How To Apply My Strengths In Occupational Therapy
Occupational Therapy is both a creative and scientific profession. It requires personal strengths such as curiosity, forgiveness, judgment, and leadership. These strengths are crucial to Occupational Therapy because without them the job can become very difficult due to the fact that everyone is unique. According to AOTA, occupation is the way in which people occupy their time time. It can be both physical and psychological activities in which one engages in to help improve mental and physical health. These occupations are considered as ADLs, or Activities for Daily Living, which help to provide the clients with a meaning to life. Occupational Therapists, in this aspect, are teachers who help to improve the longevity of the client’s life. To be a good teacher, one needs many strengths.
To begin, curiosity is my main strength. It is a state of activity which involves exploration by asking questions and making new discoveries, often allowing one to become more open to the world. This strength has played a major role in my life and is very essential to Occupational Therapy for learning about the clients and discovering what therapy works best for them. From birth, I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy, a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture; Fragile X Syndrome, a genetic condition that causes intellectual disability, behavioral and learning challenges and various physical characteristics; Dyslexia, a condition in which the brain does not correct vision causing one to see things backwards; and OCD, an anxiety disorder caused by damage to the orbitoprefrontal cortex of the brain resulting in one’s sense of aero detection to be thrown off causing one to check and recheck one’s self.
Since childhood, I questioned, “Why do people treat me so differently and why am I different from others? Why was I placed in this cursed body? What purpose do I have in life?” Not only I but my parents were bombarded with questions as well from friends and family members asking, “Why isn’t she walking? Why isn’t she talking? Why isn’t she socializing with other children?” They did not know how to answer them.
Afterwards, my parents began to ask my physicians what therapies would work best for me. They all replied, “Get her involved in playing video games, sports, theatre, music, and buy her some pets because they are the cheapest and most effective therapy.” Heeding the physicians’ advice, my parents went out and bought a Sega Genesis, my very first gaming console. After about two weeks of playing video games, my parents and first grade teacher began to notice major improvements in my vision as well as my hand and eye coordination. I could finally distinguish the difference between the letters b and d as well as read sentences at a normal pace without my left eye drifting off, causing me to accidentally skip lines. Not only did my vision and hand and eye coordination improve, but my social interaction did as well. My friends and I would get together almost every weekend to play video games, in particular Sonic The Hedgehog, a game that tested Rapid Eye Movement (REM) at a maximum level. The bright colors of the game, as well as Sonic’s speed, would often cause me to have migraines. To treat the migraines, I would simply lie down in a dark room and close my eyes for a few minutes, sometimes hours, until the headaches were no longer prevalent.
When I was about seven years old, I became very interested in both music and theatre. I absolutely loved listening to the radio and watching musicals. I would try to mimic the voices of each artist. By doing this, they helped me express my emotions and provided the speech and meditative therapy I desperately needed. They also helped me to learn math. Theatre helped with my cognition and music helped me to understand math in a different way. I learned I have to see the problem to be able to answer it accurately. In other words, I have to write the steps in order to answer the problem. Many people, for years, thought this was impossible for me to do; because I am learning disabled in math, until I was introduced to these extra curricular activities.
Finally, I became interested in martial arts. After watching some martial arts movies, I thought, “Man, they’re cool, quick, and smart! I want to be just like them! I’m tired of people thinking I’m ignorant because I’m slow! I want to be normal just like everyone else!” One night, after watching a Jackie Chan movie; I ran into my parents’ room and told them, “I want to take some martial arts classes!” My parents looked at each other, turned toward me; and said, “Ok, but it’s going to be hard work.” I replied, “I know, but I really want to learn martial arts. Please!” My parents responded, “Alright, but you better not quit.” I screamed, “Yes! Thank you!” A few days had passed and my mom finally brought me to a Tae Kwon Do school called Tae Kwon Do Plus. We met with the head master and asked him some very important questions in regards to my disabilities. He replied with a grin, “Do not worry. We work with people all the time just like your daughter. Because our classes are a learn at your own pace type courses, she can take breaks whenever she feels like she needs to rest.” Afterwards, he told me; “Come in tomorrow to see how you like the class. It will be free.” The next day, I came in to class and tried it out. I absolutely loved it. It was the first time in my life I had fun while getting a good workout. After about two days of practicing, I began to feel sore all over my body. On other occasions, I felt so sore the next day to where I could not even move to get out of bed. The pain was excruciating but I managed to motivate myself to get out of bed. I knew that I had to get up and get moving to perform my ADLs such as eating, bathing, dressing, going to school, playing video games, listening to music, singing, and taking care of my pets. After all, I was not going to accomplish anything by lying down and letting time pass. I had to do something in order to stay alive.
Even though I experienced much pain, I decided to stick with it. Many years had passed and I finally became a licensed assistant instructor with ITA, International Tae Kwon Do Alliance; as a senior green belt, which is about four belts from white belt. As an assistant instructor, I worked with many disabled people, in particular a 20 year old guy with severe Spastic Cerebral Palsy. He had much hypertension throughout his entire body and had difficulty maintaining his balance and posture as well as with producing his speech. Often, I and another instructor, or two instructors; would have him hold on to a bar as one or two of us would hold him while another instructor would be in front of him trying to grab his foot to push his knee into his abdomen and extend his leg to stretch the muscles and to release the tension. Not only would we have him hold on to a bar, but we would also hold him up when practicing free kicks and punches. As time progressed, the instructors and I would hold him, release him slowly, and spot him to help him learn how to maintain his balance and posture; giving him positive encouragement as he performed across the room. After a good workout, we would make him stretch to relieve the tension in his muscles. The team had him stretch in many different ways. Some of which included leg stretches while lying on his back and sitting up straight, arm rolls, neck rolls, and back stretches. Once, after class, I noticed he was having difficulty with tying his shoes so I stopped and asked him if he needed any help. He replied with a slur, “No, but thanks for asking.” Then I asked him, “How old are you and where do you live?” He answered, “I am twenty years old and I live just around the corner.” Afterwards, I asked him, “Where do you go to school?” He responded, “I go to Spring Hill College. However, I’m sorry but I have to cut this conversation short because I need to get home to study for an exam.” I replied, “Oh, ok. Good luck on your exam!” He arose off the bench, walked slowly out to his car, opened the car door, grabbed one of his assisted driving devices, and pulled himself into the driver’s seat without any assistance from an instructor. At that moment, I thought, “Wow! He is really living life to its fullest! He doesn’t ask for any help nor does he let any obstacle get in his way. He does what he wants to do.” As a leader of Tae Kwon Do, I felt as if my job was very rewarding. This experience also taught me that we must forgive those who have done us wrong in the past to move on into our future because they do not understand what we go through every day in our lives.
It is amazing what we all can learn by asking questions, observing, and speaking to one another. If people would just open their minds to the world and see things the way others do, then they would not be so quick to judge others before getting know them. An Occupational Therapist must learn to become curious of the client’s disability in order to make good judgments upon the therapy needed. Doing this will allow them to become great leaders and will also allow them to forgive after they have a better understanding of the client’s disability.
Works Cited
American Occupational Therapy Association, inc. “About Occupational Therapy.” American Occupational Therapy Association. AOTA, 1999. aota.org. 3 April. 2013.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “Facts About Cerebral Palsy.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC, 20 Sept. 2011. cdc.gov. 3 April. 2013.
National Fragile X Foundation. “Fragile X Syndrome.” National Fragile X Foundation. NFXF, 1999. fragilex.org. 3 April. 2013.
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