The Representation of Children's Participation in Guidelines for Planning and Designing Public Playspaces: A Scoping Review with "Best Fit" Framework Synthesis.

For children, meaningful participation in community life includes being able to access places for play. Such community playspaces are potentially important for all children, including those with disabilities. Yet, children are rarely asked for their views on the design of playspaces, which can further contribute to exclusionary practices and undermine children's rights to share their views on matters that affect them. In this scoping review, we aim to analyze guidelines and identify strategies for supporting children's participation rights when planning public playspaces. Guidelines are practical tools used by local policymakers when creating community playspaces, which are important sites for children's outdoor play. In total, forty-two guidelines were identified that addressed children's participation rights, along with community involvement. Qualitative evidence synthesis with a "best fit" framework approach was used, informed by Lundy's model of children's participation. The findings revealed the importance of initial community involvement as a critical prerequisite. Strategies for children's participation mostly concerned "space and voice" (for children of diverse abilities), with little attention paid to giving their views due weight. This evidence shows that there is a significant gap in knowledge surrounding policy development and implementation to support adults and children to cooperate equally in designing playspaces. Future directions for research in children's participation require a focus on combined community-children participation approaches in public playspace design. Such work could strengthen and facilitate the role of adults as bearers of the duty to implement the rights of children. This review generated inclusive strategies in planning public playspaces, which could support local policymakers in this complex multi-layered process.

Accessing public space in the digital society: relationship between the use of everyday technology and places visited outside the home after acquired brain injury.

PURPOSE: In the digital society, people need to make use of a range of everyday technology (ET) when engaging in activities in various places outside home. The aim of this study was to describe and compare the use of ET and places visited outside the home and, also, to describe the relationship between them in people with different severity of disability after acquired brain injury (ABI). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Instruments addressing ET use, places visited outside the home and severity of disability were used to assess 74 individuals with ABI. Relationships were analyzed statistically. RESULTS: A significantly higher use of personal ET related to public space and public space ET, a higher ability to use ET and more places visited outside the home was found in those with good recovery (GR) compared to those with moderate disability/severe disability (MD/SD). The use of ET was significantly correlated with places visited in the total sample and in those with MD/SD, but for those with GR, no significant correlations were found. CONCLUSIONS: To facilitate participation after ABI, the relationship between the use of ET and places visited outside the home needs to be assessed in rehabilitation.Implications for rehabilitationDigitalization has increased the need of everyday technology (ET) when visiting various places in society.The use of ET was positively significantly correlated with the total number of places visited outside the home in the sample of people with acquired brain injury (ABI).Those with severe or moderate disability after their ABI used significantly fewer ET and visited fewer places compared to those with good recovery.Evaluation of the use of ET and places visited outside the home is important in rehabilitation to support participation after ABI.

Everyday activities outside the home are a struggle: Narratives from two persons with acquired brain injury.

Background: Participation restriction is a common consequence after acquired brain injury (ABI).Aim: To explore and identify problematic situations in everyday activities outside the home for persons with acquired brain injury.Material and Method: Two persons of working age with ABI were included. Data were generated through repeated semi-structured interviews and participant observations. Narrative analysis was used to capture ongoing processes related to problematic situations during engagement in everyday activities outside the home.Results: The narratives reflect how places, everyday activities and social relations were closely connected and influenced engagement in everyday activities outside the home. The participants visited fewer places and performed more of their everyday activities alone in their homes after the injury compared to before. They were struggling to create meaning in their lives and trying to reformulate their identity. Problematic situations often occurred outside the home as a result of unexpected events. The narratives indicate a struggle to find new routines to handle challenging situations.Conclusions: The results provide an understanding of how problematic situations occurred and were managed in different ways. By observing everyday situations professionals can gain access to how persons with ABI act in and reflect upon problematic situations which can eventually improve the design of individually tailored interventions.

Patterns of participation: Facilitating and hindering aspects related to places for activities outside the home after stroke.

Background: Being engaged in activities in places outside the home after a stroke can be challenging. Knowledge about what characterize places outside the home is important to support participation.Objectives: To explore patterns of participation in places for activities outside the home after stroke and whether these patterns were associated with personal and environmental aspects.Material and methods: Sixty-three people with stroke were interviewed using the Participation in Activities and Places Outside Home (ACT-OUT) questionnaire. A two-step cluster analysis was used to identify patterns of participation and non-parametric test was used to explore potential associations to the patterns of participation.Results: Four clusters of patterns of participation, based on frequency, familiarity of the place/the way to the place and perceived distance, were identified. The patterns were significantly associated with type of place, activity domain, retained or abandoned participation, transportation and being accompanied by someone. The severity of disability was significantly associated with groups of individuals with different patterns of participation.Conclusions: Different combinations of aspects facilitated and hindered whether or not participation changed. To support people with stroke in their endeavour to retain or recapture participation, social support is important to consider in relation to transportation, activities and places outside the home.