Significance of an Interprofessional Healthy Aging Program for Community-Dwelling Older Adults: A Narrative Study.

Participation is widely recognized as an important health determinant for older adults. Exploring interventions to promote active participation of community-dwelling older adults is an important step in translating current knowledge into practice. Few studies have examined community-level interventions to support older adults' participation. The study purpose was to examine the significance of the lived experiences of community-dwelling older adults who participated in an interprofessional healthy aging promotion program. The specific aims were to uncover the narrative significance of the lived experiences and how they evolved and intertwined with the life histories of the older adults 2 years after the intervention ended. A narrative inquiry design was used. Four key informants participated in two semi-structured interviews and a member-checking process. The data were analyzed from a three-dimensional inquiry space of time and continuity, place and context, and social interactions. The findings affirmed three core threads that wove the participants' lived experiences within the program together with their life histories after the intervention. These were enjoyment, learning, and sharing. Four themes revealed the essential elements of the lived experience, and three others exposed participants' growth and life enrichment, all being fundamental to participation. The 3-year community-level intervention was valued and a novel opportunity for facilitating participation and successful aging. It allowed the participants to acquire an evolved vision of self, have meaningful interactions, develop the means to engage in future community activities, implement new self-care strategies, and establish memories and friendships significant for life participation.

Play and Mothers' Relationships With Children in the Context of Breast Cancer.

This interpretative phenomenological study explored play experiences between mothers who had completed, or were receiving treatment for, breast cancer and their young children and disease-related factors influencing those experiences. Six Puerto Rican mothers who had young children at the time of their primary treatment were interviewed. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed through constant comparative method. Two themes emerged: (a) "changes and challenges," which contextualized disease-related factors affecting the maternal role; and (b) "play and relationships with children" described play moments and how treatment affected these. Participants emphasized the benefits of playing and relating with their children while in treatment. Play as a co-occupation and an effective means to connect mothers with their children must be considered in the practice of occupational therapy. Future studies with more diverse samples of mothers at different stages of the disease are warranted to expand this exploratory work.

Play, Playfulness, and Self-Efficacy: Parental Experiences with Children on the Autism Spectrum.

BACKGROUND: Play serves as an essential medium for parent-child interaction; however, engaging children with ASD through play can be a challenge for parents. PURPOSE: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the perspectives of parents with children on the autism spectrum regarding play experiences and self-efficacy during play encounters. METHOD: Semistructured interviews were administered to 8 parents of children 3-7 years of age with ASD. The analysis was guided by the constant comparison method. FINDINGS: Parental narratives denoted playful experiences reflecting components of Skard and Bundy's model of playfulness. The facilitation of framing and suspension of reality were generally more challenging than facilitating intrinsic motivation and internal control. Participants associated self-efficacy during play with their perceived ability to interact with their child and with positive emotions experienced during play. Fathers generally derived a greater sense of self-efficacy from play encounters than mothers, and this was explained by differences in fathers' and mothers' motivations for playing. Mothers were motivated to play for outcome-oriented reasons (e.g., promote the child's progress) whereas fathers' motivations depicted greater emotional emphasis, reflecting a better match between motivation and perceived indicators of efficacy during play. CONCLUSION: The results suggest that a good match between motivation for playing and perceived indicators of efficacy during play is important for a parental sense of self-efficacy. Occupational therapists should utilize coaching strategies to increase parents' understanding of play and playfulness and how they can affect a sense of parental self-efficacy.

Child's Sensory Profile and Adult Playfulness as Predictors of Parental Self-Efficacy.

Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have difficulty engaging their children through play, thus affecting the parent-child relationship and parental self-efficacy. This study intended to examine children's sensory profile and adults' playfulness as predictors of parental self-efficacy. A total of 136 parents of children ages 3-7 yr completed the Short Sensory Profile, the Playfulness Scale for Adults, and the Tool to Measure Parenting Self-Efficacy. For the parental couples of children with ASD, the most relevant predictor of general parental self-efficacy was the child's sensory profile. However, adult playfulness resulted in the most relevant predictor of emotional parental self-efficacy. Findings suggest the importance of considering play as a relevant co-occupation that must be acknowledged when intervening with families of children with ASD and considering the child's sensory modulation abilities, as well as parents' playfulness and sense of self-efficacy, as potential outcomes when designing and evaluating treatment programs.

Prevalence of sensory modulation disorder among Puerto Rican preschoolers: an analysis focused on socioeconomic status variables.

The purposes of this study were to determine the prevalence of sensory modulation disorder (SMD) in a sample of Puerto Rican preschoolers and to examine differences in the prevalence of SMD based on socioeconomic status (SES) variables. Caregivers of children from Head Start programs and private preschools were recruited from three regions in Puerto Rico (PR) to participate in the study. Each caregiver completed a Short Sensory Profile (SSP) and a demographic data sheet. Total scores on the SSP were used to establish diagnosis of SMD. The total sample included 141 participants (response rate of 64%). Prevalence of SMD among the total PR sample (19.9%) was higher than previously reported estimates on the US mainland (5-16%). Statistical results indicated no difference in the overall prevalence of SMD based on SES. However, significant differences in scores based on caregivers' educational degree were found on the SSP sub-domain of Movement sensitivity and Under-responsive/seeks sensation; differences in scores based on caregiver household income were also found for the SSP sub-domain of Under-responsive/seeks. Although SMD appears to be prevalent in preschoolers in PR, variables associated with SES do not appear to contribute to an overall SMD diagnosis. However, additional research linking specific sub-domains of SMD to SES variables may be warranted.