School of Occupational Therapy
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11274/8848
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Browsing School of Occupational Therapy by Author "Baxter, Mary F."
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Item Animal assisted therapy increases fine motor skills(2010-08) Roehm, Jillian; Baxter, Mary F.; Neville, MarshaOccupational therapists use animal assisted therapy to address various therapeutic goals, however very little research has been completed regarding how these professionals utilize this intervention. The school setting is one area that occupational therapists utilize this intervention to promote age appropriate fine motor skills. The purpose of this multiple case study was to discover whether animal assisted therapy incorporated with occupational therapy produces better outcomes than traditional occupational therapy when treating students with fine motor delays. Two kindergarten students identified with delayed fine motor skills participated in four animal assisted therapy sessions with the occupational therapist. Results from both participants revealed slight improvements in fine motor skills. The most improvements were seen in the participants' increased attention and motivation to participate in fine motor tasks. Results of this study provided insight into how occupational therapists can successfully use animal assisted therapy within the school system to improve fine motor skills.Item Comparison of assumptions and core key constructs between the Occupational Adaption Model and the Vona du Toit Model of Creative Ability(11/29/2021) Noack, Joseph E.; Baxter, Mary F.; Keeley, RandaThe purpose of this correlational, explanatory mixed methods study was to explore subject matter experts’ (SME) perceptions and justifications of those perceptions, regarding how assumptions and fundamental core constructs for the OA model and the VdTMoCA model compare with each other for use within the practice of occupational therapy. Fourteen SMEs (n = 9 OA; n = 5 VdTMoCA) participated in an online quantitative survey. Nine of those SMEs agreed to participate in a qualitative interview (n = 5 OA; n = 4 VdTMoCA). Quantitative outcome measures included a researcher created survey containing paired assumption and key core constructs and a “shared” statement from both OA and VdTMoCA, forming an item group. SMEs indicated agreement or disagreement to each statement using a 1 – 4 Likert scale. Qualitative data included interview data informed by the survey responses. Descriptive statistics, intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), and Cronbach alpha (a) were used to analyze the quantitative data. Qualitative data thematic analysis including descriptive and values coding methods were conducted. The ICC and Cronbach alpha analysis revealed an excellent level of agreement across all item group statements at .91 (p <.001), and a good/excellent level of absolute agreement at .88 (p <.001). The qualitative data revealed three major themes: terminology and meanings of terms used, cultural applicability of models and the need for review and timely revision of models. The need for continued alignment with current trends in practice and world events were revealed. Results indicate that OA and VdTMoCA are similar and comparable practice models based on assumptions and key core constructs.Item The effect of parent-child interaction training on early intervention occupational therapists(2009-12) Marino, Jeanne Mireille; Baxter, Mary F.This study determined strategies that occupational therapists are using to improve the parent-child relationship and determined how effectiveness of the strategies is measured by the therapists. A self-developed survey was emailed and completed by early intervention occupational therapists across the United States. The likert scale had 94 respondents, and 74 responded to the open-ended questions. A regression analysis determined a significant difference between how therapists were trained in parent-child interaction and their survey scores, indicating that type of training impacts treatment. Therapists responded to the open-ended questions by either placing the therapist in control, the parent in control, or a blend of both. Analysis of responses revealed that although most therapists are delivering family-centered services, some are still delivering child-centered services. Results indicate that training, not experience, determined use of evidence-based treatment strategies thereby adding support for multi-modal trainings to increase the likelihood that occupational therapists will deliver family-centered services.Item Faculty perspectives on the development of creative thinking in entry level occupational therapy students(8/30/2017) Griggs-Stapleton, Lisa; Baxter, Mary F.; Hersch, Gayle Ilene; Symes, LeneCreativity has been part of occupational therapy (OT) since the field began (Hall, 1918; Slagle, 1939). Today, creative thinking is still valued in OT but we know little about how practitioners apply it (Fletcher, 2010). We know even less about how creative thinking is taught or viewed in OT education (Boiselle, 2015). This mixed methods study explores how entry level OT faculty view and teach creative thinking. Participants (N=435) were recruited from entry level masters and clinical doctorate programs across the United States. The faculty provided information on how they seek to stimulate creative thinking in their students. Additionally, faculty members provided descriptions of assignments they felt required creativity. The survey also gathered demographic information including the number of years of experience participants had in clinical practice and teaching. Quantitative analysis of the data revealed descriptors of an assignment requiring creativity had significant relationships with faculty clinical and academic experience as well as how they evaluated the final product of the assignment. However, the descriptors and forms of evaluation holding a significant relationship were not always related. This disconnection between the description of the assignment and its evaluation leads to questions about the underlying process of creating an assignment requiring creativity and choosing a grading strategy. Qualitative analysis of the ways faculty members promote creative thinking yielded 4 primary themes; assignment instructions and types, assignment process, environment, and instructor influence via interactions. These themes make up the foundation of the Creative Process of the Occupational Therapy Student. The information derived from this study may serve as a foundation for understanding how occupational therapy faculty seek to encourage creative thinking in their students.Item Matching students to augmentative and alternative communication: A survey of trends and a case study(2015-12-30) Dimeo, Sarah; Baxter, Mary F.; Amerih, Husny; Pemberton, Jane; Zapf, SusanIn two studies, this dissertation sought evidence regarding occupational therapists’ (OTs’) use of assessment tools to match students to assistive technology (AT) and augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) in schools, and to examine if the MATCH-ACES can help an educational team select an AAC for a student with special needs. In the first study, OTs were surveyed nationwide to collect information about their use of assessment tools and their roles in the assessment process for AT and AAC. The second study was a case study that used the MATCH-ACES to select an AAC for a student. This study tracked the student’s IEP goals and identified contributions to goal improvement. Additionally, this study examined the student’s general education teacher’s level of satisfaction with the chosen AAC intervention. Three conclusions related to OT emerged from this research. The first conclusion is that the MATCH-ACES was an effective tool to use when evaluating a student for AAC, and for choosing an AAC that satisfied the teacher’s requirements. Building on these findings, future use of the MATCH-ACES should be considered in the field of occupational therapy and explored through further research. The second conclusion is that education and training in AT assessments may build OTs’ comfort level and confidence using such assessment tools, making them more willing to use their expertise to guide AT assessments. This has the potential to increase OTs’ presence in the AT assessment process. The third conclusion is that a student’s use of AAC requires team involvement, including general education teachers, related services, and personal assistance/aide support. Additionally, training for all staff involved with the student is important to support the student’s use of AAC. Increasing support and training can have positive effects on students’ use of AAC and help them improve their IEP goals. Future research should continue to address ways that OTs contribute to AT assessment and intervention for students with AT needs in schools.Item Occupational therapists management of negative behaviors in children with autism spectrum disorders(2010-12) Wilke, Erin Michelle; Baxter, Mary F.; Pickens, Noralyn; Candler, CathyThe purpose of this study was to identify the sensory and behavioral techniques that occupational therapists use during therapy sessions to modify behavior in children with autism spectrum disorders. The study also examined the therapists' and parents' perception of the effectiveness of these strategies. The study data was collected using two surveys, both developed by the researcher. A written survey was completed by four therapists on eight children between the ages of 3 and 10 diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. A phone survey was administered by the researcher to the parents of the eight children. The raw data was used to calculate frequencies. The study found that therapists use sensory techniques more often and perceive these strategies to be more effective than the behavioral strategies. Parents were often unsure of what techniques were used, but often perceived both techniques to be effective.Item Parental knowledge of developmentally supportive care upon entry into early intervention(2011-05-30) Polder, Julianna; Baxter, Mary F.; Poskey, Gail; Pickens, NoralynThis study describes and explores the level of knowledge that primary caregivers have regarding developmentally supportive care and related strategies upon entry into early intervention as well as their use of strategies with other factors such as training received in the hospital, parents' ages, and time parents spent visiting their children in the hospital. Four parents completed a survey developed to assess knowledge and use of strategies. Data were analyzed by searching for patterns among parents. Parents knew more about calm behavior state cues, and the least about stressed physiological cues. Parents with more knowledge used more developmental strategies. Focused training from the NICU, number of days per week and hours per day visiting the NICU, and parents' ages and educational levels are discussed as factors related to levels of knowledge and use of strategies. Discussion also includes issues related to knowledge of early intervention therapists in developmentally supportive care as well as appropriate training for parents of newly discharged infants.Item Postural control in children with autism(10/21/2020) Coker, Shannon Poth; Baxter, Mary F.This dissertation investigated how balance and postural stability in children with autism spectrum disorders differed from age matched children in three related studies. The clinical balance assessment, the Multi-Directional Reach Test (MDRT) was used as a tool to measure maximum reach distance in the forward, backward, right and left directions in standing with the feet stationary. Test-Retest Reliability was determined to be acceptable in typically developing children with this quick and useful tool for assessing dynamic standing balance. Significant correlations were found between maximum reach and height, weight and age of the typical subjects indicating that as children grow older and taller, they can reach further from their base of support without a loss of balance. The difference seen between gender in typically developing children was likely due to slightly older average age of females in the study rather than a true gender difference. The MDRT was used to determine if there was a difference between two children with autism spectrum disorder and their age, height and weight matched peers. Indeed, the typically developing children outperformed their autistic counterparts in all directions measured. Because postural control is a foundation for the development of fine and gross motor skills for engagement in occupation including daily living skills and school related fine motor skills such as writing, it is important that occupational therapists consider dynamic balance as part of our assessment when we work with children on the autism spectrum for whom this area is often impaired.Item Reliability of The Print Tool™ in measuring handwriting abilities in kindergarten students(2010-12) Broussard, Morgan; Bowman, O. Jayne; Baxter, Mary F.; Candler, CatherineOccupational therapists in the educational setting are concerned with the child's functional participation in school related tasks. Handwriting is the primary fine motor task that occupies 30–60% of a child's school day. As the demand for evidenced based assessment and intervention strategies continue to guide occupational therapy practice, practitioners are charged with the responsibility of using assessment tools with sound psychometric properties and to consider the strengths and weaknesses of the tools available. The research objective of this study was to determine if The Print Tool™ is sufficiently reliable to be used to document the quality of handwriting in kindergarten students. Thirty kindergarten students were recruited from a public elementary school in south-central Louisiana. Testing and retesting was conducted during the second semester of the school year and revealed fair correlation and no significant change between scores obtained for Capitals Total (r = .712) and Overall Score ( r = .723).Item Student and faculty perspectives on creative thinking across the Master of Occupational Therapy program(2015-05-30) Boiselle, Angela; Baxter, Mary F.; Evetts, Cynthia L.; Gregory, Diane; Candler, CatherineElements of creativity have been significant in occupational therapy practice since the beginning of the 20th century (Meyer, 1977; Slagle, 1939). Creative thinking is a context-dependent part of the dynamic process of creativity (Barris, 1978; Schmid, 2004). Occupational therapists use creative thought as a means to identify, define, and develop new or adapted ideas or solutions within practice. Creative thinking is a virtually unexplored construct in occupational therapy literature. Additionally, it is not known if or how creative thinking is fostered in occupational therapy students. The purpose of this study was to serve as foundational research on how Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) students and faculty perceive student creative thinking across the MOT program. This dissertation is comprised of two studies. Study I was a cross-sectional quantitative study based on the self-reflective creative thinking surveys completed by MOT students at Texas Woman’s University (N=136). Study II was a constructionism grounded theory design based on a focus group of MOT instructors (N=5). Several conclusions were reached as a result of this dissertation. First, there were not any significant differences among MOT students across the program regarding their perceptions of creative thinking. Second, a principal component analysis (PCA) resulted in three components that included creative ideation, intrapersonal contexts, and extrinsic contexts. Third, instructors identified three overall theoretical categories that related to student creative thought: student factors, press, and process. Fourth, the Creative Thinking of MOT Students Model (CTOTS) was developed as explanatory model to describe a collective understanding of student and instructor perceptions of creative thinking. The work achieved in this project can serve as a foundational basis for a larger study that may be used for assessment development and/or MOT curriculum design.Item Use of Nintendo Wii Fit™ to augment pediatric rehabilitation(2010-08) McCain, April; Baxter, Mary F.; Pickens, NoralynIncorporating virtual reality with therapy programs is a unique way to provide therapy in a functional, purposeful, and motivating context that can be individualized. The aim of this pilot study was to determine the effectiveness of augmenting occupational therapy intervention with participation in therapist-guided Wii Fit™ activities in children with motor coordination deficits as measured by the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Proficiency-2nd Ed. (BOT-2). Four children were recruited to the study and randomly divided into an experimental or control group, two in each. Intervention involved 30 minute sessions, twice weekly for ten weeks. Upon comparison of initial and final BOT-2 composite scores, the scores of participants in the experimental group were no higher than the scores of participants in the control group. Even though both therapy regimes produced various skill improvements, it is notable that participants in the experimental group demonstrated high levels of engagement during Wii Fit™ activities.Item Validity of the sock test for sitting balance: A functional sitting balance assessment for use in the acute care setting(6/1/2018) Franc, Ingrid A.; Baxter, Mary F.; Neville, Marsha; Mitchell, Katy, Ph. D.; Chang, Pei-FenINTRODUCTION: Balance is a foundation for function as, “The ability to control our body’s position in space is fundamental to everything we do” (Shumway-Cook & Woollacott, 2007, p.158). The importance of sitting balance has been established with several studies strongly correlating sitting balance to self-care functioning (Gorman et al., 2014; Oh, Im, Ko, Ko, & Park, 2012; Juneja, Czyrny, & Linn,1998). However, no universally accepted method of assessing or describing a patient’s sitting balance has been identified (Sibley, Beauchamp, Van Ooteghem, Straus, & Jaglal, 2015), and current standardized sitting balance assessments are not grounded in an occupation-based approach of assessing the ‘whole person’. The Sock Test for Sitting Balance (STSB), developed using the Occupational Adaptation framework, has the potential to be an effective and efficient measure of sitting balance and function, but had not been compared to a validated balance tool and had not been tested to see if it could differentiate between a healthy versus hospitalized population. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine if the STSB is a valid assessment of sitting balance for use by occupational therapists in the acute care setting. METHODS: Twenty-one hospitalized participants were case-matched to 21 apparently healthy individuals. Concurrent validity of the STSB was then investigated by correlating the sitting balance results obtained on the STSB to those of the “Adapted Functional Reach” (AFR) assessment (Thompson & Medley, 2007), the Functional Independence Measure (FIMTM) Chair Transfer subscale (Zeltzer, 2011), and to the Kansas University Sitting Balance Scale (KUSBS) (Kluding, Swafford, Cagle & Gajewski, 2006). RESULTS: There is a significant relationship between STSB results and Adapted Functional Reach-Forward results (rs (40) = -.382, p = .012) for all participants but not for the hospitalized cohort alone (rs (19) = -.178, p = .440). Validity was established with a significant relationship between ranked STSB results and ranked level of independence on the FIMTM bed-chair transfer subscale (rs (19) = -.677, p = .001), and to levels of sitting balance on the KUSBS (, rs (19) = -.614, p = .003.). The results of the study also showed that the STSB can differentiate between a hospitalized population and an apparently healthy population (z = 2.377, p = .017, r = .37). CONCLUSION: This study advances the use of the task of sock donning and doffing as a sitting balance measurement tool, helping establish the STSB for use by occupational therapists in the acute care setting.