9
domain as well as the physical domain of quality of life
(1)
. The educative approach would also
serve to educate the families of those diagnosed with CP as many times the child is unable to
implement goals of treatment as they are too severely affected
(1)(17)(24)
. Lastly the adaptive assistive
approach deals with the physical/health, educative, social participation and psychological domains
regarding quality of life. This ensures that the child would receive assistive devices; adaptive
techniques or alternative methods to participate in those domains of quality of life in relation to age
appropriate developmental milestones
(1)(15)
.
An additional symptom that needs to be considered during occupational intervention is cognitive
impairments. About 50% of children with CP have learning or intellectual disabilities
(14)
. This
impacts significantly on the manner in which treatment is administered during intervention making
it necessary for occupational therapists to understand the impact of cognitive deficit on children
diagnosed with CP and visual impairment
(3)(14)
. Children with learning or intellectual disabilities
often have difficulty with praxis (understanding instructions, processing information or executing
actions), sequencing, memory and attention
(14)
.
This is important when considering specific
interventions as it impacts on how children learns using assistive devices, how they perceive
intervention in mobility and in general how they would achieve developmental milestones
(3)(14)
thereby determining their overall quality of life.
2.4 Occupational therapy intervention for children with visual impairments
When exploring the various therapeutic approaches for children with a dual diagnosis of CP and
visual impairment the ultimate aim should be to improve quality of life and facilitate participation in
occupational performance areas
(1)(9)
. If quality of life, through the various interventions, is the
ultimate aim for intervention the physical and the behavioural rehabilitation would encompass
managing the child’s condition in its entirety. This includes but is not limited to, addressing the
child’s client factors and performance skills or their body function and structure which would be
limited by their physical disability among other disturbances
(9)(17)
. The ultimate aim then, should be
to improve overall quality of life which would also involve improving independence in all
occupational performance areas
(1)
.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) children require vision to reach their
developmental milestones
(25)
. If children have a visual impairment, they would require rehabilitation
to assist them in their development and achieving independence
(25)
. Considering visual impairment
as a single deficit, rehabilitation would include either developing existing visual ability or developing
and using other senses for example hearing, to elicit movement
(10)(12)
. Techniques used to