster sampling. Researchers distributed a questionnaire for children's sleep habits to assess the quality of sleep and a Sensory Profile Questionnaire to assess the sensory processing patterns.Results: In this study, we found a meaningful moderate relationship between sensory processing patterns and the general scores of sleep habits (p <0.001) and each of the patterns of sensory processing (avoidance, sensitivity, seeking, and registration) had a negative relationship with areas of sleep habits (p =.005). Also, there was a significant difference between children who had more challenges with sleep and children with normal sleep patterns in sensory processing; mean differences in all four sensory quadrants were significant (p <001).Conclusion: Sensory processing patterns and sleep habits in primary school children have moderate correlation. Occupational therapists should consider the relationship between sensory challenges and sleep habits during their practice decisions with sensory challenges and sleep problems. Better sleep may occur with attention to sensory needs within the sleep routines. When sleep is better, this may lead to improved quality of life for the family and student performance at school

Contextual intervention adapted for Autism Spectrum Disorder: An RCT of a Parenting Program with Parents of Children Diagnosed with ASD

 ABSTRACT Background: This study investigated the effects of a manualized Contextual Intervention adapted for Autism Spectrum Disorders (CI-ASD), and essential elements of the intervention in promoting children’s participation and mothers’ parenting self-efficacy.Methods: Researchers conducted a randomized controlled trial. Participants (36 parents of children with ASD) were randomly assigned to wait-list control or intervention groups. The intervention comprised contextually reflective occupational therapy combines 3 elements: sensory processing patterns, coaching, and social support. We provided the program to promote child’s participation and parent’s efficiency.  During phases 1 the participants in the intervention group received CI-ASD as long as Treatment As Usual (TAU) and during phase 2 they received TAU only. We completed the outcome measures at three time points (pre-intervention, post-intervention and follow-up). Researchers conducted semi-structured interviews post-intervention to explore acceptability of intervention and participants’ experiences of CI-ASD.Results: The findings of the study indicate that CI-ASD can produce meaningful effects in eliminating sensory issues, promoting child participation and parenting efficiency in ASD families, compared to TAU. Parents reported high levels of acceptance and also confirmed the family’s achievements.Conclusion: These gains suggest CI-ASD as an effective intervention for children who have ASD and their families, but further studies are needed to declare and generalize the findings over time. Estimated effect sizes were in the large and medium ranges and favored the intervention group.

The Impact of Sensory Processing Abilities on the Daily Lives of Young Children and Their Families: A Conceptual Model

The article describes a proposed model for considering sensory processing an important factor in young children's performance. The author reviews constructs from neuroscience and behavioral science to propose how the transaction among these constructs may provide a framework for understanding various patterns of behavior and for developing methods for handling young children's sensory processing needs in a functional and supportive manner. The author reviews data from a series of studies on the Sensory Profile, a family-report measure of a child's responses to sensory experiences during daily life, to illustrate the utility and possible quantitative support for the proposed model components in young children with and without disabilities. Neurological thresholds continuum The CNS is complex; none of its systems contains only Stellar and Stellar' 6 described several conditions they believed were necessary to produce goal-directed behavior: • an internal environment that supports the behavior • an external environment that provides reasonable opportunities • a stimulus to trigger the behavior • opportunities to learn If we were to characterize these conditions in relation to sensory processing, the internal environment would be the CNS's capacity for processing and modulating sensory input. The external environment would represent the sensory experiences available to young children throughout their daily lives. As children notice and respond to particular sensory stimuli (ie, the triggers for behaviors), they discover (ie, leam) their own capacities to act. Those of us who serve young children and their families must recognize the potential impact of these factors on young children's behavioral repertoires, so we can interpret the meaning of behaviors effectively. In addition to considering the conditions necessary to support behavior, we must also consider the factors that generate motivation to act. Brody'" offered three factors that contribute to a person's tendency to perform a task. First, the person must need and value the goal, that is, have an incentive to perform. Second, the person must understand and believe that performance of a particular task will lead to the goal, that is, have an expectancy about performance. Third, the person will select tasks based on his or her needs to complete the task correctly, that is, to be successful. Although adults try to guide their interests and choices, young children have many ways to display their motivational tendencies. Some children are very assertiv

Characteristics of Inattention and Hyperactivity, Perception of General Health, and Reading Literacy of Japanese Adolescents: Results from a Large-scale Community Sample

Adolescents with reading literacy difficulty with comorbid attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are often at a greater risk for problems of communication, and behavioral and mental health challenges. We aimed to examine literacy weakness for the native Japanese language of KOKUGO and the foreign language of ENGLISH as perceived by Japanese adolescents. We also aimed to analyze the relationship between literacy weakness and inattention and hyperactivity characteristics. We conducted a largescale questionnaire survey of 2987 junior high school students. We used logistic regression analysis to examine the data fromthe self-report Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), the General Health Questionnaire-12, and adolescents’ perceptions of their command of KOKUGO and ENGLISH. We found a significant association between perceived literacy for both languagesand SDQ inattention and hyperactivity characteristics. Reading difficulties in ENGLISH may be addressed by introducing ENGLISH at an earlier age supported by clinically enhanced pedagogy

Association of Sensory Processing and Eating Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

“Selective” or “picky eating” is a frequent problem in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Many of these children do not treat sensory input, particularly olfactory, auditory, visual, and tactile information in the same manner as their typically developing peers of the same age. The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between problems of sensory processing and the number of eating problems in children with ASD. Of 95 children with ASD, 3 to 10 years of age, 65 percent showed a definite difference and 21 percent a probable difference in sensory processing on the total score of the Short Sensory Profile. These results were significantly related to an increase in the number of eating problems measured by the Eating Profile. These results could not be explained by age, sex, mental retardation, attention deficit disorder, or hyperactivity. Timely interventions focusing on the sensory components of eating must now be developed

Clinical Study Association of Sensory Processing and Eating Problems in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

"Selective" or "picky eating" is a frequent problem in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Many of these children do not treat sensory input, particularly olfactory, auditory, visual, and tactile information in the same manner as their typically developing peers of the same age. The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between problems of sensory processing and the number of eating problems in children with ASD. Of 95 children with ASD, 3 to 10 years of age, 65 percent showed a definite difference and 21 percent a probable difference in sensory processing on the total score of the Short Sensory Profile. These results were significantly related to an increase in the number of eating problems measured by the Eating Profile. These results could not be explained by age, sex, mental retardation, attention deficit disorder, or hyperactivity. Timely interventions focusing on the sensory components of eating must now be developed