Exploration of agency in preschool children with disabilities
type: CreativeWork
description: The purpose of this line of research was to describe how agency is manifested in preschool children with disabilities, and to analyze how manifestations of agency are influenced by natural environmental contexts of home, therapy settings, and peer settings. An additional purpose was to describe an eleven week parent-oriented intervention based on the construct of agency and document changes in parents and children that occurred during the course of this intervention. Three related studies addressed these issues. Three studies were conducted using naturalistic methods of field observation and ethnography. The first study included six children with disabilities and their families. The participants were observed a minimum of five times and no more than nine times in home, therapy settings, and peer settings. The data from Study One were used to analyze children with disabilities in terms of occupational roles and as active participants in different environments. Study Two was a secondary analysis of the data gathered in Study One. The data were examined with a focus on the environmental settings. The researcher analyzed themes of agency or active participation across settings. Additionally, the data were used to examine aspects or qualities of different settings that enhance agency. These qualities may be in the social, cultural, and physical environment that each setting offers. Study Three examined an ongoing parent-oriented treatment setting that utilized the construct of agency and the environment as treatment modalities for children with disabilities. The data analysis revealed aspects of treatment, such as parent education, complexity of play objects, and environmental elements such as peer interaction and classroom routines, that help produce change and lasting adaptation in children with disabilities. The potential significance of these studies is twofold. The first is the addition of basic knowledge to the field of occupational therapy about agency, a theoreti…
abstract: The purpose of this line of research was to describe how agency is manifested in preschool children with disabilities, and to analyze how manifestations of agency are influenced by natural environmental contexts of home, therapy settings, and peer settings. An additional purpose was to describe an eleven week parent-oriented intervention based on the construct of agency and document changes in parents and children that occurred during the course of this intervention. Three related studies addressed these issues. Three studies were conducted using naturalistic methods of field observation and ethnography. The first study included six children with disabilities and their families. The participants were observed a minimum of five times and no more than nine times in home, therapy settings, and peer settings. The data from Study One were used to analyze children with disabilities in terms of occupational roles and as active participants in different environments. Study Two was a secondary analysis of the data gathered in Study One. The data were examined with a focus on the environmental settings. The researcher analyzed themes of agency or active participation across settings. Additionally, the data were used to examine aspects or qualities of different settings that enhance agency. These qualities may be in the social, cultural, and physical environment that each setting offers. Study Three examined an ongoing parent-oriented treatment setting that utilized the construct of agency and the environment as treatment modalities for children with disabilities. The data analysis revealed aspects of treatment, such as parent education, complexity of play objects, and environmental elements such as peer interaction and classroom routines, that help produce change and lasting adaptation in children with disabilities. The potential significance of these studies is twofold. The first is the addition of basic knowledge to the field of occupational therapy about agency, a theoreti…
author: Pfeifer, Teresa
language: en_US
keywords: Health and environmental sciences, Developmental psychology, Special education, Preschool education
date published: 1999-05
date modified: 2026-07-27T21:19:24Z
provider: Texas Digital Library
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Texas Digital Library

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/11274/10299

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/11274/10299