Supervision and consultation services for pediatric occupational therapists.

OBJECTIVE

Occupational therapists with advanced experience or expertise provide supervision and consultation services in a variety of settings. This pilot study examined the use of such supervision and consultation services by pediatric occupational therapists.

METHOD

Special education administrators and pediatric occupational therapists from Massachusetts, a state often regarded as a leader in special education, responded to surveys designed especially for this study. These surveys asked about current supervision and consultation use, satisfaction with present services, and the need for additional resources in this area. Opinions regarding practice areas that would best be addressed by supervision and consultation were also obtained.

RESULTS

Both administrator and therapist respondents agreed that expert occupational therapy supervision and consultation are needed. Identified areas of interest were classroom supervision and consultation strategies, service delivery decisions, and evaluation methods.

CONCLUSION

Pediatric occupational therapists need expert supervision and consultation from occupational therapists with advanced experience or expertise in addition to traditional management, education, and training methods.