“This is Something Else, It is Not Like Physical Therapy in the Clinic”: Perspectives of Stakeholders About School-Based Physical Therapy
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Aim To explore how physical therapists, children with motor disabilities, caregivers, educational personnel, and physicians in Israel describe and characterize school-based physical therapy.Method We conducted a qualitative study including focus groups: four with children aged 4–21 with motor disabilities and four with caregivers of children in the same age-group. Participants (n = 38) were recruited from special education schools. Additionally, we conducted 25 interviews with physical therapists, educational personnel, pediatric orthopedists, and neurologists. The collected data were transcribed and reflexive-thematically analyzed. We ensured the study’s trustworthiness using the constant comparison method, peer debriefing, reflexivity, and audits.Results Two themes were developed. The first, physical therapy in the lives of children with motor disabilities, refers to physical therapy in general. The second, something different refers to school-based physical therapy and includes sub-themes regarding physiotherapists’ scope of practice, relationships, and sense of strangeness in school-based settings.Conclusion School-based physical therapy provides potential opportunities for close relationships and expanded practice in the child’s environment. However, the estrangement and ambiguity of the physical therapists’ role in a non-medical environment may push professionals to limit themselves to narrower, familiar practices. In such cases, the students do not benefit from what school-based physical therapy can offer.
Authors: Nilly Waiserberg, Paula Feder-Bubis
Institutions: Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Tel Aviv University
Language: English
Subfield: Occupational Therapy
Field: Health Professions
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Award: G3702210088
OpenAlex ID: W4417019530