Summary: Stephen Camarata, PhD, Professor at Vanderbilt University discusses the development of a behavioral coding system to quantify the effectiveness of Occupational Therapy for children with Sensory Processing Disorder. Using examples from OT sessions of children who were treated at the STAR Center, he explains the methodology for coding sensory events and outcomes. He concludes by emphasizing the importance of utilizing single subject research designs for treatment effectiveness research in Occupational Therapy. Presented at the 16th International 3S Symposium.
Level: Intermediate
Intended Audience: Clinicians, teachers, mental health and medical professionals, parents, students, caregivers
Prerequisite: None
Presenter: Stephen Camarata, PhD received his PhD at Purdue University and completed post-doctoral training at the University of Arizona. He served on the faculty at Penn State and the University of California, Santa Barbara (in the Autism Research Center) prior to joining the faculty at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in 1990. He holds faculty appointments in the Departments of Psychiatry and Hearing & Speech and in Special Education at Peabody College. His research is focused on intervention in children with developmental disabilities such as autism, Down Syndrome, apraxia and other disabilities. He served as the chair of the NIH study section on Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities from 2009-2012. The research reported herein was supported in part by a grant from the Wallace Foundation and by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders of the NIH.
Learning Objectives:
- Describe event-coding methodology and procedures for testing treatment efficacy
- Describe the role and coding procedures for attention, engagement, and affect and discuss why simply coding “procedures” such as brushing may not capture core elements of an intervention.
- Discuss methods for identifying and testing “key ingredients” for interventions (e.g., clinician models for communication, head movement for vestibular stimulation)
Continuing Education: STAR Institute for SPD is an AOTA Approved Provider of Continuing Education. The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.
Upon full completion of the course video, participants must complete and pass a quiz with at least 80% accuracy to receive a certificate of completion.