Applying the ICF-CY to identify children's everyday life situations: A step towards participation-focused code sets

Abstract

Adolfsson M. Applying the ICF-CY to identify children's everyday life situations: a step towards participation-focused code sets With the long-term goal to create an interdisciplinary screening tool with code sets focusing on children's participation in everyday life situations (ELS), the purpose of the present study was to identify ELS for children 0-17 years. The views of professionals and parents in Sweden, South Africa and the USA were integrated based on ICF-CY linkages. The chapters Self-care and Major life areas seemed most obvious to include in ELS. At the 2nd ICF-CY level, 11 categories emerged as ELS, with Hygiene and Recreation as the most obvious. Two sets of ELS were identified for infants/preschoolers and school-aged children/adolescents. Professionals and parents agreed on ELS for the older age group. Findings suggest that ELS differ in context specificity depending on maturity and growing autonomy. The study has implications for the future screening tool that is intended to support children with disabilities in describing what matters most to them in intervention planning. Key Practitioner Message: •Children and parents need opportunities to express their opinions during intervention processes, but a structured family-professional collaboration model is lacking; •Using ICF-CY-based models, including holistic views of participation in everyday life situations, increases professionals' focus on family perspectives; •Models to connect interventions to participation in everyday life situations enhance children's motivation and support interdisciplinary assessment. © 2012 The Author(s) International Journal of Social Welfare © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and the International Journal of Social Welfare.