Collaborative Planning & Involving Children
- Family-centred care is the best approach for providing pediatric rehabilitation services. Principles of family-centred care applied to DCD include: sharing information about DCD, providing education about the impact of DCD on daily life, and engaging in true partnership and collaboration.
- Developing relevant goals collaboratively will foster motivation and engagement and increase the likelihood of success.
- Goals should focus on increasing function, well-being, and participation.
- Children often have different goals from their parents and teachers. Their views should be included.
- Tools and strategies are available (see below) to help set relevant goals that include children’s and families' perspectives.
Goal Setting Tools
- The Perceived Efficacy and Goal Setting System (PEGS) is a validated measure that uses children's self-reported performance on everyday tasks to establish and prioritize interventions.
- The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) is also a validated measurement tool that assists therapists in using a family-centred approach to service delivery and determining the family's priorities.
- The Goal Attainment Scaling is an individualized measure of change that can be used collaboratively to define a set of unique goals reflecting concrete activities, and including a range of outcomes.
This video illustrates the use of the PEGS
Question for Reflection
A parent tells you that their son wants to try rock climbing and asks for your advice. Is this a safe. Is this a safe activity for him to try? Will he be successful or will it be too challenging?
Click here for some thoughts on this questionA parent tells you that their son wants to try rock climbing and asks for your advice. Is this a safe. Is this a safe activity for him to try? Will he be successful or will it be too challenging?
As the child has identified rock climbing as his goal, it's worth exploring the idea! Although rock climbing may be quite challenging initially because of the need for proprioceptive awareness, and due to the movement planning and strength required, engaging in this activity may be a great way to help improve these areas. Importantly, with rock climbing the child has to use mental imagery to "see" the next move, encouraging cognitive effort and the development of problem solving strategies. As with any activity that the child really wants to do, supporting the child and providing the child with opportunities to try it out are important as is ensuring that the activity is realized in a safe setting. Encourage the parent to share information on DCD with the rock-climbing instructor so that they are aware of the child’s limitations and can anticipate potential difficulties and plan additional safety strategies as necessary.
