Identifying children´s everyday life situations using an ICF-CY perspective

• Children with disabilities and their parents need opportunities to express opinions and take part of professional knowledge during habilitation processes. However, there is no structured model to identify child participation in everyday life situations (EDLS). Code sets based on WHO International Classification of Functioning, disability and health, Child and Youth version, ICF-CY, would support  such dialogues. Interventions for children with disabilities have in the last decades shifted from focusing on the child to the child in specific EDLS. Integration of professionals’ and parents´ views of EDLS for children provides a common knowledge on conditions important for everyday functioning. Shared views might be a ‘door opener’ for collaboration during intervention planning for children with disabilities. A focus on EDLS make the partners focus on participation, share understanding of children’s individual preferences, and motivate them for interventions.The study identified parents’ and professionals’ picture of EDLS to be considered in intervention planning. With the long-term goal to create code sets for children’s EDLS, the purpose was to determine a set of EDLS for children and youth aged 0-17 years. A triangulation of data collected with various sampling strategies and participants was conducted, integrating the views of professionals and parents in Sweden, South Africa, and the US. Data were compared after linkage to ICF-CY codes in the component Activities and Participation. Analyses pointed out Self-care and Major life areas as the two most important chapters and  depicted eleven categories as EDLS with Hygiene and Recreation and leisure as the most frequent. Two final sets of ICF-CY categories were identified as EDLS for infants/preschoolers and school aged children/adolescents. The sets differed slightly between younger children (0-6 yrs) and older (7-17 yrs), reflecting how EDLS might differ in context specificity depending on maturity and growing autonomy. Professionals and parents agreed on everyday life situations for older children but not for younger. The results of the study have implications for the future development of a screening tool containing code sets from early childhood through adolescence concerning children’s desires and opportunities to participate in EDLS. To obtain a picture as complete as possible, children and youth representing the two age groups should be involved in the future process of developing a screening tool.

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