“Switching ON Participation” : Evaluation of the measurement properties of the Switch Access Measure (SAM-2) and its potential as a clinically-informative outcome assessment for children who have complex physical disabilities.

Chief Investigator:

Toan Nguyen

Research Area:

Improving children’s mental health and the impact of developmental disorders.
Clinical Study

Funding Amount:

$74,598

Recipient:

Novita Children’s Services

Overview:

Effective assistive technology (AT) unlocks the door to participation for children with complex physical disabilities, letting them express needs/ideas, play, and/or control their environment. Ineffective AT brings risk of isolation and dependence, with consequences for life satisfaction and mental health. Many of these children need a personalised switch-based system (body-part/voice-activated/sound–activated) to operate their AT. Choosing the best switch(es) system/set-up is complex, and impeded by lack of a measure to let clinicians comprehensively evaluate children’s switching ability/outcomes. We created the Switch Access Measure (SAM/SAM-2) to fill this gap. This study will provide definitive evidence on SAM-2’s measurement stability and value.

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