What areas of occupation are successful, and what areas are causing problems or risks?
I am the mother, and my son is three years old.
I discovered he had autism around the time he was 18 months, as we saw that his development is different than of his brothers. He had a hard time keeping an eye contact and communicating with us.
I enjoy to have a special needs child because seeing him learn things and improve himself is very rewarding. And also I take pride in finding ways to understand him and his needs better every day.
Some challenges we face are the ability to understand his non verbal clues, as well as getting him to be comfortable around other people. When he is angry, it is very challenging to get him to come down.
Yes, I do feel overwhelmed, and quite often.
My son’s strengths have to do with arts. He enjoys drawing and creating with colors.
Some struggles he faces are playing with other children, verbalizing his needs, and controlling his emotions.
His disability affects his brothers because they need to act differently around him, more gently, and not let him get into a tantrum mode.
I have seen some progress with his speech, thanks to the special education and the speech therapy sessions he gets.
Both of those therapies have been helpful to us.
I have concerns for his future because we want him to be able to interact better with other kids, and we are not sure yet which school will be appropriate for him, so he can also study and make progress in his education.
Some challenging aspects as a parent are with dealing with family life and staying on top of all of the family’s needs, and that is not easy when one child requires a lot out of you, physically and mentally. It is also challenging to figure out what your child needs in order to be the best he can be.
The most rewarding aspect is being with him and seeing him happy, as well as enjoying his favorite things and knowing that he has a family that loves him always.
Some things to share with other parents are – stay focused on your child’s happiness and spend as much time with them as you can. Keeping a set schedule that is predictable for the child helps a lot! Also, understand and except that there will be limitations and delays in many aspects, and that is ok.
Requirements
The main ACOTE standard to be met:
B.2.9
Express support for the quality of life, well-being, and occupation of the individual, group, or population to promote physical and mental health and prevention of injury and disease considering the context (e.g., cultural, personal, temporal, virtual) and environment
B.5.7
Demonstrate therapeutic use of self, including one’s personality, insights, perceptions, and judgments, as part of the therapeutic process in both individual and group interaction.
- 5.19
Apply the principles of the teaching–learning process using educational methods to design experiences to address the needs of the client, family, significant others, colleagues, other health providers, and the public.
Your paper involves interviewing and spending some time with an individual with disability.
- Identify an individual with a disability that you can interview (subject to instructor’s approval).
- Develop a goal for your interview (goal statement should be included in the paper).
- Prepare a list of at least 10 main questions. Decide what kinds of information you want to get to meet your goal. Your questions should address the followings (Framework-II; AOTA, 2008):
- Who is the client (person, including family, caregivers, and significant others; population; or organization)?
- What are the client’s current concerns relative to engaging in occupations and in daily life activities?
- What areas of occupation are successful, and what areas are causing problems or risks?
- What contexts and environments support or inhibit participation and engagement in desired occupations?
- What is the client’s occupational history (i.e., life experiences, values, interests, previous patterns of engagement in occupations and in daily life activities, the meanings associated with them)?
- What are the client’s priorities and desired outcomes?
A list of questions you ask your interviewee should be attached to your paper.
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- Write a 4-5 page interview paper using APA style (paper will be returned otherwise).
Fill out this form
OT 106: Therapeutic Skills I: Interpersonal Skills
Self-assessments for client interview projects
- Fill in this form to assess yourself after completing the client’s interview. Attach the form with your paper at the end.
Therapeutic Use of Self and Therapeutic Communication skills
Briefly describe the way you interacted with the client based on the following elements.
- Speaks
- Is totally focused
- Listens
- Develops trust
Interpersonal Interaction process
Identify and briefly describe the interaction processes that occurred during the interview.
| Sympathy | |
| Pity | |
| Identification | |
| Self-transposal | |
| Empathy |
Question which I used for interview:
What is your relation the to the child? How old is your child?
- Tell me how you discovered your child had a disability?
- What things have you found to enjoy about having a child with special needs?
- What are the challenges you face as a parent to a child with special needs?
- Do you ever feel overwhelmed?
- What are your child’s strengths? What does he enjoy doing?
- What kind of struggles does your child have because of his disability?
- How does having a child with a disability affect your other children?
- What progress have you seen in your child since his initial diagnosis?
- What treatments or therapies have been successful for your child?
- What concerns do you have for your child’s future?
. What are the most challenging aspects as the parents of children with special needs?
What has been the most rewarding aspect?
. What message would you like to share with other families considering special needs ?