Cognitive Orientation to (daily) Occupational Performance (CO-OP) with children with Asperger's syndrome who have motor-based occupational performance goals.

BACKGROUND/AIM: Motor difficulties associated with Asperger's syndrome (AS) are commonly reported, despite these not being diagnostically significant. Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance (CO-OP) is a verbal problem-solving intervention developed for use with children with developmental coordination disorder to address their motor-based difficulties. This paper reports on two case studies of children with AS illustrating the outcomes of CO-OP to address motor-based occupational performance goals.

METHODS

A case study approach was used to document how two children with AS engaged in 10 weekly sessions of CO-OP addressing child-chosen motor-based occupational performance goals and the outcomes of this intervention.

RESULTS

Pre and post-intervention assessment using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure, Vineland Adaptive Behaviour Scales and the Performance Quality Rating Scale indicated that both children were able to engage in CO-OP intervention to successfully improve their occupational performance.

CONCLUSIONS

Further research into the application of CO-OP with children with AS is warranted based on preliminary positive findings regarding the efficacy of this intervention to address motor-based performance difficulties in two children with AS.