Summertime for school-based occupational therapists can often be an opportunity to practice new skills and reflect on what's important to you--on the job and on your own time.
Of course many therapists work extra hours in the summer, perhaps in a clinic as a temp for employees on vacation or maybe we pick up extra home health clients because our schedules are more open. I enjoyed working with adults again in rehab and in their homes plus it made me appreciate how easy it was to physically manage children compared to adults! Whether working with kids or adults I aimed to create understandable home programs for families so improvement could continue, via custom exercises and activities, when I wasn't directly with the person. For my adults with feeding concerns I used to joke with them that I was going to leave an extra-large headshot of myself for them to keep on the kitchen table, so they would imagine me right there, giving them tips for better chewing and swallowing!
If you're thinking about how to concisely package a home program for the adults you see you might use a rubric to describe their baseline skills, desired end goal and the steps indicating progress along the way. That way the whole family can visually recall the starting point of therapy, the indicators of success and what the person is aiming toward. Exercises and activities for home that support achieving the goal can be written on the same page as the rubric or you might have the technology available to insert custom photos of the client performing the activities.
And for yourself, how about using some of your summer hours to think about how you'd like to develop in one or more skill areas? Below you will see my personal Rubric for Retirement, which I began prior to retiring in 2016. It's helpful to me in remembering what areas I had hoped to grow in and in looking at my progress. Reflecting on this rubric I see that several of the areas have greatly expanded and improved over time, even during the tough year of 2020. That has been very encouraging.
Hey, it's August 1st--enjoy the rest of your summer and here's hoping the next school year will be excellent!
