Making sure that intervention sessions and treatment plans are client-centered is important. It is important to have occupation-based interventions because the interventions are effective. Occupation-based interventions provide clients with a deep sense of meaning and control over their own journey to recovery. It is also important to use occupation-based assessments to most accurately determine the client’s level of function. I have experienced this firsthand with my clients; during fieldwork my client had progressively become happier when I provided occupation-based interventions and seemed more engaged.
I still need to improve my occupation-based interventions by using a more collaborative approach with the parent and the child. During my first Level II Fieldwork, I felt like that there weren’t many opportunities to have a conservation with the parent, so I had to gain as much information as possible at the IEP meeting to provide better occupation-based activities (i.e., play). I incorporated play into almost every session and made that a priority, but I would have liked to incorporate meaningful activities that the student was interested in more often. One time I incorporated Spiderman into the treatment session because one of the students expressed an interest in Spiderman. I included a Spiderman dot-to-dot to work on tracking for a non-preferred activity, but he didn’t enjoy the activity as much as I had hoped. I was disappointed, but I just have to realize that clients might not always like my interventions and try to find something else they might enjoy the next time. The key is to never give up and try something else, and to go out of the way to communicate with the parents about what might interest the child.
I have had many opportunities to use occupation-based practice. It is important to use occupation-based interventions with each client in order to achieve optimal results. Occupation-based practice is the essence of what makes occupational therapy unique; it is important that we put clients and their desired occupations at the center of our practice.