Margaret A. Short

Publication trends in occupational therapy

Articles appearing in the American Journal of Occupational Therapy over the past decade were reviewed and categorized according to the nature of the article. Seven categories were identified: descriptive, survey, case and field study, correlational, quasi-experimental, true experimental, and practical. Data analysis revealed that there has been a significant change in the type of articles published before and after 1978. This change appears to be confined to certain categories. Specifically, there has been an increase in articles of a quasi-experimental nature and a decrease in articles of a purely descriptive type. The implications of increased research publications in the occupational therapy literature are discussed.

Nystagmus Duration Changes of Learning Disabled Children during Sensory Integrative Therapy

Sensory integrative therapy was administered to 43 learning disabled children categorized according to their pretherapeutic duration of postrotary nystagmus. The duration then was recorded after relatively short or long treatments. Children displaying initial subnormal nystagmic functioning responded to therapy with increases in duration while others displayed decreases, and these effects were more apparent after long therapy. These data support the claims that learning disabled children can be meaningfully categorized according to their nystagmic responses and that attention to their interoceptive sensory functioning may be of clinical significance.

Kinesthetic recall of children with athetoid and spastic cerebral palsy and of non-handicapped children.

Twenty‐four children with spastic or athetoid quadriplegic cerebral palsy were paired according to severity of motor disability and age, then matched with 12 non‐handicapped children of similar ages. The children were tested with a standard kinesthesiométér and two kinds of scores were recorded. Absolute Error scores reflected the childrens deviation from the target and Total Movement scores reflected their over‐all range of movement. There were significant differences between groups in Absolute Error scores, with the cerebral‐palsied children performing worse than the controls and the spastic children worse than the athetoid children. All three groups tended to underestimate the targets and there were no significant differences in Total Movement scores.

The Relationship between Dynamic Balance and Postrotary Nystagmus in Learning Disabled Children

Twenty-four children with learning disabilities or perceptual-motor handicaps were evaluated using the Southern California Postrotary Nystagmus Test and other clinical measures frequently used by occupational therapists to assess vestibular function. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between nystagmus duration scores and Walk on Floor Eyes Closed (a test of dynamic balance), prone extension posture, Walk on Floor Eyes Open, age, muscle tone and Standing Balance: Eyes Open. Multiple regression analysis indicated that when all of the clinical variables were considered together, the Walk on Floor Eyes Closed test was the best predictor of postrotary nystagmus duration. These findings expand the results of other studies which have related clinical vestibular tests to duration of postrotary nystagmus and also indicate that therapists may want to include assessments of dynamic balance with other clinical variables in the evaluation of vestibular function.

Comparison of Two Scales for Assessing Motor Development in Infants with down's Syndrome

The Peabody Developmental Scales (PDS) and the Movement Assessment of Infants (MAI) were examined for their abilities to detect subtle changes in motor development of infants with Downs syndrome Both assessments were administered to 10 infants before and after a 6-week period A t-test suggested that the MAI was sensitive to developmental changes in the subjects tested from initial test to follow-up. Similar testing using the PDS did not reveal significant differences in the scores, suggesting that the MAI was the more sensitive of the two instruments. When partial correlations were calculated for possible artifactual effects due to age, the MAI still demonstrated greater stability. Results indicate that, for infants with Downs syndrome, the MAI may be preferable to the PDS for detecting changes in motor ability over short periods. However, these results should be considered tentative until a more in-depth study is conducted using a larger number of subjects from a variety of clinical populations.

Intercorrelations among Three Preschool Screening Instruments.

Withthe growingemphasis on earlyintervention, therapistsand educators are called on to screen younger children for the detection of developmentaldisabilities andat-risk conditions. Oneoftheproblemsencountered by preschool diagnostic teams is the selection of a screening tool that is informative and easily and quickly administered. Because screening is frequently necessary for a large number of children, it is unrealistic for therapyteamsto use evaluations that are not onlyspecialized andtechnical but also lengthy. Thus, manyteamsdevelop their own in-house screening tools; although this may enhance staff efficiency, it often results in the proliferation of informal test instruments that may be unreliable and invalid. In the present investigation, the development of a screening tool is described, and the data obtained from this tool are correlated with two other widely used screening instruments. During the summer of 1980, the Cityof Chattanooga Special Resource Teamconducted diagnostic screeningof all children aged 4 to 6 entering the summer preschool Head Start program. Eighty of the children were administeredthree separatediagnostic tests: the Slosson Intelligence Test