Occupational Therapy Research in Schools: A Mapping Review.
Patrícia L de Oliveira Borba, Beatriz P Pereira, Joana R B de Souza and 1 others
PMID 32904500WHAT IT FOUND
Most school-based occupational therapy research focuses on children with disabilities and uses individual, rather than collective, interventions.
Handwriting and motor rehabilitation dominate the field, particularly in the US, leaving gaps in addressing broader social inclusion and diverse student needs.
Key findings
01The majority of research articles focus on children with disabilities, with handwriting and motor rehabilitation being the most common themes.
02Despite school being a collective environment, most studies describe and analyse interventions at the individual level rather than using group or systemic approaches.
03The field is heavily dominated by US research, with 57.1% of first authors affiliated with US institutions and 64% of publishing journals based in the USA.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The search was restricted to two databases (Scopus and Web of Science), potentially missing relevant literature from other sources or non-English publications. Only research articles were included; book chapters, editorials, and grey literature were excluded. The analysis relied on reading abstracts, which may not fully capture the nuances of the full study methods or findings. The field is heavily skewed towards US research, limiting generalisability to other educational systems.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the dominance of handwriting and individual disability interventions in this review as evidence that these are the only or best ways to practise school-based OT. The review identifies these as current research trends, not necessarily the most effective or inclusive approaches, and explicitly notes a lack of evidence for broader collective strategies.