Introduction: Occupational therapists are increasingly referred children who experience social challenges at school. Applying cognitive strategies contributes to children’s participation in learning, and adaptiveness to changing social conditions. Little is known, however, about children’s social skills and cognitive strategy use which support them relative to expectations at home and school and how this differs between parents and teachers.
Objectives: To explore similarities and differences between parent and teacher perceptions of children’s social skills and cognitive strategy use for boys and girls in Australian Grades K- 3 who experience social challenges.
Methods: A cross sectional, explorative, quantitative design was employed to compare parent and teacher perceptions of social skills and cognitive strategy use for 241 children in Grades K -3. Data comprised a parent and a teacher questionnaire for each child measuring social skills and cognitive strategy use during social interactions based on the Perceive, Recall, Plan and Perform (PRPP) System of Task Analysis. Comparative analyses, including t-tests and MANOVA, were conducted to explore parent and teacher differences.
Results: Findings indicate parents perceived significantly greater overall social skill difficulties than teachers. Further analysis revealed that children’s parents perceived them to have greater difficulties with emotional regulation, resilience, and prosocial behaviour compared to their teachers. Findings also revealed differences between parent and teacher perceptions of the specific patterns of cognitive strategy use children found challenging.
Conclusion: This study highlights the importance of considering parent and teacher perspectives on children’s social ability, the probable impact of context on effectiveness of social strategies, and the need to consider social contexts in developing individualised approaches in occupational therapy intervention.