A framework of children’s hand skills for assessment and intervention

Chien, Chi-Wen, Brown, Ted and McDonald, Rachael (2009) A framework of children’s hand skills for assessment and intervention. Child: Care, Health and Development, 35 6: 873-884.


Author Chien, Chi-Wen
Brown, Ted
McDonald, Rachael
Title A framework of children’s hand skills for assessment and intervention
Journal name Child: Care, Health and Development  (ERA 2012 Listed)    (ERA 2010 Rank B)   Check publisher's open access policy
Publication date 2009-11
Sub-type Article
DOI 10.1111/j.1365-2214.2009.01002.x
Volume number 35
Issue number 6
ISSN 0305-1862
1365-2214
Start page 873
End page 884
Total pages 12
Place of publication Oxford, United Kingdom
Publisher Wiley-Blackwell Publishing
Language eng
Formatted abstract Background: Hand skill development or mastery has a huge influence on children's early development and participation in everyday activities. Assessment of difficulties with children's hand skills typically involves a systematic process considering all potential factors that may impact on hand skills. This helps identify key hand skill difficulties and select specific interventions that are relevant to the individual child. This paper describes the development of the Children's Hand Skills Framework (CHSF) that can be used as a conceptual guide to analyse and describe children's hand skills in the assessment and intervention process.
Methods: A comprehensive literature review of the existing hand skill models and instruments was conducted to develop the CHSF content, and experts' reviews via an evaluation feedback questionnaire were used as a means to validate the CHSF.
Results: The literature review revealed that the functional repertoire of children's hand skills can be divided into six distinct categories. Manual gesture and body contact hand skills are two categories, in which the hands do not make contact with any object. Arm-hand use, adaptive skilled hand use and bimanual use are object-related hand skill categories where the hands do contact objects. The final category is related to the general quality of children's hand skills. Each of the six hand skill categories can be further broken down into three to seven subcategories. The feedback from the experts further demonstrated high levels of agreement for the inclusion of the CHSF subcategories.
Conclusions: The CHSF offers a helpful guide to comprehensively describe the complexity of children's hand skills in the assessment process and has the potential to enhance and promote communication about functional use of children's hand skills among professionals. The CHSF is also conceptually compatible with the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health, providing a holistic consideration of both children's hand skills and relevant International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health factors for further assessment and intervention planning.
© 2009 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
Keyword Assessment
Children
Framework
Hand skills
Q-Index Code C1
Q-Index Status Provisional Code
Institutional Status Non-UQ

Document type: Journal Article
Sub-type: Article
Collection: School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences Publications
 
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Created: Fri, 18 Mar 2011, 20:44:00 EST by Dr Chi-wen Chien on behalf of School of Health & Rehabilitation Sciences