Comparison of Family and Therapist Perceptions

  • Therapists in the study rated activity and family-centred care as the most important foci of treatment.  We agreed that activity was very important.  Many therapists in our group were surprised that environmental / assistive technology modification was not more highly rated since we spend alot of time on equipment (walkers, standing frames, adapted bikes, wheelchairs etc.)
  • The importance of good communication with parents was stressed in the article.  We talked about "not just playing" with infants and young children and how important it was to explain the goals of your intervention.
  • Communication style with parents needs to change over the years as the family becomes more knowledgable and more empowered.  Different communication styles need to be used with different families.  Goals need to be oriented to family capacity.
  • The paper recommends sending photos, videos, or written notes of therapy activities home with the child.  We discussed how pictures are a "celebration of growth" and its important to update home programs with recent pictures even if the activities haven't changed.  Showing videos to children of their progress is very rewarding.  Using the parents' own smart phones for video of the child is a great strategy as it does not require a consent form to be completed.
  • After reading this paper, we agreed that additional effort by therapists and increased frequency of communication on the focus of therapy is needed.  We felt it was important to make communciation a priority even when caseloads are busy. 
Download
Comparison of Family and Therapist Perceptions
Comparison of family and therapist perce
Adobe Acrobat Document 262.1 KB
Download