1. Helping children with developmental coordination disorder transition to secondary school.
- Author
-
Hannon, C., Turpin, H., and D'Abo, V.
- Subjects
CHILD development deviations ,CONFERENCES & conventions ,OCCUPATIONAL therapy ,TRANSITIONAL programs (Education) - Abstract
Background: Transition to secondary school is a significant event in a child's life. An unsuccessful transition has long-term consequences on academic attainment and psychological well-being (West, Sweeting and Young, 2010). Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) are often vulnerable at school experiencing bullying and other difficulties (Evangelou et al., 2008 Stephenson and Chesson, 2008). It is not yet understood what support might help this population at this key life stage. Objective: To examine whether group based intervention delivered in a concentrated timescale to children with DCD, transitioning to secondary school, improved their satisfaction in achieving specific goals. Design: Single group pre and post test design using secondary data analysis. Setting: Outpatient paediatric occupational therapy clinic. Subjects: 10 children with DCD or other coordination difficulties (aged 10-11 years) transitioning to secondary school. Interventions: Participants received over 8.3 hours of occupational therapy on 10 school occupations over one week from a team of experienced paediatric occupational therapists (OT) combining motor learning and cognitive strategies. Results: Satisfaction scores on the adapted version of the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure significantly improved following intervention (Mdn scores +16.1, p<.05). Conclusions: A goal-oriented group focused on transition to secondary school shows potential as an effective intervention method. Further research using adequately powered studies and rigorous methodology is required to provide higher-level support to the intervention's effectiveness. Implications: Occupational therapists are skilled to support this population during the transition to secondary school. Concentrated group intervention may be a beneficial and efficient approach for OT practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2016