A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF PARENTAL PERCEPTIONS ABOUT OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY INTERVENTIONS ON CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

AIMS & OBJECTIVES To assess the perceptions of parents about Occupational Therapy interventions on their children using a self-administered questionnaire. STUDY DESIGN A Cross-Sectional Study STUDY SETTINGS & PARTICIPANTS Data was collected from OT departments of primary and tertiary care hospitals of Karachi. Parents of children with special needs enrolled in occupational therapy. RESULTS A total number of 72 participants were recruited. The information about the children with special needs with mean age of 7±3.8 was taken from the parents. Findings reported that a child improved in domains i.e. fine and gross motor, self-behaviour, communication and sensory motor with an average percentage. CONCLUSION It was concluded that OT is an integral part of rehabilitation that showed favourable treatment outcomes as perceived by parents of children with special needs. Further studies are needed to investigate the role of parents in a child's improvement and level of functionality for effective management.