Percepção de Terapeutas Ocupacionais sobre suas experiências em telerreabilitação com crianças no Brasil durante a pandemia

Abstract

Objective: To describe the perception of Occupational Therapists about their experiences in telerehabilitation (TR) with children who have sensorimotor dysfunctions in Brazil during the pandemic. Methodology: This is a descriptive, cross-sectional quantitative and qualitative study. The participants are professionals graduated in Occupational Therapy who work in Brazil and who use the TR resource to offer care to children with sensorimotor dysfunction. Based on a mapping of institutions, an online questionnaire with open and closed questions was implemented. Afterwards, a dialogue began, through interviews conducted online using virtual platforms, with three participants selected by convenience sampling to deepen the information about how the TR occurred. Results: Occupational therapists developed TR actions to assist children with sensorimotor dysfunction during the pandemic caused by COVID-19. All participants expressed difficulties in developing and implementing technologies for interacting with families and children remotely, but the process gradually evolved with adaptation on both sides. In general, there is a positive assessment by therapists regarding the therapeutic experience, virtual, mediated by technology: benefits for families, children and the therapist himself/herself through the learning promoted in the use of equipment and applications. As resources used during sessions in Occupational Therapy through TR are: online games, recreational activities, stories, make-believe games, videos, movies and other resources from the child’s own home. The results indicate factors that made TR difficult: lack of access to the internet by families, unstable web connection, lack of physical contact with the child, preventing handling, especially with children with more severe physical dysfunction, and impediment to the use of specific techniques for handling. As favorable indicators related to TR are: greater proximity of the therapist to the family; development of a more active interaction between therapist-parents; greater participation of parents in the therapeutic process and acknowledge of the reality of the child’s home/life context. It is important to point out that there are controversies about the benefits or otherwise of considering parents as mediators of the therapeutic process in this modality of TR. Conclusion: It is expected that the results produced in this research can contribute to the improvement of TR practices in occupational therapy aimed at children with sensorimotor disorders, a modality that is still new in Brazil.