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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.

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.