Masters Degrees (Occupational Therapy)

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Occupational Therapy) by browse.metadata.advisor "Cook, Ray Anne"

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    South African parents' perceptions and experiences of occupational therapy using a sensory integrative approach (OT/SI)
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2014-12) Geral, Jacintha; De Jongh, Jo-Celene; Cook, Ray Anne; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Dept. of Interdisciplinary Health Sciences. Division of Occupational Therapy.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: As a South African occupational therapist (OT) trained to provide occupational therapy using a sensory integration approach (OT/SI), to children and their families, I have personal experience of different parent perceptions and experiences regarding OT/SI as a treatment approach to improving their children’s occupational performance. This made me question the various factors that may influence a parent’s perceptions and experiences, and how these factors may ultimately influence the outcome of OT/SI intervention for the child and family. Additionally, I wanted to know what OT/SI intervention was like for parents of a child with difficulties processing and integrating sensory information and what changes should be made to ensure we are meeting both child and parents’ needs. To date, no research exists regarding parents’ perceptions and experiences of OT/SI intervention in South Africa. Despite this, OT/SI intervention is widely used among South African paediatric occupational therapists. This study focused on the lived experience of OT/SI intervention for parents in the Western Cape, South Africa. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe South African parents’ perceptions and experiences of OT/SI intervention received. This study not only sought to explore whether parents thought OT/SI intervention was valuable or not, but also to understand the meaning, the broader context and the process by which parent’s opinions had come into being, and how these may have influenced the meaning ascribed to the intervention. The study sample consisted of nine parents, including mothers and a father, of children with difficulties processing and integrating sensory information, who lived in various regions of the Western Cape, South Africa. Purposive sampling was used to select participants in this study. Using a qualitative, phenomenological approach, data was collected during face=to=face interviews, participant observation and researcher’s field notes. Four themes that pertain to the aims of the study were revealed during the analysis. They included: “It was tough because we didn’t understand”, “Just suddenly everything made so much sense”, “Mobilized my child into the world”, and “OT/SI intervention facilitators proposed by participants”. These themes describe the progression of the participant’s perceptions and experiences before OT/SI intervention, during intervention, and after having received the intervention, as well as the recommendations they proposed to facilitate OT/SI intervention in South Africa. I found that factors such as poor awareness and understanding of OT/SI intervention amongst the participants negatively influenced their understanding of their child’s occupational performance, their role as parents and their social performance as a family in various social contexts. Key points of transformation were identified during the ‘input phase’ of OT/SI intervention, which either facilitated or created a barrier in the participants’ shift to the ‘after phase’ of OT/SI intervention. Despite the barriers, all participants perceived and experienced a shift to the ‘after phase’ of OT/SI intervention. For some participants, this shift included changes they perceived in their child, which influenced social performance of the child and family. However, for the majority of participants, this shift meant a number of factors: a better understanding and expectations of their child; changes in their child’s abilities, activities and self=worth; changes in themselves as parents and how this influenced their parent=child relationship; as well as changes in their child’s and family’s social performance in various contexts. Insight gained from the participants’ recommendations and my interpretation of findings, allowed recommendations to be made in an attempt to overcome the barriers and promote the facilitators that will make a difference to OT/SI intervention in South Africa. Recommendations were made within two contexts: the broader social context of South Africa and the context of OT/SI intervention received by children and their parents.