Date Presented Accepted for AOTA INSPIRE 2021 but unable to be presented due to online event limitations.
Participation of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is limited compared with their typically developing (TD) peers. This study examined the participation of children with ASD using an adapted observation in comparison with TD children. Content validity was evaluated by 21 experts, and 70 children were observed. Children with ASD scored significantly lower than TD children in most areas. More structured settings enabled higher participation scores. Further studies are needed.
Primary Author and Speaker: Anat Golos
Contributing Authors: Sophi Itkin, Hadas Ben-Zur
PURPOSE: Participation is defined as involvement in a life situation according to the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health for Children and Youth (ICF-CY; WHO, 2007). Participation is important for children's learning and development, as well as contributes to their health and well-being (Imms et al., 2017). Participation of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is limited, compared to their typically developing (TD) peers (Yee et al., 2017). Since participation is a significant outcome of intervention, there is a need to use valid tools that assess the participation of children with ASD. The purpose of this study is to adapt the ‘Structured Preschool Participation Observation’ (SPO; Golos & Weintraub, 2020) to preschool children with ASD (SPO-ASD) attending special education, and to examine their participation in comparison to typically developing children, as well as examining its initial psychometric properties.
DESIGN: This is an experimental study using a group-comparison design.
METHOD: The study included 70 children aged 3.3-6.10 years: 33 children with ASD who attend special education, and 37 TD children who attend mainstream education. Content validity was evaluated using questionnaires that were completed by 21 experts. Based on the observations using the SPO-ASD on children with ASD in the educational setting, internal consistency and intra-rater reliability were measured, and information about their participation characteristics were also collected focusing on different occupational areas of daily activities, learning, play and social participation in the educational setting.
RESULTS: Children with ASD demonstrated significantly high frequency of participation in the occupational areas of daily activities and learning, and low scores in social performance, as well as low level of enjoyment/engagement in daily activities, and a high degree of assistance in daily activities; they scored significantly lower than TD children in all occupational areas except frequency of participation in the learning area. In both groups, children who attended more structured settings received higher frequency of participation scores.
CONCLUSION: The results confirm the limitations in participation of children with ASD, and highlight the importance of assessing their participation patterns in preschool activities using structured observation. This knowledge may contribute to developing of intervention program. It seems that specially adapted and more structured educational settings enable those children to participate according to their abilities, mainly in the occupational area of learning. Further studies are needed to further establish psychometric properties, as well as for better understand the impact of environments on children participation in the educational setting.
References
Golos, A., & Weintraub, N. (2020). The psychometric properties of the Structured Preschool Participation Observation (SPO). Physical & Occupational Therapy in Pediatrics, 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/01942638.2020.1711845
Imms, C., Granlund, M., Wilson, P. H., Steenbergen, B., Rosenbaum, P., & Gordon, A.M. (2017). Participation, both a means and an end: A conceptual analysis of processes and outcomes in childhood disability. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 59, 16–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.1
World Health Organization (WHO). (2007). International Classification of Function, Disability and Health—Children and Youth Version (ICF-CY). Geneva, Switzerland: Author.
Yee, T., Magill-Evans, J., Zwaigenbaum, L., Sacrey, L. A. R., Askari, S., & Anaby, D. (2017). Participation Measures for Preschool Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Scoping Review. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 4(2), 132-141. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40489-017-0102-8
