Comparison of Family and Therapist Perceptions of Physical and Occupational Therapy Services Provided to Young Children with Cerebral Palsy

The purpose of this study was to determine whether parents and therapists have similar perceptions of therapy services provided to young children with cerebral palsy (CP), reflecting collaboration and provision of family-centered care. Forty-six parents of young children with CP and 40 therapists providing services for those children participated. Parents and therapists independently completed the same Services Questionnaire, indicating their perceptions of the focus and extent of the children's therapy services. For data analysis, answers to survey questions were combined into seven categories of items with a similar focus. The Spearman rho correlations and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to explore relationships and differences between the ratings of parents and therapists. No significant correlations were found for the seven categories. Significant differences between ratings for five of the seven categories were identified, indicating parents and therapists differed in their ratings of the focus of therapy interventions. Based on the findings, suggestions for improvement in the provision of family-centered care are provided.