"This is Something Else, It is Not Like Physical Therapy in the Clinic": Perspectives of Stakeholders About...

To explore how physical therapists, children with motor disabilities, caregivers, educational personnel, and physicians in Israel describe and characterize school-based physical therapy.

We conducted a qualitative study including focus groups: four with children aged 4-21 with motor disabilities and four with caregivers of children in the same age-group. Participants (n = 38) were recruited from special education schools. Additionally, we conducted 25 interviews with physical therapists, educational personnel, pediatric orthopedists, and neurologists. The collected data were transcribed and reflexive-thematically analyzed. We ensured the study's trustworthiness using the constant comparison method, peer debriefing, reflexivity, and audits.

Two themes were developed. The first, physical therapy in the lives of children with motor disabilities, refers to physical therapy in general. The second, something different refers to school-based physical therapy and includes sub-themes regarding physiotherapists' scope of practice, relationships, and sense of strangeness in school-based settings.

School-based physical therapy provides potential opportunities for close relationships and expanded practice in the child's environment. However, the estrangement and ambiguity of the physical therapists' role in a non-medical environment may push professionals to limit themselves to narrower, familiar practices. In such cases, the students do not benefit from what school-based physical therapy can offer.