Occupational Therapy for Parenting: Perspectives of Parents With Physical Disability.
Anne Honey, Jessica Peterson, Veronica O'Mara and 1 others
PMID 39184065WHAT IT FOUND
Among parents with physical disability who reported occupational therapy experiences, 19 of 37 said no parenting tasks were addressed.
They wanted therapists to affirm parenting and help with lifting, carrying, mobility, and toddler demands.
Key findings
01Among 37 parents who reported occupational therapy experiences, 19 (51%) said no parenting tasks were addressed.
02Of 49 participants giving advice to occupational therapists, 22 (45%) wanted therapists to take a positive and affirming stance.
03Toddlerhood was the most frequently selected most challenging stage, chosen by 28 parents (45%).
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The sample was a convenience sample recruited through social media, so it may not represent all parents with physical disability. The respondents were primarily female, so the findings mostly reflect mothers. Participants were engaged with parenting social media groups and chose to continue after demographic questions, so they may be more interested in parenting with disability than other parents. The sample size was small, which can make relationships hard to detect and may exaggerate the impact of volunteer bias. The survey was built for a doctoral project, not as a broadly validated occupational therapy outcome measure, so it may not answer wider practice questions.
Declared interests
No funding or conflict-of-interest declaration is provided in the supplied text. The survey was conducted as a needs assessment for part of one author's doctoral studies, and the authors are occupational therapy researchers, practitioners, or students involved in an international collaboration promoting occupational therapy support for parents with disability.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the 83.3% and 57.9% goal attainment figures as proof that addressing parenting improves outcomes. The chi-square test was not significant (p = 0.14), and the study is an exploratory survey.