ABSTRACT
PURPOSE: To evaluate how children with spina bifida (SB) participate in school-related activities and to explore if their motor and process skills in task performance were related to their level of active participation in school. METHOD: Fifty children from a geographical cohort of children with SB (aged 6-14 years) and their teachers rated the children's frequency of participation in school-related activities using a Swedish adaptation of the Availability and Participation Scale. The teachers also rated each child's level of active participation with the School Function Assessment, part one. Each child's motor and process skills were evaluated with the Assessment of Motor and Process Skills. The relation between levels of active participation and motor and process skills was subjected to binary logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: The children participated very frequently in school activities, but their level of active participation was restricted, particularly in the recess/playground setting. There was a highly significant relation between full active participation in most school settings and the children's motor and process skills. CONCLUSION: Children with SB need support to become more actively involved, particularly in unstructured peer activities. The school staff need to be informed that not only the motor skills but also the process skills have an impact on the children's active participation. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION: The children with spina bifida (SB) showed a low level of active participation and involvement in school settings even though their frequency of participation was high. It is of highest importance to enable children with SB to be actively involved in peer-related and unstructured activities and to encourage them to participate in both academic and societal learning. To achieve active participation, it is important to inform the school staff about how this issue is affected not only by the level of the child's motor skills but also, and probably even more so, by the level of his/her process skills. From this knowledge, individual strategies can be worked out.
Subject(s)
Activities of Daily Living , Disabled Children/psychology , Interpersonal Relations , Quality of Life , Spinal Dysraphism/psychology , Spinal Dysraphism/rehabilitation , Adaptation, Physiological , Adaptation, Psychological , Adolescent , Age Factors , Child , Cross-Sectional Studies , Disabled Children/rehabilitation , Female , Humans , Male , Mobility Limitation , Motor Skills/physiology , Risk Assessment , Schools , Sex Factors , Spinal Dysraphism/diagnosis , SwedenABSTRACT
AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of the performance of everyday activities in children with spina bifida. METHODS: Fifty children with spina bifida (of 65 children in a geographic cohort), aged 6 to 14 years, were evaluated with Assessment of Motor and Process Skills. RESULTS: Compared with age-normative values, 60% of the children with spina bifida were found to have motor ability measures below 2 SD and 48% process ability measures below 2 SD. Most of the children with spina bifida had difficulties performing well-known everyday activities in an effortless, efficient and independent way, relating to both motor and process skills. The motor skills hardest to accomplish involved motor planning and the process skills hardest to accomplish were adaptation of performance and initiations of new steps, thus actually getting the task done. CONCLUSION: To reach autonomy in life, children with spina bifida may need particular guidance to learn not only how to do things but also how to get things done.
