There are sometimes really important things that we leave behind when we are on the ‘journey’ of a task. We don’t assign importance to them despite what others have told us because we are on a journey. We have a location to get to. An outcome that we desire or are interested in ‘achieving’.
Our choice of which pieces of pathway to put together can make a difference in how easy the journey is physically or emotionally but it can also obviously impact in how long something is taking to get done.
When others are traveling over the same pathways with you, do you know if they consider these to be the same pathways or not? Do you know whether they consider these pathways to be the most beneficial ones or not? Do you know whether these others consider these pathways to be safe or not? Did they tell you or has a mode or method of interaction been established long before that which has been observed and documented well by others in how communication occurs and who is in control.
If there are two pathways. Which one do you take. The shortest one. The longest one.
What happens if it’s not about the amount of time that something is going to take but about what is going to be accomplished on that journey? In this case should Red Riding Hood travel with the wolf? Probably not, its not safe, but it may be the safest place to travel for some pathways, as the wolf can offer protection that others can’t. Sometimes the wolves offer protection in the playground in a way that being able to have conversations with others peers doesn’t offer.
Pathways related to speed may be something that others consider important as they like to collect new places to go to. Others may not want to. Preferring to stay home. Speed of completion is a big issue within families. Who wants to go somewhere and who doesn’t. Who wants to spend a certain amount of time in a place and who doesn’t. Who wants to stay much longer in a place can also be a significant piece of information when others are looking at patterns of behaviours. Staying longer than usual, what is it an indication of? What is the goal of staying somewhere longer rather than linking it with another place in the journey over the course of the day?
As a therapist, when grading tasks for kids do you start at level 1 or do you have to make levels before that because despite the fact that the ‘toy’ is great, its not the best place to start, but there isn’t anything else, so you start there. Did you know that? Or is that where you are in your own journey of life and learning about your own learning..
If we all start off with the same pieces such as in the game of Shaky Manor, how many steps does one person go through to put each piece in the correct room versus another person? Does each person go through the same steps to build a home? Does each person go through the same isolated physical and cognitive steps to put each object within each room? No, they don’t. Its like bingo, there is more randomness to it. But its not random. Its actually microscopic decisions that when isolated are easy to see. Occupational Therapists work with kids to develop ‘insight’ into their own thinking. This is basically just a way of saying, when you slow something down to the right number of frames per second you can see exactly what was being moved and in what direction. It is simply just a matter of doing the work. Once you know how to do the work you can then learn to do it at the same time as you are doing the actual task. So that you can learn to have insight into the how and why and where etc of what you are doing whilst you are doing it, which enables you to learn more quickly.
