A critical examination of school-based occupational therapy collaborative consultation

Background. Although collaborative consultation has been widely adopted in school-based occupational therapy practice, there is limited conceptual understanding of how collaboration contributes to educationally relevant outcomes for students with disabilities. Even without a clear understanding of the evidence related to school-based occupational therapy services, there continue to be decisions about funding and delivery of services. Purpose. This paper synthesizes and critically appraises the research literature on collaborative consultation services in school-based occupational therapy in order to provide program administrators with direction for critically examining decision making for service delivery in their districts. Key Issues. Advancing occupational therapy practice in education settings requires a sound theoretical understanding of collaborative consultation. Distributed cognition offers a more robust understanding of the relationship between educator-therapist collaboration and outcomes of school-based occupational therapy services. Implications. This review concludes with two fundamental conditions necessary for collaboration between educators and occupational therapists to flourish.