First Session

November 1, 2012
by Ricky

So, I am currently doing my Pediatric rotation (immersion). Yesterday, I had my first shot at conducting an intervention session. To this point, I had been mostly observing. I have had opportunities to interact with the children, but now, the pressure was on to apply the stuff I have been learning and make the interaction purposeful. My fieldwork educator (FE) had asked that I prepare an intervention plan for a particular child — that had been a few weeks ago. I was actually supposed to do the session last week, but I got sick (honestly, I wasn’t stalling . . . didn’t want to get the little man sick). Anyhow, my session was pretty well-planned, but MAN! It turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected. I mean, I can interact and play with kids like nothing, but making the interaction therapeutic is really tough. Plus, I have volunteered/worked at a pediatric therapy clinic that operates quite similarly to this place. So, it was a little frustrating when things weren’t flowing as I had hoped. It also didn’t help that the kid’s mom, my FE, and the new OT were all observing me. Needless to mention, things got off to a rocky start and there was a lot of awkward silence. I tried to remind myself that our therapeutic relationship was still new and developing. I tried to let loose and focus more on connecting with the little guy — establish and maintain joint-attention. Things progressed slowly, but they progressed, nonetheless. My therapy plan didn’t completely go out the window, but I definitely made adjustments. Towards the end, things seemed better, and the last 10 minutes or so went by a lot faster. When we were all done, I told my little client, “we survived!” We both took a deep sigh of relief and gave each other a high-five. Haha, he was a good sport. My FE was great at providing feedback and reassured that each session would get easier. I feel like I need tons more experience, but I now there’s light at the end of the proverbial tunnel here. I’m pretty stoked that things started to become more natural later in the session, because I am actually trying to work with kids, upon graduation. This was a relief. Overall, it was a great experience: it was hard and awkward, but I was not defeated. I’m not dreading the next one. I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes in 2 weeks when I try my plan again. Also, I think I need to learn how to sing . . .

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