Mothers' participation in family gatherings and social events with their children with autism spectrum disorder: A scoping review.

INTRODUCTION: Participating in family gatherings can provide enjoyment and quality time together as a family. However, being the primary carers, mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder may experience this phenomenon differently. The purpose of this study is to explore how available literature describes mothers' experiences of participation in family gatherings and social events with their children with autism spectrum disorder. METHODS: A scoping review was used to explore available literature and identify studies describing mothers' experiences of family gatherings and social events with their children. A thematic synthesis was performed to analyse and synthesise the findings. RESULTS: A total of 8 articles were included for review. The analysis of the included studies resulted in one central theme-Negative experiences despite strategies-and four analytical themes: Feeling fear, stress, and anxiety; Avoiding family gatherings; Enjoying less and becoming less confident; and Using strategies. CONCLUSION: These findings indicate that mothers of children with autism spectrum disorder experience difficulties during gatherings even when using strategies, hence limiting their participation.

Stroke survivors' experiences and meaning of digital technology in daily life: a phenomenological study.

PURPOSE: The aim of the study was to explore the experiences and meaning of digital technology in daily life by stroke survivors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A phenomenological study design helped to collect rich and in-depth understanding of stroke survivors' experiences and meaning of digital technology in their daily life and their perspective of applying digital technology in the implementation of stroke-related telerehabilitation services. Thematic analysis was used for data analysis. FINDINGS: An overarching theme emerged: A spectrum of challenges, personal preferences, strategies to manage, and attitudes towards the use of digital technology in daily life. CONCLUSION: The findings revealed that participants' different experiences influenced their perceived meaning of digital technology in daily life and the interest to participate in telerehabilitation services.

Digital technology provides easy access to information for stroke survivors, but can sometimes be difficult to use.Stroke survivors have contrasting preferences for face-to-face and virtual interactions with health professionals.Digital technology has different meanings for different people.Client-centred practice within telerehabilitation for stroke survivors could be enhanced by understanding the clients' preferences, experiences, and meanings in digital technology.

Older adults' perceptions of contexts surrounding their social participation in a digitalized society-an exploration in rural communities in Northern Sweden.

Social participation and digital engagement can contribute to health and well-being among older adults. Because of older adults' decline in abilities, coupled with complex technology and its perceived insufficient relevance to daily life, there is a need to create and tailor social opportunities and services that are supported by digital technologies for older adults to continue participating in society. Thus, it becomes relevant to explore older adults' perceptions about contexts surrounding their social participation in a digital society. This exploration used a qualitative research design with focus group interviews and qualitative content analysis. Eighteen older adults, aged 66-81 years, from rural communities in Northern Sweden, participated in this study. The analysis resulted in three categories: experiencing conditions for social participation in a state of flux, perceiving drawbacks of urbanization on social participation, and welcoming digital technology that facilitates daily and community living. These categories were encapsulated in the theme-the juxtaposition of narrowing offline social networks and expanding digital opportunities for social participation. The findings suggested that co-creating usable digitalized services and facilitating satisfactory use of digital technologies could support older adults' social participation through activities that they find relevant in their lives, and subsequently, might enable them to live longer at home.

Tailoring to support digital technology-mediated occupational engagement for older adults - a multiple case study.

Background: With the evolution of contemporary occupations mediated by digital technologies (DTs), there is a need for occupational therapists to develop and structure knowledge on how to support older adults' engagement in occupations and social participation in a digitalised society.Objective: The objective of this study is to explore how tailoring to support older adults' engagement in DT-mediated occupations could be schematised.Material and methods: The study employed a multiple case study methodology. There were nine cases, with each case involving an older adult undergoing a collaborative process to support engagement in DT-mediated occupations. The collaborative process was initiated through questionnaires, observations, and dialogues. Meetings and tailoring strategies were documented in fieldnotes and memos on tailoring, respectively. Semi-structured interviews concluded data collection. Cross-case synthesis was used in data analysis.Results: The result is a proposed scheme for tailoring to support older adults' engagement in digital technology-mediated occupations, wherein strategies undertaken in the collaborative processes were synthesised and described.Conclusion and significance: The proposed scheme for tailoring could contribute to occupational therapists' knowledge on how to support older adults' engagement in contemporary occupations. Testing the model in various practice settings is recommended in order to enhance occupational therapy practice.

Development and Rasch analysis of the Assessment of Computer-Related Skills.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the internal scale validity, person response validity, and reliability of the newly developed Assessment of Computer-Related Skills (ACRS). Data from 32 healthy adult participants who performed two to three computer tasks were analysed to determine how well the participants fitted the many-faceted Rasch (MFR) model of the ACRS, as well as how well the ACRS skill items and tasks (a) fitted the MFR model of the ACRS, (b) matched the expectations for hierarchical ordering of their difficulties, and (c) differentiated persons into different levels of ability. Results indicated that with three skill items removed, the remaining 34 skill items, 8 computer tasks, and 30 participants demonstrated goodness-of-fit to the MFR model of the ACRS. The skills and tasks appeared to have logical hierarchical ordering and differentiated participants into at least three levels of ability. The findings affirmed the internal scale validity, person response validity and reliability of the ACRS for assessing persons' computer abilities. Future studies using a larger sample that includes individuals with disabilities and with difficulties with computer use are needed to further evaluate the validity and reliability of the ACRS.