Professionals’ views of children’s everyday life situations and the relation to participation

Abstract

Purpose: The aim was to determine professionals’ views of everyday life situations (ELS) of importance for children and to explore how ELS correlate with the construct “Participation”. This study was part of a larger work to develop a structured tool with code sets to identify child participation and support children with disabilities to describe what matters most for them in intervention planning. Method: The study had a concurrent mixed methods design. Information from one open-ended question and questionnaires were linked to the ICF-CY component Activities and Participation. Two concurrent data sets were compared. Results: Proposed ELS were distributed across ICF-CY categories from low to high level of complexity and context specificity. The correlation with participation became stronger for the later chapters of the component (d7–d9). Differences between respondents due to working field, country, and children’s ages were explored. Acts and tasks seemed most important for the youngest children, whereas ELS shifted towards societal involvement for adolescents. Conclusion: Eleven categories related to ICF-CY chapters d3–d9 emerged as ELS. Two age groups (infants/preschoolers and adolescents) are required to develop code sets for the new tool. The results need triangulation with other concurrent studies to provide corroborating evidence and add a family perspective.Implications for RehabilitationA child’s functioning and disability is best understood when diagnosis is supplemented by a functional description.Children and parents need opportunities expressing their opinions during intervention planning.Models to connect interventions to participation in everyday life situations enhance children’s motivation.