Today, I decided to try something different. I love when simple, new ideas like this spark, by the way. I love that my job challenges me with opportunities to think creatively and try new things!
The kiddo who wrote the pictured writing, above, struggles immensely with self-regulation; so much so, that he told me today that he’ll be leaving school early in a couple of days to talk to someone about his feelings – aka a counselor. I couldn’t be happier for him.
As most things do, his challenge with regulating his emotions has slightly waxed and waned but has definitely increased over the past year.
In the past, no matter how many times I’d explained the benefit of mistakes, that mistakes are part of the learning process, and that I make mistakes every day, he used to break down in tears with every mistake he made. Becoming sad about mistakes then transitioned to frustration. On top of becoming easily upset and frustrated, he also becomes easily excitable and struggles to focus.
Today, when he walked in my room for the start of our therapy session, I said, “We’re going to take a walk.” “A walk?!” he questioned. “A walk,” I confirmed. “YESSS!!” he exclaimed. This kid enjoys a good walk more than most.
As we left my room, I explained that from now on, we are going to start our occupational therapy (OT) sessions with a walk to get all of our stories out. During our walk, he could tell me whatever he wanted and as much as he wanted. Then, upon re-entering my room, we’d turn on our “focus mode,” complete our wall push-ups and elevator breaths, and get to work.
Oh . My. Goodness . IT WORKED! The handwriting that you see here is the most and the best that he’s written in a single setting, in quite some time. It’s so good that when his intervention specialist stopped by and saw it, she inquired, “You really wrote that? That writing looks like my own!” He was so proud.
My most proud moment, though, was when he caught himself getting upset about a mistake and said aloud to himself, “Ah, never mind. It’s not that big of a deal.”
Takeaways from Today in OT: Continue to think outside of the box. Try new things! Walks do wonders. And hey, when you make a mistake, “it’s not that big of a deal.”