Summary

The Participation and Environment Measure for Children and Youth (PEM-CY) is a measurement tool designed to help parents, service providers and researchers better understand the participation of children and youth, developed by Wendy Coster, Mary Law and Gary Bedell.

The PEM-CY measures participation in the home, school and community, along with environmental factors within each of these settings. It is the first tool of this type that measures participation and environmental factors at the same time.

The PEM-CY is completed by parents / caregivers of children and youth aged 5 to 17, with or without disabilities. It takes 25-40 minutes to complete. A total of 25 types of activities are included. Examples include: “computer and video games” at home, “classroom activities” at school, and neighborhood outing” in the community. The 25 activities are grouped into three settings: home, school and community. For each setting, there are questions about participation and the environment. The instrument also asks about strategies parents use to promote participation in each setting.

The PEM-CY can be used to:

• Understand a child or youth’s current participation patterns.
• Identify environmental supports and barriers in the settings that children and youth participate.
• Encourage problem solving and planning around changeable features of the home, school, and community environments to enhance a child/youth’s participation.