Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Using the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM) to Describe Young Children’s Participation and Relationship to Disability and Complexity

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
Journal of Developmental and Physical Disabilities Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Minimal research exists on the participation of young children who are five years and younger. The purpose of this study is to describe the participation of young children who use a large children’s treatment centre in Ontario, Canada in relation to primary diagnosis and complexity (cumulative number of functional concerns). One hundred and seventy parent responses described environmental supports and barriers, participation frequency and level of involvement in home, daycare/preschool, and community settings as well as parent’s desired change in activities using the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM). Spearman’s correlations explored the relationship between participation and complexity (using the About My Child measure), and the Mann-Whitney test explored relationships between participation and child’s primary diagnosis. Participation frequency and involvement scores were highest in the home setting followed by the daycare/preschool setting then the community setting. Participation involvement and complexity correlations showed stronger negative associations than participation frequency and complexity. Young children’s participation scores were significantly higher among children with communication disorders in comparison to children with motor/cognitive disabilities in the frequency home setting and involvement in all settings. This study supports that a stronger relationship exists between complexity and involvement in comparison to frequency, and young children with motor/cognitive disorders have lower participation scores than young children with communication disorders.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Anaby, D., Hand, C., Bradley, L., DiRezze, B., Forhan, M., DiGiacomo, A., & Law, M. (2013). The effect of the environment on participation of children and youth with disabilities: A scoping review. Disability and Rehabilitation, 35(19), 1589–1598. https://doi.org/10.3109/09638288.2012.748840.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bedell, G., Coster, W., Law, M., Liljenquist, K., Kao, Y.-C., Teplicky, R., … Khetani, M. A. (2013). Community participation, supports, and barriers of school-age children with and without disabilities. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 94(2), 315–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2012.09.024

  • Benjamin, T. E. (2014). Participation in early childhood educational environments for young children with and without developmental delays: A mixed methods study. Colorado State University.

  • Bult, M. (2012). Participation in leisure activities of children and adolescents with physical disabilities (pp. 1–152).

  • Cosbey, J., Johnston, S. S., & Dunn, M. L. (2010). Sensory processing disorders and social participation. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 64(3), 462–473. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.2010.09076.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Coster, W., Law, M., & Bedell, G. (2010). Participation and environment measure – Children and youth ©.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coster, W., Law, M., Bedell, G., Liljenquist, K., Kao, Y. C., Khetani, M., & Teplicky, R. (2013). School participation, supports and barriers of students with and without disabilities. Child: Care, Health and Development, 39, 535–543. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12046.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Khetani, M. A., Coster, W. J., Law, M. C., & Bedell, G. M. (2013). Young Children’s participation and environment measure (YC-PEM). United States: Fort Collins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Khetani, M. A., Graham, J. E., Davies, P. L., Law, M. C., & Simeonsson, R. J. (2014). Psychometric properties of the young Children’s participation and environment measure. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 96(2), 307–316. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2014.09.031.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • King, G., McDougall, J., Dewit, D., Petrenchik, T., Hurley, P., & Law, M. (2009). Predictors of change over time in the activity participation of children and youth with physical disabilities. Children’s Health Care: Journal of the Association for the Care of Children’s Health, 38(4), 321–351. https://doi.org/10.1080/02739610903237352.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, G., Petrenchik, T., Dewit, D., McDougall, J., Hurley, P., & Law, M. (2010). Out-of-school time activity participation profiles of children with physical disabilities: A cluster analysis. Child: Care, Health and Development, 36(5), 726–741. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2010.01089.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koller, D., Le Pouesard, M., & Rummens, J. A. (2018). Defining social inclusion for children with disabilities: A critical literature review. Children & Society, 32, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Law, M. (2002). Participation in the occupations of everyday life. The American Journal of Occupational Therapy, 56(6), 640–649 Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23624528.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Law, M., Petrenchik, T., King, G., & Hurley, P. (2007). Perceived environmental barriers to recreational, community, and school participation for children and youth with physical disabilities. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 88(12), 1636–1642. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2007.07.035.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Law, M., Anaby, D., Teplicky, R., Khetani, M. A., Coster, W., & Bedell, G. (2013). Participation in the home environment among children and youth with and without disabilities. The British Journal of Occupational Therapy, 76(2), 58–66. https://doi.org/10.4276/030802213X13603244419112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lim, C. Y., Law, M., Khetani, M., Pollock, N., & Rosenbaum, P. (2016). Participation in out-of-home environments for young children with and without developmental disabilities. OTJR Occupation, Participation and Health, 36(3), 112–125. https://doi.org/10.1177/1539449216659859.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Palisano, R., Rosenbaum, P., Walter, S., Russell, D., Wood, E., & Galuppi, B. (1997). Development and reliability of a system to classify gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 30, 214–223.

    Google Scholar 

  • Piškur, B., Beurskens, A. J. H. M., Jongmans, M. J., Ketelaar, M., & Smeets, R. J. E. M. (2015). What do parents need to enhance participation of their school-aged child with a physical disability? A cross-sectional study in the Netherlands. Child: Care, Health and Development, 41(1), 84–92. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12145.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Raghavendra, P., Olsson, C., Sampson, J., McInerney, R., & Connell, T. (2012). School participation and social networks of children with complex communication needs, physical disabilities. and typically developing peers. Augmentative and Alternative Communication (Baltimore, Md. : 1985), 28(1), 33–43. https://doi.org/10.3109/07434618.2011.653604.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rainey, L., van Nispen, R., van der Zee, C., & van Rens, G. (2014). Measurement properties of questionnaires assessing participation in children and adolescents with a disability: A systematic review. Quality of Life Research, 23(10), 2793–2808. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-014-0743-3.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ritzema, A., Lach, L., Rosenbaum, P., & Nicholas, D. (2016). About My Child: Measuring “complexity” in neurodisability. Evidence of reliability and validity. Child: Care, Health and Development, In Press, 1–18.

  • Rosenbaum, P., Mesterman, R., Law, M., Jaffer, S., Russell, D., Gorter, J., … Kertoy, M. (2008). About my child. Hamilton, Ontario Canada.

  • Safford, M. M., Allison, J. J., & Kiefe, C. I. (2007). Patient complexity: More than comorbidity. The vector model of complexity. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 22(SUPPL. 3), 382–390. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11606-007-0307-0.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Soref, B., Ratzon, N. Z., Rosenberg, L., Leitner, Y., Jarus, T., & Bart, O. (2012). Personal and environmental pathways to participation in young children with and without mild motor disabilities. Child: Care, Health and Development, 38(4), 561–571. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2214.2011.01295.x.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vroland-Nordstrand, K., Eliasson, A. C., Jacobsson, H., Johansson, U., & Krumlinde-Sundholm, L. (2016). Can children identify and achieve goals for intervention? A randomized trial comparing two goal-setting approaches. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology, 58(6), 589–596. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.12925.

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Williams, U., Rosenbaum, P., Gorter, J. W., McCauley, D., & Gulko, R. (2018). Psychometric properties and parental reported utility of the 19-item “about my child” (AMC-19) measure. BMC Pediatrics, 18(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-018-1147-2.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. CanChild, McMaster University, 1400 Main Street West, Room 408, IAHS, Hamilton, ON, L8S 1C7, Canada

    Uzma Williams, Mary Law, Steven Hanna & Jan Willem Gorter

Authors
  1. Uzma Williams
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mary Law
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Steven Hanna
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Jan Willem Gorter
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Uzma Williams.

Ethics declarations

Ethics Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Williams, U., Law, M., Hanna, S. et al. Using the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM) to Describe Young Children’s Participation and Relationship to Disability and Complexity. J Dev Phys Disabil 31, 135–148 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-018-9637-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-018-9637-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation