I became excited about the PRPP when I noticed that assessment results on standardised tests which were available to OT’s were either inconsistent with what teachers and myself were observing in the classroom or were totally irrelevant to what was happening in the classroom. The PRPP is ecological and occupation based so it is possible to identify errors in a child’s performance in a real world dynamic environment – not the vacuum of a withdrawal assessment. Not only can the assessment be used to describe performance on tasks but it can also be used to describe participation with people. We have been using and applying the PRPP with children of all ages from preschool to high school – across motor based academics and social skills domains.

Teachers love it!  Parents love it! All because it describes their priority concerns – participation: meaningful and purposeful engagement with tasks and with people. Our referrals just keep on increasing at a rapid rate – I assume because the assessment process ‘hits the hot spot’.

I used the assessment yesterday for a client with {..} and it was brilliant being able to articulate everything so clearly to the client, case manager, and psychiatrist. I didn’t think that for my first one I could do such a complex computer based work task but it worked really well.

To be honest I think this is the best course I have ever attended and have attended many over the years. Thanks so much for introducing me to PRPP – I just love it!! … thanks so much to you and your team for all your great work and getting this into our world.

I have been meaning to write to say thanks Chameleon Courses for bringing Judy and Chris over to do this course … great organisation was again appreciated. [..] I have used it on three kids so far and it does really allow one to see what the significant problems are in the child’s information processing and also allows one to identify all the positives with parents and teachers.

I am really enjoying using the assessment … consistently using it with good results; finding it really culturally appropriate and it can be used for all occupations and all age ranges and occupational context. Another real strength that the assessment has provided is a language that has strengthened and supported my understandings around occupational analysis of everyday tasks and the varied ways people do occupations and practical ways to coach the people we serve to do the occupations that want and need to do. I really enjoy the framework that PRPP has given me.

Stage One can be administered and scored during the time it takes the person to do the task. Stage Two can be administered during the task performance and takes approximately 10-15 minutes to score once a therapist is familiar with the assessment.

Absolutely and Definitely!

After attending the PRPP assessment course therapists can administer and score both Stage One and Stage Two of the PRPP assessment.  This establishes a measurable clear baseline of a client’s occupational performance for any subtask, task, routine or role. Like any new learning though the principle of ‘use it or lose it’ applies.

Stage One provides information of the steps the client needs to achieve in order to successfully do the task. It identifies if it there are errors of accuracy, repetition, timing (i.e. too slow or fast) or steps which have been omitted which are affecting the task performance. Occupational therapy intervention can then be directly based on this assessment information e.g. the client can be taught the steps they need to learn or when they need to stop a step and move to the next part of the task.

During the assessment course some strategies are presented for therapists to use in their occupational therapy intervention to reduce Stage One errors, and therefore increase a client’s occupational performance.  So although emphasis is on the assessment phase of the PRPP – you do go away with some understanding of intervention and what to do.

Stage Two goes more in-depth and assesses how a person’s applies information processing strategies needed for the task. Using the assessment information gained from Stage  Two, therapists can more accurately plan their occupational therapy intervention.  The terminology used in Stage Two is easily understood by clients and their families, providing therapists with a comprehensive means to explain clients’ strengths and challenges.  Since the PRPP assessment is applicable to any person performing any task, attendance on a PRPP assessment course provides skills for occupational therapists to use directly on return to their work in any practice setting and in any real life context … a very valuable tool!

No … There is no standard template as this would be restrictive however the PRPP assessment tool provides two outcome measures which can be stated in an objective way and can be included in an occupational therapy report.  Report examples are provided to enable therapist to develop report templates relevant for their work setting.

Stage One measures the percentage of mastery (skill) of occupational performance,  for example the percentage accuracy of dressing, or making a cup of tea, using a wheelchair to access another room and line up for a transfer, go shopping, draw a picture or any task needing assessment that is relevant for the persons to achieve. This percentage can be used in a report, e.g. Mrs Jones scored 50% mastery when undressing and dressing her upper garments. Then, following occupational therapy intervention the assessment can be repeated to measure change and outcome as many times as needed.

Stage Two provides percentage scores of the information processing difficulties the person has related to the occupational performance of the task used in Stage One. Some examples are the person’s capacity to perceive information such as noticing relevant sensory stimuli, maintaining attention, discriminating between objects, recall facts, knowing where and how long to do things, remembering the steps of the task, planning, organising and sequencing task, knowing when to start and stop within the task, ability to persist with the activity, and the ability to control and adjust movement needed for the task. These scores can be easily plotted on to a spider graph to provide a visual representation of the person’s performance and areas of limitations.
An example of Stage Two is the graph below which can be inserted into a report:

The green area would extend to the outside edge of the graph if the person was 100% accurate in all aspects of information processing for the task (NB. not all tasks require 100% accuracy – this criteria is set at the outset of the assessment).  So for this person their strengths are remembering the facts of a task and their limitations are sensing and attending to relevant information for the task, recalling when and where to do things, difficulties evaluating and judging performance and not continuing with the task till it is completed.

Of course details of exactly what they are not attending to etc. would be added to a report. Options for recording this information in a report are taught on the  course, however there is no set procedure and therapists can develop report structures which best suit their own setting and client group needs, and can be incorporated into their particular style of report writing.