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Each year, the United States Department of Education collects data on the number of children with disabilities and the number of service providers meeting their needs in the educational system. The purpose of this investigation was to reanalyze the U.S. Department of Education data to determine state and regional ratios of physical therapists and occupational therapists to children with disabilities frequently served by therapists. Results demonstrated large regional variability possibly due to differences in service delivery or data collection. The impact of this reported data on funding, workloads, interpretation of research, and personnel issues is discussed. (Contains 2 tables and 2 figures.)

The attitudes of peers towards fellow students with disabilities impacts social participation and the development of relationships within the school context. This systematic review examined the effect of duration of a disability-awareness education program on the attitudes of peers towards students with disabilities. Sources such as the Academic Search Premier, CINAHL, Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson), ERIC, and Teacher Reference Center were searched, and yielded thirty studies with a combined sample size of 7,346 students that met the inclusion/exclusion criteria. These were critically appraised for quality using the Downs and Black Quality Index (1998). Implications for disability-awareness program development emerged, as well as an expanded role for occupational therapy practitioners to assess the social context in inclusionary settings. Future research should address other program elements to determine best practice in facilitating positive peer attitudes towards students with disabilities in order to promote social inclusion.

Handwriting is a critical functional skill that impacts academic participation and progress. Occupational therapists address components of grasp in their handwriting intervention as it is commonly assumed that grasp affects legibility, fluency, and endurance, yet research studies examining this relationship are limited. We used scoping review methodology to map existing research on grasp and handwriting performance in school-age children and to identify gaps in the literature. Thirteen articles met search criteria and were categorized by grasp patterns and handwriting performance, and grasp force and handwriting performance. Findings suggest an inefficient grasp can lead to decreased handwriting legibility and fatigue. The current literature is inconclusive and several gaps were identified. Additional studies should address research gaps through inclusion of children with special needs and interventions including lengthier handwriting tasks representative of a typical school day. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young children with special needs and their families often experience transitions across multiple environments in the early childhood years. Many transitions are identified as stressful for children and families. In the present study, a series of focus groups involving administrators, practitioners, and family members were held around the United States to identify transition practices that have been implemented effectively for children, families, staff, administrators, and communities. Two major themes emerged from the data: critical interagency variables, defined as strategies that support an interagency process involving multiple parties; and transition practices and activities, defined as practices that address child, family, staff, program, and community-specific activities. Outcomes from these focus groups included identification of transition strategies for young children with special needs that are considered valuable by parents, providers, and administrators and that are consistent with theoretical frameworks described in the transition literature. (Contains 1 figure and 6 tables.)

Date Presented 03/21/24 OT students benefit from detailed hand anatomy instruction. This study investigated students' perceptions of participation in a learning activity using a translucent, three-dimensional model of the hand with video narration. Primary Author and Speaker: Christine T. Myers Additional Authors and Speakers: Michael Cricchio, Rebecca A. Piazza, Morgan Yacoe [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Date Presented 03/21/24 Therapy students in an early childhood training program demonstrated improved self-ratings of teaming competencies and use of teaming strategies and approaches. Entry-level training on collaborative practice enhances the quality of early intervention/early childhood programs. Primary Author and Speaker: Christine T. Myers Additional Authors and Speakers: Kristen Lewandowski, Claudia Senesac, Kim Dunleavy [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Clostridium thermocellum CipA protein is the largest component of the extracellular enzyme complex called cellulosome. It contains nine repeated domains that serve as receptors for the various catalytic subunits of cellulosome. These subunits contain a conserved, duplicated ligand sequence (DS) but have different degrees of homology. Among these subunits, the exoglucanase CelS is the most abundant. Analysis of the binding of CelS to all the CipA repeated domains revealed that CelS binds nonselectively to all the CipA receptors. However, the duplicated sequence of CipA, which is homologous to that of CelS, failed to bind to any of the receptors.