Helene J Polatajko
Biographic Data
| ID | 186487 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Helene J Polatajko |
| GIVEN NAMES | Helene J |
| FAMILY NAME | Polatajko |
| SIGNATURE | POLATAJKO H J |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Toronto |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1990-5371 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2002 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
The Relative Merits of an Individualized Versus a Generic Approach to Rating Functional Performance in Childhood Dystonia
Best practice in rehabilitation requires the use of outcome measures that optimally captures performance and performance change for children and young people with dystonic movement. When working with clients with severe motor-performance deficits, PQRS-I appears to be the better approach to capturing performance and performance changes
Life irrupted
University-based sexual assault has been described as an epidemic. An emerging body of research suggests that sexual assault that occurs during university may have consequences for women’s occupational lives; however, an in-depth understanding of these consequences does not currently exist. Given the significance that the university period holds for individuals’ life trajectories, this lack of understanding represents an important gap in knowledg…
From “since” to “if”
This study was conducted within a series aimed at building understanding of autism using insider perspectives. We applied a descriptive qualitative approach, highlighting meanings that the informants attach to events in their lives. The data were generated by scraping blogs written by autistic authors. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis using an iterative process of coding, collating and reviewing themes. We present the themes using two …
The Aftermath and the Aftermyth
There is an abundance of research on the health consequences of sexual assault during university, but less attention has been paid to how sexual assault also shapes women's everyday lives. To develop an understanding of the everyday aftermath of sexual assault, we used narrative inquiry to analyze how women textually represent everyday living after sexual assault during university within four memoirs. Memoirists discussed their lives as significa…
International clinical practice recommendations on the definition, diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and psychosocial aspects of developmental coordination disorder
AIM: These international clinical practice recommendations (CPR) for developmental coordination disorder (DCD), initiated by the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD), aim to address key questions on the definition, diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and psychosocial aspects of DCD relevant for clinical practice. METHOD: Key questions in five areas were considered through literature reviews and formal expert consensus. For recommendat…
Applying an occupational perspective to women’s experiences of life after sexual assault
Exploring the concerns of persons with disabilities in Western Zambia
This study contributes to literature on disability theory by providing a contextually grounded account of a particular understanding of disability and poverty. The study also contributes to disability practice and policymaking through the demonstration of poverty as the main concern of persons with disabilities in this context
Diferenças e semelhanças nos repertórios ocupacionais de crianças brasileiras e canadenses
Introdução: Muitos modelos de ocupação humana são baseados na noção de que ambientes ou contextos influenciam o desempenho ocupacional e o engajamento. Por extensão, pode-se considerar que os contextos moldam as ocupações em que as crianças se envolvem, impactando o desenvolvimento de seus repertórios ocupacionais. Objetivo: Este artigo relata a análise secundária de dados de dois estudos paralelos que examinaram a influência do contexto nos padr…
Differences and similarities in the occupational repertoires of children from Brazil and Canada
Introduction: Many models of human occupation are predicated on the notion that environments or contexts influence occupational performance and engagement. By extension, it can be considered that contexts shape the occupations in which children engage, impacting the development of their occupational repertoires. Purpose: This paper reports the secondary analysis of data from two parallel studies that examined the influence of context on the activ…
Awaiting knee joint replacement surgery
Total knee replacement (TKR) is an increasingly common surgery among individuals with osteoarthritis (OA). Although the outcomes of this surgery are generally deemed positive, many are not fully satisfied with their return to pre-TKR occupations. The literature on pre-TKR occupational engagement is limited and primarily describes how the symptoms associated with OA restrict participation in occupation with little attention given to the significan…
The Influence of Context on Occupational Selection in Sport-for-Development
Sport-for-development (SFD) is a growing phenomenon involving engagement in sport activities to achieve international development goals. Kicking AIDS Out is one sport for development initiative that raises HIV/AIDS awareness through sport. Despite sport-for-development’s global prevalence, there is a paucity of literature exploring how activities are selected for use in differing contexts. An occupational perspective can illuminate the selection …
Elucidating a Goal-Setting Continuum in Brain Injury Rehabilitation
For individuals with brain injury, active participation in goal setting is associated with better rehabilitation outcomes. However, clinicians report difficulty engaging these clients in goal setting due to perceived or real deficits (e.g., lack of awareness). We conducted a study using grounded theory methods to understand how clinicians from occupational therapy facilitate client engagement and manage challenges inherent in goal setting with th…
Living in a Blended World
The many contexts in which children grow and learn shape their occupational development. While developing their occupational repertoires, children of immigrant parents grow up within a dual-cultured context—a context comprised of both their family's heritage culture and the culture of their new receiving country. Limited research has examined how cultural contexts shape the occupational repertoire of children of immigrant parents. This study expl…
Towards a Critical Occupational Approach to Research
Critical approaches to research are becoming increasingly more prevalent but occupational science and critical approaches have not been explicitly combined into one approach despite the potential to enrich the understanding of the assumptions and ideologies underlying human activity. In this article we outline an approach to research that is mutually informed by occupational and critical social science perspectives. The critical occupational appr…
Articulating an Occupational Perspective
Within the field of occupational science the term occupational perspective is widely used to guide research. However, when the term is used it is often not defined. To address the need for a common understanding that will enhance clarity and make theoretical understandings explicit, a scoping review of the definitional literature was conducted. It was determined that definitional clarity was necessary. This paper proposes a new definition: an occ…
Occupation-for-Development
Since the 1980s, the number of organizations worldwide providing international development programming has risen greatly; the majority of these regard ‘development’ as inherent to their organizatio
The nature and meaning of occupational engagement for forensic clients living in the community
There are few studies on how individuals with mental illness who have been charged with committing a crime and who are living in the community, spend their time and feel about it. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature and meaning of occupational engagement for these individuals. Criterion sampling was used to ensure that all participants were able to provide descriptions of their experience. Ten participants, 5 males and 5 females, …
Long Term Symptoms and Limitations of Activity of People with Traumatic Brain Injury
This study examined the effect of Traumatic Brain Injury 10 years post-injury. Frequencies of head injury symptoms and activity limitation by level of severity were measured in a consecutive series of 61 adults who were admitted to a tertiary-care center for traumatic brain injury. Irritability and Anxiety were the most frequently reported symptoms from the Head Injury Symptom Checklist. Bothered by noise and Bothered by light were the least freq…
Occupational Development
Although child development has been examined by various disciplines for over a century, very little is known specifically about how children's occupations develop over time. In order to begin to address this significant gap in the literature, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted to examine children's doings. Twelve in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with members of six families: eight girls aged 6 to 12, and six parents…
The Individual as Mediator of thePerson‐Occupation‐Environment Interaction
This ethnographic research explored the changes that occur in daily occupations when an individual's environment is drastically altered. In particular, the experiences of eight adult refugees who relocated from Burundi, central Africa, to Canada were examined. Both informal and formal participant observer methods over a period of 16 months and in‐depth interviews were used to explore the experiences of Burundian refugees. The findings indicate th…
Children's Occupations in Context
Typically, the concepts occupation and children are not put together; however, children are always busy doing, in other words, occupationally engaged. While it is generally accepted that adult occupations are the result of the interaction between person and environment, it is held that children's developmental levels, in interaction with their immediate environments, determine their occupations. The impact of broad contextual factors, including s…
I'm Doing As Much As I Can
Competitive employment is important for meeting many needs that contribute to health. For persons with a mental illness, entering or re‐entering the workforce is often an unattainable goal. Despite rehabilitation efforts, unemployment rates remain very high. This study used in‐depth, long interviews and member checking to explore what persons with a severe and persistent mental illness do in the absence of competitive employment. The study was de…
Towards a Critical Occupational Approach to Research
Critical approaches to research are becoming increasingly more prevalent but occupational science and critical approaches have not been explicitly combined into one approach despite the potential to enrich the understanding of the assumptions and ideologies underlying human activity. In this article we outline an approach to research that is mutually informed by occupational and critical social science perspectives. The critical occupational appr…
Articulating an Occupational Perspective
Within the field of occupational science the term occupational perspective is widely used to guide research. However, when the term is used it is often not defined. To address the need for a common understanding that will enhance clarity and make theoretical understandings explicit, a scoping review of the definitional literature was conducted. It was determined that definitional clarity was necessary. This paper proposes a new definition: an occ…
The Individual as Mediator of thePerson‐Occupation‐Environment Interaction
This ethnographic research explored the changes that occur in daily occupations when an individual's environment is drastically altered. In particular, the experiences of eight adult refugees who relocated from Burundi, central Africa, to Canada were examined. Both informal and formal participant observer methods over a period of 16 months and in‐depth interviews were used to explore the experiences of Burundian refugees. The findings indicate th…
I'm Doing As Much As I Can
Competitive employment is important for meeting many needs that contribute to health. For persons with a mental illness, entering or re‐entering the workforce is often an unattainable goal. Despite rehabilitation efforts, unemployment rates remain very high. This study used in‐depth, long interviews and member checking to explore what persons with a severe and persistent mental illness do in the absence of competitive employment. The study was de…
Living in a Blended World
The many contexts in which children grow and learn shape their occupational development. While developing their occupational repertoires, children of immigrant parents grow up within a dual-cultured context—a context comprised of both their family's heritage culture and the culture of their new receiving country. Limited research has examined how cultural contexts shape the occupational repertoire of children of immigrant parents. This study expl…
From “since” to “if”
This study was conducted within a series aimed at building understanding of autism using insider perspectives. We applied a descriptive qualitative approach, highlighting meanings that the informants attach to events in their lives. The data were generated by scraping blogs written by autistic authors. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis using an iterative process of coding, collating and reviewing themes. We present the themes using two …
Occupational Development
Although child development has been examined by various disciplines for over a century, very little is known specifically about how children's occupations develop over time. In order to begin to address this significant gap in the literature, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted to examine children's doings. Twelve in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with members of six families: eight girls aged 6 to 12, and six parents…
Occupation-for-Development
Since the 1980s, the number of organizations worldwide providing international development programming has risen greatly; the majority of these regard ‘development’ as inherent to their organizatio
The Aftermath and the Aftermyth
There is an abundance of research on the health consequences of sexual assault during university, but less attention has been paid to how sexual assault also shapes women's everyday lives. To develop an understanding of the everyday aftermath of sexual assault, we used narrative inquiry to analyze how women textually represent everyday living after sexual assault during university within four memoirs. Memoirists discussed their lives as significa…
Elucidating a Goal-Setting Continuum in Brain Injury Rehabilitation
For individuals with brain injury, active participation in goal setting is associated with better rehabilitation outcomes. However, clinicians report difficulty engaging these clients in goal setting due to perceived or real deficits (e.g., lack of awareness). We conducted a study using grounded theory methods to understand how clinicians from occupational therapy facilitate client engagement and manage challenges inherent in goal setting with th…
Children's Occupations in Context
Typically, the concepts occupation and children are not put together; however, children are always busy doing, in other words, occupationally engaged. While it is generally accepted that adult occupations are the result of the interaction between person and environment, it is held that children's developmental levels, in interaction with their immediate environments, determine their occupations. The impact of broad contextual factors, including s…
The Individual as Mediator of thePerson‐Occupation‐Environment Interaction
This ethnographic research explored the changes that occur in daily occupations when an individual's environment is drastically altered. In particular, the experiences of eight adult refugees who relocated from Burundi, central Africa, to Canada were examined. Both informal and formal participant observer methods over a period of 16 months and in‐depth interviews were used to explore the experiences of Burundian refugees. The findings indicate th…
Children's Occupations in Context
Typically, the concepts occupation and children are not put together; however, children are always busy doing, in other words, occupationally engaged. While it is generally accepted that adult occupations are the result of the interaction between person and environment, it is held that children's developmental levels, in interaction with their immediate environments, determine their occupations. The impact of broad contextual factors, including s…
I'm Doing As Much As I Can
Competitive employment is important for meeting many needs that contribute to health. For persons with a mental illness, entering or re‐entering the workforce is often an unattainable goal. Despite rehabilitation efforts, unemployment rates remain very high. This study used in‐depth, long interviews and member checking to explore what persons with a severe and persistent mental illness do in the absence of competitive employment. The study was de…
Long Term Symptoms and Limitations of Activity of People with Traumatic Brain Injury
This study examined the effect of Traumatic Brain Injury 10 years post-injury. Frequencies of head injury symptoms and activity limitation by level of severity were measured in a consecutive series of 61 adults who were admitted to a tertiary-care center for traumatic brain injury. Irritability and Anxiety were the most frequently reported symptoms from the Head Injury Symptom Checklist. Bothered by noise and Bothered by light were the least freq…
Occupational Development
Although child development has been examined by various disciplines for over a century, very little is known specifically about how children's occupations develop over time. In order to begin to address this significant gap in the literature, an exploratory qualitative study was conducted to examine children's doings. Twelve in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews were conducted with members of six families: eight girls aged 6 to 12, and six parents…
The nature and meaning of occupational engagement for forensic clients living in the community
There are few studies on how individuals with mental illness who have been charged with committing a crime and who are living in the community, spend their time and feel about it. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature and meaning of occupational engagement for these individuals. Criterion sampling was used to ensure that all participants were able to provide descriptions of their experience. Ten participants, 5 males and 5 females, …
Occupation-for-Development
Since the 1980s, the number of organizations worldwide providing international development programming has risen greatly; the majority of these regard ‘development’ as inherent to their organizatio
Articulating an Occupational Perspective
Within the field of occupational science the term occupational perspective is widely used to guide research. However, when the term is used it is often not defined. To address the need for a common understanding that will enhance clarity and make theoretical understandings explicit, a scoping review of the definitional literature was conducted. It was determined that definitional clarity was necessary. This paper proposes a new definition: an occ…
Living in a Blended World
The many contexts in which children grow and learn shape their occupational development. While developing their occupational repertoires, children of immigrant parents grow up within a dual-cultured context—a context comprised of both their family's heritage culture and the culture of their new receiving country. Limited research has examined how cultural contexts shape the occupational repertoire of children of immigrant parents. This study expl…
Towards a Critical Occupational Approach to Research
Critical approaches to research are becoming increasingly more prevalent but occupational science and critical approaches have not been explicitly combined into one approach despite the potential to enrich the understanding of the assumptions and ideologies underlying human activity. In this article we outline an approach to research that is mutually informed by occupational and critical social science perspectives. The critical occupational appr…
Elucidating a Goal-Setting Continuum in Brain Injury Rehabilitation
For individuals with brain injury, active participation in goal setting is associated with better rehabilitation outcomes. However, clinicians report difficulty engaging these clients in goal setting due to perceived or real deficits (e.g., lack of awareness). We conducted a study using grounded theory methods to understand how clinicians from occupational therapy facilitate client engagement and manage challenges inherent in goal setting with th…
The Influence of Context on Occupational Selection in Sport-for-Development
Sport-for-development (SFD) is a growing phenomenon involving engagement in sport activities to achieve international development goals. Kicking AIDS Out is one sport for development initiative that raises HIV/AIDS awareness through sport. Despite sport-for-development’s global prevalence, there is a paucity of literature exploring how activities are selected for use in differing contexts. An occupational perspective can illuminate the selection …
Awaiting knee joint replacement surgery
Total knee replacement (TKR) is an increasingly common surgery among individuals with osteoarthritis (OA). Although the outcomes of this surgery are generally deemed positive, many are not fully satisfied with their return to pre-TKR occupations. The literature on pre-TKR occupational engagement is limited and primarily describes how the symptoms associated with OA restrict participation in occupation with little attention given to the significan…
Exploring the concerns of persons with disabilities in Western Zambia
This study contributes to literature on disability theory by providing a contextually grounded account of a particular understanding of disability and poverty. The study also contributes to disability practice and policymaking through the demonstration of poverty as the main concern of persons with disabilities in this context
Diferenças e semelhanças nos repertórios ocupacionais de crianças brasileiras e canadenses
Introdução: Muitos modelos de ocupação humana são baseados na noção de que ambientes ou contextos influenciam o desempenho ocupacional e o engajamento. Por extensão, pode-se considerar que os contextos moldam as ocupações em que as crianças se envolvem, impactando o desenvolvimento de seus repertórios ocupacionais. Objetivo: Este artigo relata a análise secundária de dados de dois estudos paralelos que examinaram a influência do contexto nos padr…
Differences and similarities in the occupational repertoires of children from Brazil and Canada
Introduction: Many models of human occupation are predicated on the notion that environments or contexts influence occupational performance and engagement. By extension, it can be considered that contexts shape the occupations in which children engage, impacting the development of their occupational repertoires. Purpose: This paper reports the secondary analysis of data from two parallel studies that examined the influence of context on the activ…
International clinical practice recommendations on the definition, diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and psychosocial aspects of developmental coordination disorder
AIM: These international clinical practice recommendations (CPR) for developmental coordination disorder (DCD), initiated by the European Academy of Childhood Disability (EACD), aim to address key questions on the definition, diagnosis, assessment, intervention, and psychosocial aspects of DCD relevant for clinical practice. METHOD: Key questions in five areas were considered through literature reviews and formal expert consensus. For recommendat…
Applying an occupational perspective to women’s experiences of life after sexual assault
The Relative Merits of an Individualized Versus a Generic Approach to Rating Functional Performance in Childhood Dystonia
Best practice in rehabilitation requires the use of outcome measures that optimally captures performance and performance change for children and young people with dystonic movement. When working with clients with severe motor-performance deficits, PQRS-I appears to be the better approach to capturing performance and performance changes
Life irrupted
University-based sexual assault has been described as an epidemic. An emerging body of research suggests that sexual assault that occurs during university may have consequences for women’s occupational lives; however, an in-depth understanding of these consequences does not currently exist. Given the significance that the university period holds for individuals’ life trajectories, this lack of understanding represents an important gap in knowledg…
From “since” to “if”
This study was conducted within a series aimed at building understanding of autism using insider perspectives. We applied a descriptive qualitative approach, highlighting meanings that the informants attach to events in their lives. The data were generated by scraping blogs written by autistic authors. We conducted an inductive thematic analysis using an iterative process of coding, collating and reviewing themes. We present the themes using two …
The Aftermath and the Aftermyth
There is an abundance of research on the health consequences of sexual assault during university, but less attention has been paid to how sexual assault also shapes women's everyday lives. To develop an understanding of the everyday aftermath of sexual assault, we used narrative inquiry to analyze how women textually represent everyday living after sexual assault during university within four memoirs. Memoirists discussed their lives as significa…
Psychology (21 works) · Sociology (13 works) · Occupational Therapy Practice and Research (11 works) · Developmental psychology (9 works) · Occupational Therapy (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Occupational science (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works) · Medicine (7 works) · Psychiatry (7 works)