Do We Listen to Children’s Voices in Physical and Occupational Therapy? A Scoping Review

Abstract

Aims

The aim of this study was to investigate the extent, range and nature of research activity specifically reporting the inclusion of the voices of children or adolescents when therapists are setting therapy goals and implementing therapy.

Methods

We conducted a scoping review and searched the following electronic bibliographic databases: Pedro, SciELO, Google Scholar, MEDLINE, EMBASE, Web of Science and CINAHL. We included primary studies focusing on involvement of children and/or adolescents in goalsetting, decision-making or conduct of physical or occupational therapy. Results are presented descriptively and narratively.

Results

Nineteen studies were included presenting various instruments or strategies for involvement. We found sparse evidence that children and adolescents with disabilities were included in therapy goal setting using goal setting instruments, especially children under 5 years of age or with communicative or cognitive disabilities.

Conclusions

There are few studies reporting the way in which the voices of children or adolescents are heard in therapy. Further research is needed to develop new methods and studies with stronger designs are needed to determine the extent to which listening to children’s voices affects therapeutic outcomes.

Keywords:

• Scoping review
• children
• adolescents
• patient perspectives
• involvement
• physical therapy
• occupational therapy

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the very valuable input from Jacob Nossell who inspired us to this work with tales from his many years of experience receiving therapy from pediatric therapists.

Author Contribution

All authors have contributed substantially to this paper.

Design of protocol DJC, LW, KS, BN

Search strategy and search DJC, LW, KS, BN

TiAb screening DJC, LW, KS, BN

Full text reading DJC, LW, KS, BN

Data extraction, analysis, and synthesis DJC, LW, KS, BN

Manuscript DJC, LW, KS, BN

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Derek John Curtis

Derek John Curtis is a pediatric physical therapist and clinical instructor at Child Centre Copenhagen. Derek has a phd in neuroscience and a masters degree in clinical biomechanics. His research interests focus around developing a more systematic evidence based approach to treating children and youth with neurodevelopmental diasabilities and promoting family and child engagement in both research and therapeutic interventions.

Lene Weber

Lene Weber is a physical therapist who has worked clinically for 15 years with infants, children and their families. Lene has a masters degree in health science and works at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen University Hospital, as a clinician and academic physiotherapist with a focus on examination, treatment and rehabilitation of children. Her research interests are in the field of neuropeadiatrics.

Kristine Berggren Smidt

Kristine B. Smidt is a pediatric occupational therapist with a master’s degree in health science, who currently works in Child Centre Copenhagen. Kristine has 16 years of experience as a clinician in pediatrics both from a hospital department in Norway and community therapy services in Denmark. Her research interest focuses on evidence-based interventions, motivation, family and child engagement in therapy, cerebral palsy, and hand function.

Birgitte Nørgaard

Birgitte Nørgaard is an Associate Professor and Head of Research for User Perspectives and Community-based Interventions (Public Health), University of Southern Denmark. Her research focus on user involvement and user perspectives, healthcare organization, communication, interprofessional education and collaboration, Patient Reported Outcomes Measures (PROM) and Evidence Based Research.