"Courage in baby steps"

Before we can become good at something, we have to be willing to try. For pediatric persons (children, young teens and young adults), stepping up to have more independence in managing their health and living space is met in either of two ways...with enthusiasm or with eye-rolling. As parents, we try to encourage the transition of taking on more responsibilities. But how can pediatric persons enjoy taking on more responsibilities, for the sake of it? That's where occupational therapy can come in. I'm a firm believer in finding the fun in doing things. It's within occupational therapy training that clinicians learn to analyze tasks and build up and modify as necessary, so that the task is accessible. However, it's through a clinician's personality or 'therapeutic use of self' and 'rapport-building' that enables the pediatric person to feel a different way about the task.

Consider this, have you ever cleaned a kitchen and struggled to start and finish? Yes. Have you ever turned on a series of favorite songs and cleaned the kitchen, sliding around in socks on the hardwood floor? If you're lucky enough, yes. Not to say that music is the only answer to changing how one feels about starting and accomplishing a task, but a clinician that accounts for motivation is more effective than a clinician that doesn't. My goal [as a clinician] is to be obsolete, such that pediatric persons and family/hired caregivers develop intrinsic motivation for daily tasks associated with well being. My second goal is that such parties receive an education and outlook so that they're about to problem-solve between sessions and after completion of services. I believe in encouragement. Courage is taking baby steps with deliberateness; sometimes it is in the form of having fun with it and learning in the process. We all do what's necessary, but an occupational therapy clinician will go beyond having you go through the motions. Baby steps are the first thing that leads to progress, achievement, growth...and the celebration of milestones.