The effects of positive reinforcement on participation of pediatric clients receiving occupational therapy
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Authors
Roney, Tyler
Issue Date
2021-04-29
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Alternative Title
Description/Abstract
Occupational therapy has been one of the main factors in helping children with Cerebral Palsy and patients with many other disorders and setbacks to live their fullest potential in life. Since therapy is a major influence on the lives of these people, it was hypothesized that having an increased level of motivation from positive reinforcement will have positive outcomes on patient’s participation levels. To collect this data, researchers put a survey on social media for occupational therapists. There were 4 questions. 2 of them pertained to verbal positive reinforcement and the other 2 pertained to physical positive reinforcement. When all data was received, a 2-tailed t-test of sample means assuming unequal variance with 95% confidence was performed to evaluate the outcome difference between verbal and physical positive reinforcement. There was no statistically significant difference between verbal and physical positive reinforcement (p=0.717). The data found that 100% of participants used verbal positive reinforcement 76-100% of the time and found that it slightly or significantly improved outcomes in patients. Physical positive reinforcement is not used as much, however, when it is used, research shows that it also slightly or significantly improves the outcomes of patients. The hypothesis could not be denied from the data received in this study.