Affiliations: Skills for Kids, Australia | Discipline of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Health
Sciences, University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Abstract: Objective: Little research has been carried out on the behaviours
that lead to children's successful participation in work roles at school. The
objective of this study was to identify some of the elements critical to
participation of students by listening to the perspectives of teachers and
parents of children who have difficulties with school work. The study is part
of a larger research project aimed at developing an assessment tool to describe
the participation of children at school with particular reference to students
who experience a difficulty with learning. Participants: 50 teachers and
44 parents of children referred to occupational therapy for problems with
school work. Methods: A survey approach using an open ended written
response questionnaire. Results: The findings indicated that there are
core elements of participation in work that are commonly perceived as crucial
by teachers and parents. These included common definitions of work
participation with the emergence of several themes relative to work roles and
meaning, opportunity for inclusion in school work, risk taking and enjoyment as
part of work, and thinking processes. Differences between teacher and parent
responses related to perceived reasons for a difficulty with participation,
activities which require high levels of participation and aspects of
participation that are most difficult to change. Conclusion: This study
provided descriptive data on which to build further research into children's
experiences of work, and highlights the need for occupational therapists to
consider perceptions of key stakeholders when assessing children's work ability
at school.
Keywords: Participatory work behaviours, school, teacher and parent perspectives
