Pediatric therapists treat clients ranging in age from birth to twenty with a gamut of diagnosis. Successful intervention begins with a successful evaluation. Incorporating a variety of norm-referenced and criterion referenced evaluations is becoming increasingly valuable in documenting progress, justifying services to third-party payers, and selection of goals. This evidence-based continuing education, based on the American Occupational Therapy Association’s (AOTA) Occupational Therapy Framework: Domain and Process, outlines the evaluation process, identifies occupation-based evaluations and explores the integration of occupation-based evaluations in the development of occupation-centered intervention plans for pediatric clients. This continuing education entitled, “Occupation-Based Evaluation for pediatric clients: What are they? And Why You Should Use Them” is intended for entry-level occupational therapists, occupational therapy students, and experienced therapists transitioning to pediatric practice. Objectives include identifying appropriate occupation-based evaluations, integrating findings from occupation-based evaluations to develop occupation-centered/focused intervention and outcomes, and understanding the importance of occupation-based evaluations when using a top-down approach for pediatric clients.
