Do whatever it takes..

I was in paediatrics unit in my rural prac. One of the greatest challenges I faced was to create compliance of a paediatric client. It was my first time working in this area and I thought to myself, they’re only kids how hard can it get. Then I had my first patient and the notes read.. a bit of autism and a bit of developmental delay. Well, how different can they be to other kids? So I started doing assessment like I would normally do and 5 minutes into the session things started to fall apart. The little boy started to cry and just wanted to do his stuff, like pretend to fly. I was frustrated because I was thrown into the deep end left to figure things out for myself for the first time. So I kept myself together and thought to myself that I have to take control of the situation before it gets me. So i went with the flow and played with him. By playing with him I actually won him over for another 5 minutes. So I tried my best, modified every single assessment to make it “fun” and it was not easy.

Can you imagine, having to think of a way to modify assessment for muscle strength and endurance of the UL, LL and trunk turning it into something outstandingly “fun”? So I started using cartoon characters like superman and spiderman then doing some animal walks to test trunk strength and endurance. Just I was getting somewhere with the assessment, a sudden machinery noise started coming from the construction site nearby. The mother looked like she had given up not knowing what to do as well. I remembered reading somewhere that some autistic kids are affected terribly by unfamiliar noises. I quickly went and found some headphones to try and filter the noise out for him. It worked but only for a short time, enough for me to at least finish the last part of my assessment so that I could device a program to address the delay in his gross motor skills.

Form this experience I’ve learnt that things do not always go according to plan and that I have to be flexible with whatever challenges I face during a session with a client. I must be able to think and act promptly in difficult situations so that I am able to maximise the limited time I have with clients to gain sufficient information through an assessment. In this case, perserverance did pay off as I was able to gain enough information to provide a treatment strategy.