While all children experience difficulties in comparison to other children, some children are dealt a more challenging hand in the game of life. Some of the strengths of children, such as Bill, who are dealt a disability so early in life is that they learn the value of persistence. Bill, for a child of his age, is exceptionally persistent, handles stressful situations well, and has good interactions with the major adults in his life. Some weaknesses are that his peer relation is not perhaps up to par with other students his age.
As Bill cannot always participate in many of the activities or must make adaptations to participate at all, he does also get teased for some of his ‘mistakes’ and other children do not tend to be appreciative of his disability. Three goals for Bill to work on during Transition services and Occupational therapy are: To find meaningful ways to make friends within his peer group, to find hobbies that are meaningful and relevant to Bill, to better cope with and understand his disability and even appreciate some of the things that have arisen from his disability like his amazing persistence.
Bill is 10, his disability is that he has significant hearing loss, wears hearing aids, and depending on whether it worsens, may have to eventually deal with minimal hearing or being completely deaf. For the services to work well for Bill, it would be good first of all for the peer group assimilation to be empathic and try to engage in some kind of damage control. Bill should be encouraged to seek out more compassionate children who are more likely to treat him as respectfully as he can be treated.
Perhaps Bill’s parents can assist with coordinating play dates, and time can be reserved as often as time permits for Bill to just enjoy being a kid who is 10 years old with other kids who are also in that stage in life. This service should assert to find similarities with Bill and other children and other children with Bill so that Bill does not feel as isolated as he may currently feel. For the second supplemental service, hobbies, they should improve his self-esteem, give him something that occupies his time meaningfully, and provide a safe-haven for when times gets stressful.
It might be legos, because Bill could feel better about himself when he completes a lego system, or it could be something like cooking, which he could use in a more social sense by sharing his baked products with family and friends. When times get especially stressful, as they may for Bill during the management of his disability, it may be really helpful for him to have something to do so that no matter where he is he can do it and feel better about himself. For the third supplemental service, self-awareness, it would be great if Bill had a greater appreciation for how the disability has positively impacted his life.
It’s easy to think of it completely in negative language so it’s very helpful to focus on some of the good aspects as well as take note that thanks to hearing aids a lot of people who would be caught in silence can hear. Apart from focusing on the positive components, other goals would be, grading and assessing the quality of care he has received in various locations and from various people, as well as reading more about others who had severe hearing loss and still led amazing lives so that he has good examples who may really inspire Bill to bigger and better things.