Addressing Attention Difficulties in School-Aged Children Through Interventions Targeting On-Task Behavior and School Performance

Tomi Johnson, OTR/L, the primary collaborator for this project, is an occupational therapist with the Kent School District (KSD) working with children in grades K-6. She worked with occupational therapy (OT) students to answer the question: Which school-based related service interventions are effective in improving school performance in children with attention challenges. The results of this systematic review identified six intervention modalities that can be implemented by occupational therapists to address attention challenges in school-aged children including: (1) self-monitoring, (2) school-to-home daily report cards, (3) physical activity, (4) sensory supports, (5) high tech, and (6) metacognitive and behavioral training. Based on implementability by school-based occupational therapists, interventions related to self-monitoring, school-to-home daily reports, and physical activity, were the most highly recommended by the researchers Knowledge translation for this project consisted of reviewing interventions found in the systematic review and composing a booklet explaining the six intervention categories and organizing each intervention from most helpful to not helpful. A post-survey to determine the perceived usefulness of the booklet by KSD occupational therapists was administered and six were returned. Based on the information provided, KSD occupational therapists indicated that on average, they are most likely to use school-to-home and physical activity interventions, and less likely to use sensory approaches. Respondents strongly agreed that the booklet was easy to understand and would help clients in class and therapy. Some indicated that “more information on specific interventions,” as well as clearer pictures and titles would be helpful. Future research could focus on one of the intervention modalities to establish a replicable and effective intervention protocol