Henderson Jacqueline, Hughes Rod, Coxon Kristy
Primary Care and Community Health Services, Nepean Blue Mountains Local Health District, Penrith NSW, Australia.
School of Health Sciences, Western Sydney University, Penrith, NSW, Australia.
Br J Occup Ther. 2022 Dec;85(12):955-964. doi: 10.1177/03080226221098945. Epub 2022 May 12.
Children often present to occupational therapy with delays in pre-school occupations, with underlying skill deficits. If unaddressed, deficits may affect adjustment to school, jeopardising educational progress. Although evidence supports group-based interventions, evaluation can be time-intensive and expensive. We developed and piloted an evaluative toolkit to measure and report outcomes for short school readiness groups.
We sought measures that were inexpensive, reliable and responsive to change in key domains. Skills and pre-school occupations were measured in children [ = 58; mean = 5 years] before and after our school starters group program. Parents rated their children's skills, school readiness and level of school-related anxiety.
Our resource-efficient, multi-measure, skills-based evaluative toolkit reliably recorded changes in children's performance in our school readiness program. Measures were adapted for groups. Children demonstrated improvements in skills important for successful school transition pre-post program; including static and dynamic balance, pencil grasp/control, pre-writing/drawing skills and name writing. Parents' confidence in their child's readiness for school increased, while school-related-anxiety decreased.
The evaluative toolkit proved responsive to change and showed excellent inter-rater reliability. Measures were practicable for groups, easy to administer and score, and engaged parents in their child's progress. In our six-session School Starters group, important pre-school skills were improved in participating children.
儿童在接受职业治疗时，往往存在学前技能发展延迟及潜在技能缺陷的情况。若不加以解决，这些缺陷可能会影响其入学适应，危及学业进展。尽管有证据支持基于小组的干预措施，但评估可能耗时且昂贵。我们开发并试点了一种评估工具包，用于测量和报告短期入学准备小组的成果。
我们寻找在关键领域中成本低廉、可靠且对变化有反应的测量方法。在我们的入学准备小组项目前后，对[ = 58；平均年龄 = 5岁]的儿童的技能和学前活动进行了测量。家长对孩子的技能、入学准备情况和与学校相关的焦虑程度进行了评分。
我们的资源高效、多维度、基于技能的评估工具包可靠地记录了儿童在入学准备项目中的表现变化。各项测量方法适用于小组。儿童在项目前后展示出对成功过渡到学校很重要的技能有所提高；包括静态和动态平衡、握笔/控制铅笔、书写前/绘画技能和书写名字。家长对孩子入学准备的信心增强，而与学校相关的焦虑则有所降低。
评估工具包证明对变化有反应，且具有出色的评分者间信度。这些测量方法对小组来说切实可行，易于实施和评分，并让家长参与到孩子的进展情况中。在我们为期六节的入学准备小组中，参与项目的儿童的重要学前技能得到了提高。
