Pediatric Evaluation Of Disability Inventory Pedi PDF Download

Abstract: The utilization of occupational therapy in pediatrics has increased in the last two decades due to the passing of Public Law 94-142, a law enacted to ensure adequate education for all disabled children and the new positions available in the neonatal units of hospitals (Hopkins & Smith, 1988). Despite the agreement among therapists that functional assessments for infants and young children are valuable, few standardized instruments have been developed for these age groups (Feldman et al, 1990). Recently, to answer the need for an assessment tool to identify the functional abilities in children, Tufts University School of Medicine under a grant from the National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, has developed the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI) (Haley, Faas, Coster, Webster, & Gans, 1989). According to Keith (1984), "the endless spawning of new and poorly developed functional assessments is wasteful for medical rehabilitation." This is why it is important during the present standardization period of the PEDI that thorough reliability and validity investigations be conducted. Since initial validity studies have shown promising results, present efforts are now focusing on establishing the reliability of the PEDI.