OT OUTCOMES: CHILDREN WITH SENSORY MODULATION DISORDERS

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This career development award will enable the applicant to become an independent investigator in a new field of study, outcomes research in pediatric rehabilitation. A combination of classroom education (25 percent) at the University of Denver and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, intensive mentorship (25 percent) with two co- mentors and a committee of five additional experts, and completion of a related research project (50 percent) will consolidate her new career focus. Exemplary environmental and research supports for applicant exist at these two institutions. The applicant's skills in design and analysis of outcome research will be solidified through performance of a research project. The sample includes 63 children diagnosed with sensory modulation disorder (SMD) by a norm-referenced scale. A combination of physiologic responses, standardized rating scales of attention, anxiety and activities of daily living, and additional clinical measures will estimate post-treatment changes in impairments, functional limitations, and disabilities. If SMD inclusion criteria are met, child is assigned to one of three groups using blocked, random allocation: immediate treatment, wait-list condition, or alternative treatment. The target experimental treatment, OT with SI model combines functional occupation-based interventions, sensory integrative activities, and family centered care. Alternative OT treatment uses a skills-based model. Post-treatment examination on outcome variables are made by a blind examiner. Group by time repeated measures analysis of variance is used to analyze data, differentiating the effectiveness of the three treatment conditions. The combination of classroom education, intensive mentorship and conducting the research project will enable applicant to: 1) learn and disseminate research methodologies appropriate to measuring complex "occupation-based" outcomes to the field, and 2) develop a longitudinal program of research related to SMD. The project also provides a mechanism for applicant to learn how to evaluate the relation between physiologic/impairment variables, and to explore which is most useful in predicting improvements.