Occupational Therapy for Children With DCD and Academic Difficulties: A Pan-Canadian Survey.

The 229 therapists were a convenience sample recruited by email and word of mouth, so therapists with an interest in academic activities were probably over-represented. British Columbia supplied 40% of the sample, and women, francophone therapists and school-based therapists were fewer than in the wider Canadian OT workforce. Everything here is self-reported. The authors say therapists may have described what they believe they should do rather than what they actually do, and may have misremembered their own practice over time. The survey was long, and 120 of the 374 therapists who consented (32%) stopped before the core assessment and intervention sections, so their answers are missing. This is one snapshot of practice in 2023. It cannot show whether practice has changed since an earlier British Columbia survey, and it says nothing about whether any of these practices help children. The links with qualifications, caseload size, work setting and province come from exploratory analyses of survey answers. They show association, not cause.

The study was funded by the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation. Two authors, Miriam H. Beauchamp and Marie Brossard-Racine, receive support from the Canada Research Chair program. No commercial sponsor or product is involved, and no other conflicts are declared in the text provided.

Do not read these percentages as a picture of what Canadian OTs actually do. The therapists were recruited by email and word of mouth, so those already interested in academic activities were likely over-represented, and the authors say that because the answers are self-report, therapists may have described best practice rather than their real practice. This survey reports what therapists said they do, not what children gained from it.