OT/PT Guidelines - Montana Office of Public Instruction

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy (www.ajot.org) provides an online link
searching past issues to locate research articles related to practice. The Journal of the
American Physical Therapy Association (www.ptjournal.org) provides similar information
and links to current, as well as past, research. The National Center for Biomedical Information
(www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) provides a large amount of research on a number of topics for every
area of the medical field. This site provides links to PubMed; however, many of these articles
can only be accessed from centers that pay to provide access to these articles.
For professionals in practice, it is sometimes challenging to locate appropriate professional
literature and then interpret the findings of the studies to decide if the results are applicable in
practice situations. One user-friendly resource is the following Web Site:
www.researchtopractice.info/sitemap.php. Look for the Bottomlines and Bridges documents,
which cover a range of topics and provide guidance about best practices:
References
• Bottomlines provides a one-page summary-review of the literature on topics
specifically related to serving children and families. These are helpful for both
professionals and parents.
• Bridges provides full-reviews of the literature for those desiring to read the details.
McWilliam (1999) provides guidance about how to evaluate emerging and controversial
practices. Reading this article will be useful:
• McWilliam, R. A. (1999). Controversial Practices: the need for a reacculturation of
early intervention fields. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education,19:3, p. 177-
188.
34. What are some promising practices that would reflect evidence-based practices?
As required in IDEA 2004, special education service providers (including OTs and PTs) are
required to use peer-reviewed, research-based practices, which are a component of evidencebased
practices. The following information is provided only as a starting point and should not
be considered exhaustive of topics or resources:
Evidence suggests that consultation is an effective intervention method. Below are some
examples:
Dunn, W. (1990). A comparison of service provision models in school-based occupational
therapy services: A pilot study. Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, 10(5), 300-320.
Kemmis, B. L., & Dunn, W. (1996). Collaborative consultation: The efficacy of remedial and
compensatory interventions in school contexts. American Journal of Occupational Therapy,
50(9), 709-717.
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