Using the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM) to Describe Young Children’s Participation and Relationship to Disability and Complexity

Minimal research exists on the participation of young children who are five years and younger. The purpose of this study is to describe the participation of young children who use a large children’s treatment centre in Ontario, Canada in relation to primary diagnosis and complexity (cumulative number of functional concerns). One hundred and seventy parent responses described environmental supports and barriers, participation frequency and level of involvement in home, daycare/preschool, and community settings as well as parent’s desired change in activities using the Young Children’s Participation and Environment Measure (YC-PEM). Spearman’s correlations explored the relationship between participation and complexity (using the About My Child measure), and the Mann-Whitney test explored relationships between participation and child’s primary diagnosis. Participation frequency and involvement scores were highest in the home setting followed by the daycare/preschool setting then the community setting. Participation involvement and complexity correlations showed stronger negative associations than participation frequency and complexity. Young children’s participation scores were significantly higher among children with communication disorders in comparison to children with motor/cognitive disabilities in the frequency home setting and involvement in all settings. This study supports that a stronger relationship exists between complexity and involvement in comparison to frequency, and young children with motor/cognitive disorders have lower participation scores than young children with communication disorders.