An investigation of the family practicum experience. Family and student perspectives.

Professional occupational therapy (OT) and physical therapy (PT) programs traditionally instruct students using volunteers, including children who have disabilities. Presenting a child before a classroom of students may deprive the child of dignity and may limit students' understanding of the child's disability and the importance of family-centered service delivery. An alternative approach that respects the child's privacy and promotes dignity is student observation in the context of the child's daily living. The Family Practicum Intervention Plan assignment (FPIP), part of the professional Neuro Rehab course, was created to facilitate students' understanding of a child with a disability while maintaining child dignity and family-centered values. This descriptive study explored, through two online surveys, the experiences of the OT and PT students and the families of children who participated in the FPIP. Additionally, the study investigated the influences of this participation on students' perceptions of family life and views of childhood disability. Overall, students and families perceived this assignment to be a good learning experience because it allowed the student to work within a real-life scenario and it gave the families an expert "voice" in the education of OT and PT students. The positive comments provided by the families and students and the desire of families to recommend the FPIP experience to other families suggest the value of the learning assignment. When developing OT and PT professional pediatric coursework, instructors should include assignments that take place in the child's natural environment to offer meaningful learning that maintains the dignity of the child.