ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Participation in education is a vital component of adolescents' everyday life and a determinant of health and future opportunities in adult life. The School Setting Interview (SSI) is an instrument which assesses student-environment fit and reflects the potential needs for adjustments to enhance students' participation in school activities. The aim of the study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the SSI for students with special educational needs in regular high school. METHODS: A sample of 509 students with special educational needs was assessed with the SSI. The polytomous unrestricted Rasch model was used to analyze the psychometric properties of the SSI regarding targeting, model fit, differential item functioning (DIF), response category functioning and unidimensionality. RESULTS: The SSI generally confirmed fit to assumptions of the Rasch model. Reliability was acceptable (0.73) and the SSI scale was able to separate students into three different levels of student-environment fit. DIF among gender was detected in item "Remember things" and in item "Homework" DIF was detected among students with or without diagnosis. All items had disordered thresholds. The SSI demonstrated unidimensionality and no response dependence was present among items. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that the SSI is valid for use among students with special educational needs in order to provide and evaluate environmental adjustments. However, the items with the detected DIF and the SSI rating scale with its disordered thresholds needs to be further scrutinized.
Subject(s)
Disabled Children/psychology , Disabled Children/statistics & numerical data , Education, Special/organization & administration , Needs Assessment/organization & administration , Psychometrics/methods , Students/psychology , Adolescent , Female , Humans , Interviews as Topic , Male , Quality of Life , Reproducibility of Results , Schools , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To examine the relationship among (a) quality of activities of daily living (ADL) task performance, (b) quality of social interaction, and (c) the extent of discrepancy between the person's and the occupational therapist's perspectives; and explore patterns of strengths and challenges among people with developmental disabilities (DD). METHODS: Fifty-eight adults with different types of DD, living in northern Sweden, were evaluated using the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS), the Evaluation of Social Interaction (ESI) and the Assessment of Compared Qualities - Occupational Performance (ACQ-OP) and Assessment of Compared Qualities - Social Interaction (ACQ-SI). The relationships among assessments were analysed using Pearson correlation analyses. Cluster analysis was used to group participants based on their evaluation results. Results The quality of ADL task performance and the quality of social interaction demonstrated weak to moderate positive relationships while the ACQ-OP and ACQ-SI demonstrated a strong positive relationship. The cluster analysis resulted in identifying three distinct groups that differed significantly from one another. CONCLUSION: The findings support the clinical use of multiple assessment tools, including observation and self-report, to evaluate different aspects of occupational performance. Comprehensive and relevant evaluation supports collaborative goal setting and intervention planning.
Subject(s)
Activities of Daily Living , Developmental Disabilities , Disability Evaluation , Occupational Therapy/methods , Adult , Aged , Female , Humans , Interpersonal Relations , Male , Middle Aged , Motor Skills , Self Report , Sweden , Task Performance and AnalysisABSTRACT
AIM: As no studies have examined for gender differences in quality of schoolwork task performance, the purpose of this study was to examine whether there is a gender difference in quality of schoolwork task performance among students at risk of or with mild disabilities, and to compare any identified differences to those that might exist among their typically developing peers. METHODS: The participants were 2510 students (typically developing = 412 girls, 422 boys; at risk = 147 girls, 379 boys; mild = 242 girls, 901 boys), 4-10 years of age. Schoolwork task performance was measured using the School Version of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (School AMPS). RESULTS: Regression analyses revealed no significant gender or age-by-gender interaction effects for any of the three groups (typically developing, at risk, mild). INTERPRETATION: The results, focused on occupational performance, complement prior research that has focused on examining for gender differences in behaviour, academic achievement, and coordination among students with mild disabilities. These results also suggest that current School AMPS normative values, based on combined gender means, are valid.
Subject(s)
Schools , Task Performance and Analysis , Activities of Daily Living , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity/psychology , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Learning Disabilities/psychology , Male , Motor Skills Disorders/psychology , Sex FactorsABSTRACT
AIM: The purpose of this study was to use a variety of methods to evaluate and cross-validate the reliability estimates of the quality of schoolwork performance measures in the School Version of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (School AMPS) (1). METHODS: Split-half reliability was estimated based on School AMPS data from 6 194 students who had performed at least two school AMPS tasks. Two different split-half methods were used: splitting the School AMPS items vertically and splitting them horizontally. The Rasch equivalent of Cronbach's alpha for the full School AMPS evaluation and standard error of measurement (SEm) were also considered. RESULTS: All three methods yielded high reliability coefficient estimates (r ≥ 0.70) and overall SEm was low. CONCLUSIONS: From a practice perspective, the results of this study are of clinical importance as they provide evidence that occupational therapists can have confidence in the consistency of the School AMPS measures when they are used in the process of making decisions about individual students, planning interventions, and later performing follow-up evaluations to measure the outcome.
Subject(s)
Activities of Daily Living , Occupational Therapy/methods , Psychomotor Performance , Schools , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Male , Reproducibility of Results , Young AdultABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The objective was to determine whether the School Version of the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (School AMPS) is valid when used to evaluate students in different world regions. METHOD: Participants were 984 students, ages 3-13 yr, from North America, Australia and New Zealand, United Kingdom, and the Nordic countries, matched for age and diagnoses. We used FACETS many-faceted Rasch analyses to generate item difficulty calibrations by region and evaluate for significant differential item functioning (DIF) and differential test functioning (DTF). RESULTS: Four School AMPS items demonstrated DIF but resulted in no DTF. CONCLUSION: This study provided support for occupational therapists using the School AMPS to evaluate students' quality of schoolwork task performances across regions because the School AMPS measures are free of bias associated with world region.
