Psychometrics of the Infant-Toddler Activity Card Sort (ITACS): A Caregiver-Reported Measure of Children’s Occupational Engagement in Family Routines

Early intervention (EI) therapy services aim to address family-centered goals to facilitate young children’s development and participation in meaningful life activities. Current methods to evaluate children in EI assess discrete developmental skills but provide little information on the child’s ability to successfully incorporate that skill in everyday life. Furthermore, traditional measures have limited opportunity for parent report, despite parent engagement being a critical component for successful implementation of EI services. A measure that involves parents in the therapeutic process to track family-driven EI goals related to a child’s occupational engagement in meaningful family activities and routines is desperately needed. Using a qualitative design and conventional content analysis, we identified 41 distinct activities of infant–toddlers from a cohort of 23 caregivers. Activity items were matched with photographs and validated with experts in pediatric rehabilitation using the Delphi method. The resulting 40 activity/photograph pairs were used to develop a new measure of pediatric occupational engagement, the Infant Toddler Activity Card Sort (ITACS).

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Patterns of occupational engagement among community-dwelling older adults in Singapore: An exploratory mixed method study

British Journal of Occupational Therapy ◽

10.1177/03080226211008048 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 030802262110080

Author(s):

Wei Qi Koh ◽

Yuan Lin Chia ◽

Wen Xu Ng ◽

Fiona Y Q Lim ◽

Therma W C Cheung

Keyword(s):

Older Adults ◽

Mixed Method ◽

Community Dwelling ◽

Perceived Barriers ◽

Barriers And Facilitators ◽

Mixed Method Study ◽

Social Activities ◽

Occupational Engagement ◽

Card Sort ◽

Community Dwelling Older Adults

Introduction The aim of this study is to understand the patterns of occupations among community-dwelling older adults in Singapore. The objectives are to describe their occupational engagement using the Activity Card Sort Singapore, understand their occupational preferences and perceived barriers and facilitators to engagement. Methods A convergent parallel mixed-method study was conducted over a 5-month period in 2018. Purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit the participants. Individual 1-h interviews were conducted at participants’ homes. Quantitative data collected include demographic information, Modified Barthel Index scores and activity engagement based on the Activity Card Sort Singapore. Qualitative data was collected using semi-structured interviews. Results 105 participants were enrolled in the study. Overall, older adults engaged mostly in instrumental and social activities. However, leisure and social activities were most preferred. Gender, educational level and age were found to influence occupational engagement. Overall, six main themes relating to perceived barriers and facilitators to occupational engagement were identified: cognition and physical status, self-efficacy, resources, affect and meaningfulness, social influence and environmental factors. Conclusion The findings from this study provided insights into the occupational patterns of community-dwelling older adults in Singapore and their perceived barriers and facilitators to engagement. Recommendations for practice were identified.

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Care-givers’ perspectives of occupational engagement of persons with dementia

Ageing and Society ◽

10.1017/s0144686x11000365 ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 32 (4) ◽

pp. 543-560 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

MEGUMI TSUNAKA ◽

JENNY C. C. CHUNG

Keyword(s):

Qualitative Methodology ◽

Safety Concern ◽

Activity Patterns ◽

Leisure Activities ◽

Family Care ◽

Activity Participation ◽

Occupational Engagement ◽

Card Sort ◽

Care Givers ◽

Support Resources

ABSTRACTMeaningful engagement in activity is associated with the maintenance of health and wellbeing, but reduced activity participation is common among persons with dementia. Family care-givers play an important role in engaging their relatives with dementia in activities but little is known about their perception of occupational engagement. This study aimed to examine care-givers’ perception of occupational performance of their relatives from three aspects: person, occupation and environment. Adopting a qualitative methodology, semi-structured and in-depth interviews were conducted with 14 family care-givers. Care-givers were also asked to document the activity patterns of their relative, using the Activity Card Sort Hong Kong version (ACS-HK). The ACS-HK findings suggested that high-demand leisure activities were mostly retained (61%) while instrumental activities of daily living were the least retained (37%). Qualitative analysis revealed that care-givers’ perception of activity participation was intertwined with their motives and behaviours to get their relatives engaged in activities. Care-givers acknowledged occupational engagement as a means of maintaining wellness and used various strategies to encourage their relative's activity participation. Apathy and passivity, however, are difficult to deal with. Also, activity decisions appear to depend on the availability of support resources and a balance between safety concern and risk-taking. Clinical practitioners could assist care-givers by suggesting activity strategies and providing support resources for continued engagement of their relative in activities.

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