Introduction: Investigation on spiritual issue in healthcare practice received less attention. Muslims valued pray activity or known as salat as one of the important daily activity. However, negligible study is available on salat as the end goal of occupational therapy intervention. This study aims to investigate the awareness and the impact of Muslim-culture on occupational therapists in Malaysia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey study was conducted via internet-based and manual paper-and-pencil survey throughout occupational therapists in Malaysia. Descriptive and inferential statistics using percentage, Cronbach’s alpha and Chi-square was implemented on the findings. Results: In total, 119 occupational therapists responded. The questionnaire has overall internal consistency ofα = 0.74. Occupational therapists have positive perceptions on spiritual activity but poorly translated into service implementation and faced challenges. Factors such as level of education, years of experience, religion, working location and work setting were significant on the awareness, perception, practice and challenges. Cultural-based practice is challenging for occupational therapy even in the majority-practice context. Occupational therapists should differentiate between belief and activity in spiritual issue to provide a better assistance for the clients. Conclusion: This study showed continuing education is desired to drive the occupational therapy profession for a better cultural-sensitivity service delivery.
Introduction: The prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorder is increasing each year. Intervention pro- grammes towards improving the occupational needs such as daily activities of these children are limited. This study aimed to collect opinions from advisory panel for the content validation of the three developed intervention pro- grammes to be implemented among children with autism spectrum disorder aged between 6 to 12 years. The inter- vention programmes are; i) self-regulated learning, ii) sensory integration intervention and iii) activity-based interven- tion. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted. Twenty occupational therapists with more than three years’ experience working with children with autism spectrum disorders were recruited as advisory panel members. Re- searchers-developed questionnaire was used. The questionnaire consists of nine to eleven items. Each item consists of a five-point Likert scale for quantitative responses and open-ended questions for qualitative responses. Results: Advisory panel ratings of ‘Good’ to ‘Excellent’ was reported across most items in all three intervention programmes. Overall results suggested that the intervention programmes content was rated to be suitable for children with autism spectrum disorder. Constructive comments were adopted to clarify the activities and structure of the intervention programmes. Final development of the intervention programmes is presented. Conclusion: This study provides con- fidence for the interventions to be incorporated into the future randomised controlled trial.
Assessing a child’s functional abilities and limitations can provide useful information for occupational therapists to develop individualised intervention plans. Usually paediatric assessments require parents to rate their child on different domains of health and functional performance. To do so, parents need to be able to understand the assessment content and instructions to rate their child accurately. The primary purpose of this study was to examine if parents in Malaysia understood the content and instructions of three assessments: the Sensory Profile Caregiver Questionnaire (SP), the Sensory Processing Measure Home Form (SPM) and the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function Parent Form (BRIEF). The secondary purpose was to examine perceptions about the clarity and relevancy of each of the items in each assessment. Thirty parents, recruited using convenience sampling, completed a survey about the assessments. In general, the parents indicated no problems or only minor problems in understanding the content and instructions of all three assessments. The parents also provided comments to improve the clarity of the assessment items. Comments were primarily related to the terms or jargon language used. Elaborations of the terms or jargon were later provided based on the parents’ comments. All three assessments were identified as relevant to be used in the Malaysian population. The results suggest that all three assessments can be used by parents and are suitable to be implemented by occupational therapists working with children in Malaysia.
The development of writing ability is not only important in building a child’s self-esteem, but also essential for academic success in school. Handwriting is an important skill that could affect students’ performance in most academic areas. This study aimed to review the effect of occupational therapy intervention in improving handwriting skills among preschool children. Relevant studies were systematically searched by using standardized keywords across three databases. The initial search identified 1,386 references. Of these studies, there were five quantitative studies that met the inclusion criteria and were methodologically appraised using the McMaster Critical Review Form–Quantitative Studies. All studies reported that preschool children with or without disabilities showed significant improvements in handwriting skills after receiving occupational therapy intervention. One study involved collaboration between teachers and occupational therapists in implementing intervention program to preschool students. Collaboration between teachers and occupational therapists was able to provide teachers with tools and skills that they can use to help students, with or without direct presence of occupational therapists. Overall, findings of this review indicated that preschool children could gain improvement in handwriting skills regardless of their conditions after receiving occupational therapy intervention programs.