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This study aimed to examine the ability of the Quick Neurological Screening Test QNST II) (Mutti et al., 1998) to discriminate between children with and without perceptual-motor deficits and to further clarify its psychometric characteristics. Ninety-four children aged six to seven years were tested on the QNST-II. Out of this pool of subjects, 63 children had perceptual-motor deficits and 31 were typical controls. The children with perceptual-motor deficits scored significantly lower than the control children on the total score and on each of the subtest' s scores of the QNST II. Inter-rater reliability indicated a high degree of correlation between both evaluators' total scores of the QNST II. In terms of the test' s sensitivity and specificity, QNST II scores correctly classified 97% of the children with perceptual-motor deficits and 84% of the children from the control group. The findings of this study support the capability of the QNST II to discriminate between children with perceptual-motor deficits and typical children; thereby suggesting its usefulness as a screening measure to identify children at risk for difficulties in school performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the Miller Assessment for Preschoolers (MAP) and the Pediatric Examination of Educational Readiness (PEER), two assessment tools that occupational therapists and physical therapists can use for early identification of children with developmental disabilities. The sample included 84 Israeli children who were tested on the MAP (42 children with pre-academic problems and 42 typically developing children), and 70 children who were tested on the PEER (35 children with pre-academic problems and 35 typically developing children). Out of this pool of subjects, 30 typically developing children and 30 children with pre-academic problems were tested on both tests and the results were used for additional data analysis. We found differences between the groups' MAP and PEER total scores as well as their developmental indices scores. Children with pre-academic problems scored lower. The supplementary behavioral observations of the tests yielded less definite results. A strong correlation existed between the total scores of the MAP and the PEER, and the total scores of the tests correlated significantly with each of the sub-scores of the other test. The findings support the construct validity of both tests, thereby suggesting that either test can be used to identify children with pre-academic problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Incorporating an occupation-based assessment along with or in place of an assessment of body functions and structures is not performed routinely in hand therapy practice., Purpose: (a) Explore correlations between body functions, activities and participation (A&P), and quality of life (QOL); (b) assess the extent to which personal factors and body functions contribute to variations in A&P and QOL; (c) compare the QOL of individuals with and without hand impairment (HI)., Study Design: Cross-sectional., Methods: Seventy-seven patients (Mean age=43.70 SD=17.56; 47 males and 30 females) with chronic and acute hand impairment were recruited from two hand clinics and matched with healthy participants. Assessments were administered to participants in their first visit to the hand clinic. QOL was measured with the World Health Organization QOL questionnaire; A&P with the Disabilities of the Arm Shoulder and Hand (DASH) questionnaire; pain with the Patient-Rated Wrist/Hand Evaluation; hand function with The Functional Dexterity Test, Jamar Dynamometer and Pinch Gauge., Results: Significant correlations were found between QOL and A&P, dexterity, and pain, as well as between A&P and hand strength and pain. Personal factors, hand function, and pain collectively explained 28.9% of QOL variance and 61.4% of A&P variance. Pain emerged as the sole significant contributor to QOL variance, while both hand function and pain significantly influenced A&P variance. Comparisons between the study group and controls highlighted significant differences in QOL domains, with the HI group reporting lower perceived QOL in physical, social, and environmental domains., Conclusion: The significance of adopting a comprehensive approach in HI intervention was highlighted. A complex interplay of factors across different levels of the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) framework imply that clinicians should avoid fixating exclusively on isolated factors or specific domains., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest No funding was received to assist with the preparation of this manuscript. The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose. The study was approved by Barzilai Medical Center (0140-16-BRZ)., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: OT-ParentShip intervention addresses the needs of autistic adolescents and the physical and emotional burden associated with parental caregiving., Aim: This article describes the qualitative findings of a mixed-method, single-group, pre-test-post-test pilot study to determine whether this intervention has adequate potential for further, large-scale testing., Method: The qualitative study sought to understand 14 parents' (N = 4 couples, N = 6 mothers) experiences in the intervention, examine their satisfaction, and receive their suggestions for improvement, using a grounded approach, with the aim of conceptualising a theoretical understanding of the data gathered., Results: A total of five key themes and 14 sub-themes describe parents' experiences. The key themes that were identified were parent-therapist relationship, parent-adolescent relationship, reframing, benefit for family, and parental resilience. Emerging themes shed light on the therapeutic components and change mechanisms of the intervention., Conclusion: Self-determination theory was found to be an adequate theoretical framework to map these components and help in understanding their contribution to treatment outcomes. OT-Parentship directly enforces parents' basic psychological needs, who, in turn, support their adolescent child's need for relatedness, competence, and autonomy. An occupational therapy intervention that satisfies these basic needs has the potential to lead to therapeutic alliance and internalisation of goals, thus increasing therapy engagement and outcomes., (© 2023 Occupational Therapy Australia.)

Background: Grip strength is frequently used in research and clinical work and is commonly compared to normative data in clinical settings. To enable accurate interpretation of grip strength values, normative reference values should be close to the demographic, occupational, cultural and geographic characteristics of the individual tested., Objective: Investigate the effects of gender, age, work-group and hand dominance on grip strength for the Israeli population, and to compare the grip strength to two normative studies from the United States., Methods: A cross sectional study. The grip strength of 637 healthy adults was measured using a Jamar dynamometer. The effects for age, gender, hand dominance, and work strain were investigated. Israeli sample results were compared to US norms., Results: Within the Israeli sample, a significant age effect was found for both men and women. This effect was most apparent among the 70+ age groups, in which grip strength was weaker than all the other groups. Males were significantly stronger than females, in both hands, and the dominant hand was significantly stronger, regardless of gender. Results also demonstrated a medium to large effect for type of work on grip strength portraying high manual strain workers to have stronger grip strength. Overall, the grip strength in the Israeli sample was weaker than both US samples., Conclusion: Clinicians should be cautious when comparing grip strength to published norms from a different culture/geographical region. The amount of manual strain invested in various occupational roles should be considered in the assessment and intervention process.

Background: There are high comorbidity rates between sensory modulation disorder (SMD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Knowledge regarding the objective neuropsychological differentiation between them is scarce., Aim: This study examines the effects of SMD and ADHD on a sustained attention task with and without aversive auditory conditions., Method: Sixty six young adult females were tested on the Conjunctive - Continuous Performance Task-Visual (CCPT-V) measuring sustained attention, under two conditions: 1) aversive condition (with the three most aversive sounds chosen by the participant), and 2) non-aversive condition (without sounds)., Results: Both the SMD and ADHD factors exhibited performance deficits in the sustained attention task. All study participants performed worse on both sustained attention and speed of processing when aversive sounds were present., Conclusion: We conclude that impaired sustained attention cannot differentiate between SMD and ADHD. Hence, these results should be taken under consideration in the assessment process of ADHD vs. SMD., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The Parentship protocol is a short-term intervention program in occupational therapy for parents of adolescents with High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder (HFASD). Its purpose is to promote parental resilience and enhance adolescents' participation in daily life. Aims: To explore and analyze the perceptions of occupational therapists and parents of individuals with HFASD, regarding the content of the protocol and its theoretical framework . Methods: Implementation of a phenomenological qualitative approach using two focus groups (six occupational therapists and five parents). A transcript-based analysis was used for analyzing the data. Results: The degree of agreement regarding the potential purposes and contents of the protocol was high. In addition, nine themes were raised and led to changes and additions in the protocol. Conclusions: The study provided support for content validity and acceptability of the Parentship protocol. Future research should test the feasibility of this new intervention program.

This study examined whether sensory modulation disorder-sensory overresponsivity (SMD-SOR) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have a significant effect on the perception of aversive auditory stimuli. Participants were 66 young adult women. The diagnosis of SOR was made using the Sensory Responsiveness Questionnaire, and ADHD was diagnosed by a qualified psychiatrist or neurologist using criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text rev.). Participants were presented with the Battery of Aversiveness to Sounds, short presentations of daily life sounds, and rated each sound stimulus verbally according to its perceived unpleasantness. Participants with SOR rated low-intensity aversive sounds as significantly more aversive than participants without SOR. High-intensity sounds obtained a marginal significant difference exclusively in participants with ADHD. The perception of aversive auditory stimuli in adults with SOR appears to be unique and different than the profile of adults with ADHD., (Copyright © 2018 by the American Occupational Therapy Association, Inc.)

Certain behavioral expressions of sensory modulation disorder (SMD) such as distractibility, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are often similar to those of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in pediatric and adult populations. There is also a high comorbidity rate between these two diagnoses and absence of research regarding the objective neuropsychological differentiation between them. In the present study we employed a factorial design which enabled us to: (a) systematically examine the effects of SMD and ADHD on executive attention in a sample of adult females using a Stroop-like task, and (b) measure the effect of aversive conditions (sounds) on executive attention. The experimental measures used were the Stroop-like Location-Direction Task (SLDT) to assess executive attention and the battery of aversiveness to sounds (BAS), a standardized measure of aversive sounds that was developed for this study and enabled individual customization of aversive auditory sounds. Results revealed, as expected, a specific core deficit in executive attention for the ADHD factor. In addition to that, the present study provides an important, pioneering finding of SMD impairment in a unique combination of a cognitively demanding task with aversive sounds, providing preliminary objective evidence differentiating SMD from ADHD., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

The purpose of this study was to examine environmental influences on perceptual and motor skills of children from immigrant Ethiopian families in Israel in comparison with those of Israeli-born children. The subjects were divided into groups based on age (6- to 8-yr.-olds and 10- to 12-yr.-olds) and length of time in Israel. The results of this study show that the perceptual and motor performance of 6- to 8-yr.-old, less recent Ethiopian immigrants is similar to that of the recent Ethiopian immigrants of the same age. A difference exists between those two groups and the Israeli-born children of the same age. In the 10- to 12-yr.-old age group, there is a marked difference between the performance of the two groups of Ethiopian immigrants. The difference between the less recent immigrants and the Israeli-born children is smaller for most tasks; however, the less recent immigrants' performance is still poorer than that of the Israeli children. These results are compatible with those of other studies describing the difficulties encountered by children who had not studied in formal educational settings and those who have had that experience.

Objectives: Handwriting is one aspect of school children's work. This article examines the influence of fatigue on handwriting, through the use of prolonged writing., Study Design: The study population included 157 third-grade students with good and poor handwriting. Quality and speed of handwriting, in addition to ergonomic factors, were assessed through the Hebrew Handwriting Evaluation (HHE), prior to writing and after writing for 10 consecutive minutes., Results: RESULTS of this study clearly demonstrate that children with both poor and good handwriting perform more poorly after writing long texts. Although both groups were influenced by the fatigue situation, poor handwriters still scored lower than the good handwriters in both conditions (fatigue and non-fatigue), on most variables., Conclusions: Continued studies in this area are recommended, and it is suggested that children take 'writing breaks' when writing, in order to improve the quality of their handwriting.