Occupational Therapy
Evidence-based practice paper health
Evidence-based practice: Public health
According to Anne Cusick, Iona Novak, and Natasha Linon's (2009) article "Occupational therapy home programs for cerebral palsy" from Pediatrics, a home-based treatment approach has been demonstrated to be effective, based upon the relatively small study conducted on behalf of the journal. This study compared a group of children with cerebral palsy who received treatment through an occupational therapy home program (OTHP) versus those who did not. Children within the experimental group after eight weeks showed significantly better functioning, participation, ability to obtain goals, and physical skills, according to the parents surveyed, as compared with the control group. Occupational therapists first assessed the children involved in the program, then prescribed a course of treatment the parents were supposed to administer to their children over the study's duration. 86 in total children participated in the study. The study allowed for flexibility regarding the duration and direction of the therapy, as determined by the parent's perception of the...
However, the fact that the evidence for the treatment's effectiveness was based upon parental perceptions calls into question the objectivity of some of the data of the study.
This endorsement is questioned by the study (et al. 2011) "Comparison of family and therapist perceptions of physical and occupational therapy services provided to young children with cerebral palsy" from Physical Occupational Therapy Pediatrics. This article was designed as a comparison between the perceptions of parents vs. The perceptions of therapists regarding children's improvement after receiving occupational therapy. The therapy for children with cerebral palsy was designed to be focused on improving children's basic functioning skills. Both parents and therapists were independently surveyed. Analysis of data with controlled variables found no significant correlations in terms of perceptions of quality, impact and improvement between the therapist's and parent's perceptions. This discrepancy suggests that further research is needed to construct effective interventions for children suffering from cerebral palsy. Although this study did not recommend a specific…
