Biomedical Engineering Reference
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person is asked by how much the difficulties interfered with his/her life. The respondents
should answer the questions according to the following references:
1. Degree of difficulty (the increase in effort, discomfort or pain, slowness, or any
differences in general),
2. Health conditions (disease or illness, injury, mental or emotional problems, those
related to alcohol, or problems associated with drug abuse),
3. The last 30 days,
4. The average between good and bad days, and
5. The way in which they normally perform the activity.
Items that refer to activities not experienced within the last 30 days are not included (for
further information, please see Federici and Meloni 2010a, 2010b; Federici et al. 2009).
COPM (Law et al. 2005) is an individualized, client-centered measurement tool intended
for detecting changes in a client's self-perception of occupational performance over time.
COPM allows the user/client to formulate individualized purposes for occupational ther-
apy and to voice their feelings about the appropriateness of their performances, their sat-
isfaction with participation, and the importance of each goal to their lives. The specific
focus of the COPM on client-identified problems is intended to facilitate collaborative goal-
setting between the therapist and client. COPM is administered through a semistructured
interview.
Once clients have identified their problems, they rate their perceptions of the impor-
tance of each activity on a scale from 1 to 10. From this list, clients choose up to five
problems they wish to focus on during occupational therapy. For each problem, cli-
ents then rate performance and satisfaction with performance, again using a scale
from 1 to 10. Higher ratings indicate greater importance, performance, and satisfac-
tion. The performance and satisfaction scores of the selected activities are summed
and averaged over the number of problems to produce scores out of 10. (Carswell et al.
2004, p. 211)
COPM is used as an assessment tool in occupational therapy. After an initial assessment
of the client and after a period of therapy, the interview is re-administered. If there are
changes in scores that exceed a value of 2, the change is considered clinically significant.
“Since its initial publication in 1991, the COPM has had two subsequent editions published
and has been officially translated into 20 languages. It is in use by occupational therapists
in over 35 countries throughout the world” (Carswell et al. 2004, p. 210).
SIS (Thompson et al. 2004) is a standardized assessment tool developed by the American
Association of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (AAIDD) that measures the
pattern and intensity of support that an individual needs. More than a diagnostic test, it is
a useful tool for setting up an individualized user-centered plan. The development of SIS
is compatible with the official definition of “intellectual disability” drawn up by AAIDD
in 2010. This definition no longer contains the term “mental retardation,” as was in use
until the penultimate definition of 2002 (Schalock et al. 2007). This change reflects the
transition from the perception of disability as a “deficit” to another centered on optimizing
functioning. The last definition given dates back to 2010: “Intellectual disability is charac-
terized by significant limitations both in intellectual functioning and in adaptive behavior
as expressed in conceptual, social, and practical adaptive skills. This disability origi-
nates before age 18” (Schalock et al. 2010). SIS completes the 11th edition of the Definition,
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