Date Presented 03/26/20 The Australian OT academic workforce has been impacted by an increased number of education programs and student enrollment. Only half have a PhD or professional doctorate, and there is only a small number in academic leadership. Most academics were motivated to become academics to teach students. Job satisfaction was influenced negatively by the number of years in current position, particularly dissatisfaction with pay, operating conditions, and promotion opportunities. Primary Author and Speaker: Carol McKinstry Contributing Authors: Louise Gustafsson, Ted Brown

OBJECTIVE. We sought to investigate the relationship between sensory processing and pretend play in typically developing children. METHOD. Forty-two typically developing children ages 5–7 yr were assessed with the Child Initiated Pretend Play Assessment and the Home and Main Classroom forms of the Sensory Processing Measure (SPM). RESULTS. There were significant relationships between elaborate pretend play and body awareness (r = .62, p < .01), balance (r = .42, p < .01), and touch (r = .47, p < .01). Object substitution was associated with social participation (r = .42, p < .05). CONCLUSIONS. The sensory processing factors (from the SPM)—namely, Body Awareness, Balance, Touch, and Social Participation—were predictive of the quality of children’s engagement in pretend play in the home environment. The results indicated that, to engage and participate in play, children are involving sensory processing abilities, especially body awareness, balance, and touch.

OBJECTIVE. The relationship between sensory processing factors and the sleep habits and patterns of typically developing children ages 8–12 yr was investigated. METHOD. Forty-five typically developing children and their parents or caregivers took part. Parents completed the Sensory Processing Measure–Home Form, Children’s Sleep Hygiene Scale, and Children’s Sleep Habits Questionnaire, and the children completed the Children’s Report of Sleep Patterns. Spearman ρ correlation and linear regression analyses were completed with the children’s sleep habits and patterns as the dependent variables and the sensory processing factors as the independent variables. RESULTS. Sensory processing factors were significantly associated with the children’s sleep habits and patterns, as reported by parents and children. Predictive relationships were established between the children’s sensory processing factors and sleep habits and patterns. CONCLUSION. Occupational therapy practitioners should consider sensory processing factors when working with children who present with suspected sleep problems.

OBJECTIVE. A bibliometric analysis was completed of highly cited occupational therapy literature and authors published from 1991 to 2014 and accessible in the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI–Expanded) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) databases. METHOD. Data were obtained from the SCI–Expanded and SSCI. Articles referenced >100 times were categorized as highly cited articles (HCA). RESULTS. Of 6,486 articles found, 31 were categorized as HCA. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy published the largest number of HCA (n = 8; 26%). The 31 HCA were distributed across seven countries: United States (20 articles), Canada (3), United Kingdom (3), Australia (2), the Netherlands (1), New Zealand (1), and Sweden (1). The three authors with the highest Y-index were S. J. Page, F. Clark, and W. Dunn. CONCLUSION. A latency period of 4 to 5 yr post-publication appears to be needed for a journal article to gain citations.

The occupational therapy profession in the United States is considering another shift in the level of entry-to-practice education. Currently, all accredited U.S. occupational therapy education programs offer graduate-entry master’s degrees or clinical doctorates. In 2014, the American Occupational Therapy Association Board of Directors published a position statement supporting the idea of moving all entry-level occupational therapy education programs to the clinical doctorate level by 2025. This article provides an overview of the proposed reasons for doing so and the potential impact of this move on future students, education providers, clients and families, employers, and third-party payers and funding bodies along with the implications for the occupational therapy profession internationally. An open, informed, transparent, multiperspective, comprehensive debate about this education paradigm shift is recommended. In August 2015 the Accreditation Council for Occupational Therapy Education decided that the entry-level qualification will remain at both the master’s and the doctoral degree; it is anticipated, however, that the move toward the entry-level clinical doctorate will continue.

We extracted 35 articles published between January 2009 and September 2013 in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy (AJOT) that focused on children and youth instrument development and testing, summarized study details and traits of the 37 measures reported in them, and then critiqued the measures. Most of the articles contained Level III evidence (one-group nonrandomized and noncontrolled). The most common types of reliability reported in the articles were internal consistency, test–retest reliability, and interrater reliability; the most frequent types of validity reported were discriminant validity and construct validity. Most pediatric assessment tools were designed for school-age children between ages 5 and 12 yr. The two most common purposes for the assessments were reported as descriptive and discriminative. The continued publication of instruments that measure children and youth participation in meaningful occupations and life roles in home, school, and community environments is recommended.

OBJECTIVE. We examined the empirical evidence to answer the research question, What is the relationship between play and sensory processing in children ages 3–12 yr? METHOD. The PRISMA guidelines were followed to complete a systematic review. Academic databases were searched using play, leisure, sensory processing, and sensory integration as primary search terms. Of 6,230 articles initially identified, 35 full-text articles were screened for eligibility. Of these, 8 met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS. All 8 studies were conducted within the United States. The evidence of the relationship between play and sensory processing fell mainly into the low levels of evidence: case studies and cohort studies. CONCLUSION. This review provides occupational therapists with an emerging understanding of the relationship between play and sensory processing based on current evidence and its importance in the occupational development of children. Rigorous research is needed in the area.

Journal quality metrics (also referred to as bibliometrics), such as impact factors, are increasingly being used as a measure of researchers’ and educators’ success and prestige. Occupational therapists who submit articles to peer-reviewed journals may face a professional and research dilemma: Do they submit their articles to journals that largely have a professional audience and potentially do not have an impact factor, or do they opt not to publish their research material in occupational therapy–oriented journals? Occupational therapy authors can consider other journal quality metric alternatives, in addition to the impact factor option, including the Eigenfactor Score, Article Influence Score, h-index, SCImago Journal Rank (SJR), Source Normalised Impact per Paper (SNIP), and discipline-specific generated journal quality measures. These other journal quality metrics can be important reference points for occupational therapists who publish and may encourage authors to publish in journals relevant to the discipline. This process, in turn, will build the occupational therapy body of knowledge as well as provide an essential, growing reference source for evidence-based practice.

In this review, 39 articles published in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy in 2008 and 2009 that were categorized in the practice area of children and youth were examined using content analysis. The most frequent type of research published was basic research, which accounted for 38.5% (n = 15) of the 39 studies published on the topic. Instrument development and testing and effectiveness studies were the next two most frequently noted research approaches, accounting for 25.6% (n = 10) and 20.5% (n = 8) of the studies, respectively. Among the 8 effectiveness studies, the level of evidence distribution was as follows: Level I, 3; Level III, 2; Level IV, 1; and Level V, 2. Quantitative studies were the predominant research paradigm used with 76.9% (n = 30) of the studies.

OBJECTIVE. We developed the Assessment of Children’s Hand Skills (ACHS) to evaluate hand skills using naturalistic observation and examined the assessment's interrater and test–retest reliability. METHOD. We developed the hand skill framework, performed expert review, and pilot tested the ACHS. The ACHS's reliability was examined by recruiting 54 children (30 typically developing children and 24 children with disabilities). RESULTS. The test–retest reliability for the ACHS was satisfactory at the individual item level (0.42 ≤ κ ≤ 0.79) and the total scale level (Spearman’s ρ = 0.78, p < .01). Moderate interrater agreement of the total scale scores was demonstrated (ρ = 0.63, p < .01), but individual items exhibited varied interrater agreement. CONCLUSION. The ACHS demonstrated adequate content validity and preliminary reliability evidence and could be used to quantify children’s hand skill use. Construct validity should be established in a clinical setting.

OBJECTIVE. Having access to high-quality, rigorously developed, valid visual–motor integration assessment tools is the first step in the process of providing effective clinical services to children presenting with visual–motor integration problems. The aim of this study was to examine the factor structure of four visual–motor integration instruments through factor analysis. METHOD. The participants included 400 children ages 5 to 12, recruited from six schools in the Melbourne metropolitan area, Victoria, Australia. Children completed the Developmental Test of Visual–Motor Integration (VMI), Test of Visual–Motor Integration (TVMI), Test of Visual–Motor Skills–Revised (TVMS–R), and Slosson Visual–Motor Performance Test (SVMPT). The factor analysis was completed using SPSS. RESULTS. Results indicated that the VMI displayed six factors; TVMI, three factors; TVMS–R, four factors; and SVMPT, three factors. CONCLUSION. The VMI, TVMI, TVMS–R, and SVMPT exhibited multidimensionality, and it is recommended that the instruments be revised to enhance their construct validity and unidimensionality.

INTRODUCTION. Visual–perceptual skills of children are often assessed using the Developmental Test of Visual Perceptual Skills–2, 2nd Edition (DTVP–2). PURPOSE. The factor structure of the four motor-free DTVP–2 subscales was examined. METHOD. The scores from a sample of 356 healthy children (171 boys and 185 girls) ages 5 to 11 years were used to complete a principal components factor analysis of the 4 subscales. RESULTS. The position-in-space subscale had items load on six factors. The figure ground subscale had items load on five factors. The visual closure scale and form constancy subscales both had four factors. When the four DTVP–2 subscales were combined to form one overall motor-free visual perceptual scale, the items loaded on 21 factors. CONCLUSION. The DTVP–2 and its four motor-free subscales exhibited multidimensionality instead of the expected unidimensional visual–perceptual constructs.

OBJECTIVES. The aim of this study was to examine the measurement properties of the Test of Visual-Perceptual Skills–Revised (TVPS–R). METHODS. A group of 356 typically developing children 5–11 years of age completed the TVPS–R along with three criterion measures. RESULTS. Several of the TVPS–R items had item–total subscale correlation coefficients were lower than the 0.20 correlation criteria. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients varied between 0.74 and 0.84 for the seven subscales. The perceptual quotient (PQ) reliability coefficient for the age levels ranged between 0.79 and 0.91. The PQ total group reliability coefficient was 0.96. Results from the principal component analysis indicated that the majority of the TVPS–R items loaded on a dominant first factor. Confirmatory factor analytic models were assessed using four different goodness-of-fit indices. Two of the fit indices supported the unidimensional assumption (RMR and CFI), while two of the fit indices did not support the TVPS–R one-factor model (chi-square and RMSEA). A unitary motor-free visual-perceptual factor was not found. CONCLUSION. The TVPS–R PQ should not be used as an overall performance summary score. Of the seven TVPS–R subscales, five can be used with confidence (visual discrimination, visual-spatial relationships, visual-sequential memory, visual figure ground, and visual-closure) whereas the visual memory and visual-sequential memory subscales are not recommended.