Discovering your child’s superpowers!
A strength-based approach is a collaborative style of learning which aims to change the lens in which one might view our child. Using this approach with children shifts the focus to what your child can do, what are their beautiful qualities, and how can we enhance these strengths and use this to overcome obstacles that are created by the environment, situation or context that their may encounter. It aims to empower children to transform into what they want to be. It looks at the whole child and aims to promote wellbeing by focusing on your child’s strengths, desires, interests, aspirations, experience, purpose, talents, knowledge, resiliency rather than deficits, weaknesses or problems as perceived from another.
Strength-based approaches support self-efficacy and self-determination to enhance occupational performance.
A strength based lens allows us to view your family and child understanding them as a whole person. Caring, loving, kind, concerned and develop a relationship that provides the foundation for positivity and empowering results. This often has a ripple effect as one act of kindness can grow and snowball or a butterfly effect which can transform a person. (O’Brien, Medbridge) Supporting the change of others viewing our child through these lenses can increases the child’s feeling of control, natural strengths and develop self competency and efficacy. This has the potential to facilitate future problem solving and success!
Self-efficacy is a belief in your skills and ability, capacity to execute behaviours to produce performance
I use strength based evaluation tools such as the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) and Child Occupation Self Assessment (COSA) as well as uncovering the child’s unique sensory profile which is provides valuable information on how your child’s nervous system receives, interprets and processes information from the environment in which they live, learn and play. Together these provide information on what is important to the child, what they are motivated to achieve and why they may respond in a certain fashion to sensation or situation in the environment. It provides key elements to support growth, learning and development through a positive process.
Picture of child in the woods, picture of many children smiling with paint on their hands, picture of teacher with kinder students, picture of child running race in the forest with caregiver.
Kielhofner, G., Burke, J.P. (1980) A Model of Human Occupation, Part 1. Conceptual framework and content. American Journal of Occupational Therapy, Vol 34, (pp. 572-581)
Taylor, R. (2017) Kielhofner’s Model of Human Occupation: Theory and Application 5th Ed. Welters Kluwer.
O’Brian, Jane. Strength Based Intervention Using the Model of Human Occupation. Seminar via Medbridge.