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Background: Play is a right for children; an essential childhood occupation influenced by their family environment. Despite increasing recognition of unstructured outdoor play benefits, children with disabilities experience limited play opportunities. Aim: To apply a capabilities approach lens to understand outdoor play decision-making by mothers of children with disabilities within a culturally and linguistically diverse community. Materials and methods: Data collection for this case study involved semi-structured interviews with five mothers of primary school-aged children with disabilities and a week-long survey that profiled their children's outdoor play. Analysis was thematic and involved identifying barriers and opportunities at each ecocultural layer, aggregating strategies families used to address the barriers, and understanding their overall play decision-making. Findings: Mothers considered the child's interests and abilities, valued play as both a means and ends, planned for play, and facilitated in the moment as required. Multiple factors influenced mothers' outdoor play decisions. Mothers' values were child-centred, positively influencing the child's play opportunities. Conclusion and significance: This study's capabilities lens could inform professions such as occupational therapy to support families of children with disabilities from culturally diverse communities to advocate for play opportunities across settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Despite indisputable developmental benefits of outdoor play, children with disabilities can experience play inequity. Play decisions are multifactorial; influenced by children's skills and their familial and community environments. Government agencies have responsibilities for equity and inclusion of people with disabilities; including in play. Aim: This multiple-perspective case study aimed to understand outdoor play decision-making for children with disabilities from the perspectives and interactions of: local government and families of primary school-aged children with disabilities. Material and method: Five mothers, four local government employees, and two not-for-profit organization representatives participated in semi-structured interviews. Inductive and iterative analyzes involved first understanding perspectives of individuals, then stakeholders (local government and families), and finally similarities and differences through cross-case analysis. Findings: Local government focused more on physical access, than social inclusion. Local government met only minimal requirements and had little engagement with families. This resulted in poor understanding and action around family needs and preferences when designing public outdoor play spaces. Conclusion and significance: To increase meaningful choice and participation in outdoor play, government understanding of family values and agency around engagement with local government needs to improve. Supporting familial collective capabilities requires understanding interactions between individuals, play, disability, and outdoor play environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Measurement of quality of life is becoming increasingly important in health care. Self-reported quality of life is the preferred method of gathering this information, but children are often excluded from this process, their input being replaced by parent-proxy report. This feasibility study tested assessment of “daily” quality-of-life by a self-reported computerized method in boys with neuromuscular disorders. To establish feasibility, the method was required to be engaging, consistent, and convenient. Ten boys, aged 9–16 years, were given a personal digital assistant (PDA) and prompted randomly, eight times/day for 1 week, to answer 19 questions about their daily experiences (including happiness, mood, self-esteem, location, and activity). Subjects completed sampling with an acceptable response rate (79%). Split-week reliability analysis for participant variability ( r = 0.45–0.88) indicated acceptable consistency. Participants reported that the method was easy and convenient, and analysis of standardized mean scores supported internal validity. The computerized method to assess “daily” quality of life, from the child's perspective, was feasible and may be useful to understand the impact of disease progression and interventions on day-to-day function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on a study conducted to investigate the relationship between playfulness and coping skills in adolescent males with typically developing (TD) and severe emotional disturbance (SED). Characteristics that are common between coping and playfulness; Comparison of the playfulness of TD adolescents with that of SED adolescents; Implications of the study on occupational therapy intervention with adolescents.

Discusses a nonlinear process of assessment and intervention for occupational therapists and physical therapists working in public schools in the United States. Conceptualization of the intervention process; Selecting indirect service; Implementing intervention.