Children with chronic conditions often experience a long treatment which can be complex and negatively impacts the child's well-being. In planning treatment and interventions for children with chronic conditions, it is important to measure health-related quality of life (HrQoL). HrQoL instruments are considered to be a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) and should be used in routine practice. The aim of this study was to compare the content dimensions of HrQoL instruments for children's self-reports using the framework of ICF-CY. The sample consist of six instruments for health-related quality of life for children 5 to 18 years of age, which was used in the Swedish national quality registries for children and adolescents with chronic conditions. The following instruments were included: CHQ-CF, DCGM-37, EQ-5D-Y, KIDSCREEN-52, Kid-KINDL and PedsQL 4.0. The framework of the ICF-CY was used as the basis for the comparison. There were 290 meaningful concepts identified and linked to 88 categories in the classification ICF-CY with 29 categories of the component body functions, 48 categories of the component activities and participation and 11 categories of the component environmental factors. No concept were linked to the component body structures. The comparison revealed that the items in the HrQoL instruments corresponded primarily with the domains of activities and less with environmental factors. In conclusion, the results confirm that ICF-CY provide a good framework for content comparisons that evaluate similarities and differences to ICF-CY categories. The results of this study revealed the need for greater consensus of content across different HrQoL instruments. To obtain a detailed description of children's HrQoL, DCGM-37 and KIDSCREEN-52 may be appropriate instruments to use that can increase the understanding of young patients' needs.

Purpose: The aim of this article is to examine the component of “personal factors” described as a contextual factor in the ICF and ICF-CY. Methods: A critical examination of the construct of “personal factors” and description of the component was made with reference to conceptual and taxonomic criteria. Results: The “personal factors” component in the ICF/ICF-CY is not defined, there is no taxonomy of codes, there is no explicit purpose stated for its use and no guidelines are provided for its application. In spite of these constraints, the component of “personal factors” is being applied as part of the classifications. Such uncontrolled applications constitute significant risks for the status of ICF/ICF-CY as the WHO reference classification in that: (a) the component is accepted for use by default simply by being applied; (b) component content is expanded with idiosyncratic exemplars by users; and (c) there is potential misuse of “personal factors” in documenting personal attributes, including “blaming the victim”. Conclusion: In the absence of formal codes, any application of the component of “personal factors” lacks the legitimacy that documentation with a scientific taxonomy should provide. Given the growing use of the ICF/ICF-CY globally, a priority for the revision process should be to determine if there is in fact need for “personal” or any other factors in the ICF/ICF-CY.

The child’s interactions with persons in the proximal environment constitute the context for development of communication. Within early close relationships, the child acquires communication skills; developmental outcomes are defined by the continuous dynamic interactions of the child, the experiences provided by the family and close environment, and the use of different means of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC). Communication problems manifest in a variety of ways and at different levels of severity. The nature of problems differs as a function of the child’s age and diagnosed condition, the communication skills of interaction partners, and the availability of communication aids. The focus for assessment and intervention may be the child, the family, the close environment and/or the interactions between them. Clarifying these varied functions and environmental factors is crucial for appropriate assessment and provision of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) interventions. This paper reviews issues in assessment and intervention for children in need of AAC and presents the World Health Organizations’ (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health version for Children and Youth (ICF-CY) as a tool to enhance assessment and intervention in the AAC field.

In the early years of life, children’s interactions with the physical and social environment- including families, schools and communities—play a defining role in developmental trajectories with long-term implications for their health, well-being and earning potential as they become adults. Importantly, failing to reach their developmental potential contributes to global cycles of poverty, inequality, and social exclusion. Guided by a rights-based approach, this narrative review synthesizes selected studies and global initiatives promoting early child development and proposes a universal intervention framework of child-environment interactions to optimize children’s developmental functioning and trajectories.

To assess activity and participation for children in Taiwan’s Disability Eligibility Determination System (DEDS), we developed a questionnaire, the Functioning Disability Evaluation Scale (FUNDES-Child), based on the Child and Adolescent Scale of Participation (CASP). The study follows a methodology research design to investigate the construct validity of the frequency and independence dimensions of FUNDES-Child 7.0. Two samples were randomly stratified from the databank of 13,835 children and youth with disabilities aged 6.0–17.9 years to examine structural validity by exploratory factor analysis (EFA, n = 4111, mean age of 11.3 ± 3.5) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA, n = 4823, mean age of 11.4 ± 3.5)). EFA indicated a 4-factor structure for the frequency dimension (51.3% variance explained) and a 2-factor structure for the independence dimension (53.6% variance explained). The CFA indicated that the second-order factor structures of both dimensions were more parsimonious with adequate fit indices (Goodness fit Index, GFI; Normed Fit Index, NFI; Comparative Fit Index, CFI; and Tucker-Lewis Index, TLI ≥ 0.95, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation, RMSEA < 0.06). Results provide evidence that the participation part of FUNDES-Child 7.0 has acceptable structural validity for use in Taiwan’s DEDS. Utility of FUNDES-Child 7.0 in rehabilitation, welfare, and educational services needs further study.