PROCESSES TRANSFORMING OCCUPATION: APPLIED

Who is this child? (Summary of occupational profile, including):

  • Likes, dislikes
  • Successful occupations
  • Difficult occupations
  • Key relationships
  • Primary environments
  • Strengths and resources (temperament, abilities, learning, habits, roles, routines)
  • Needs

Define the occupation (be specific):

CULTURAL/SOCIETAL INFLUENCES:

  1. Identify the cultures, communities or larger social groups that at work influencing participation in this occupation:
  1. Why is this occupation important and to whom?
  1. How is one expected to participate in this activity? What are the norms in terms of process or result?
  1. What does the culture, community or larger social group do to support participation in this occupation?
  1. Who are the people identified or designated to support participation in this occupation?
  1. Are the current cultural/societal influences the same or different from those anticipated over the next year or so? In what ways?

SOCIAL INFLUENCES: Based on observation of the child engaged in the particular occupation…

  1. Are there other people doing it? Who are they? (Differentiate between peers and adults)
  1. What roles are the other participants taking in the process of engagement? (Again, differentiate between peers and adults)
  1. What role is this particular child taking? How is he/she participating?
  1. What is the skill level (in this occupation) of the other participants, compared to this child?
  1. Is the child's performance being supported by a more skilled partner? If so, who is it? If not, are more skilled partners available?
  1. How is the occupation being given meaning by participants?
  1. What meaning has this context created for this child?

CHILD/ACTIVITY FIT

Given the child's current knowledge, motivation, temperament and abilities:

  1. What demands of the activity is the child able to meet successfully?
  1. What demands of the activity is the child unable to meet successfully?
  1. If the child's understanding of the activity creates difficulty, what can be done to enhance understanding?
  1. If the child's motivation to do the activity creates difficulty, what can be done to enhance motivation?

THE ENGAGED CHILD, AS A DYNAMIC SYSTEM

  1. Describe the ways in which you see the child's motivation enhance willingness to put forth effort to over come challenges
  1. Describe the ways in which you see the child's effort result in improved performance
  1. Describe changes in the physical environment, social environment, task demands, purpose or meaning that occur as the activity evolves
  1. How did those changes influence the performance of the child?
  1. As you see the performance repeated in this particular time span, are the child's skills, abilities, motivations different? In what way?
  1. As you see the performance repeated later, are the child's skills, abilities, motivations different? In what way?

Acknowledgement and Resources:

This model is being developed by Ruth Humphry, PhD, Division of Occupational Science, at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Publications based on this work include:

Humphry, R. (2005). Models of Processes Transforming Occupations: Exploring societal and social influences. Journal of Occupational Science, 12, 36-41.

Humphry R. & Wakeford, L. (in press). An occupation-centered discussion of development and implications for practice. American Journal of Occupational Therapy.