Unit 2: Clinical Considerations for Teaching Clients

Question 1

Learner characteristics (OT Considerations when Teaching Clients)

Answer 1

Occupational therapists must attempt to answer questions regarding patients’
ability to learn during the evaluation:
-What modes of input can this patient process most easily?
-What approaches to tasks are still available to this patient?
-What tasks are meaningful or are most likely to facilitate learning for this patient?
-How well is this patient able to transfer learning by applying specific skills to a variety of tasks under a variety of circumstances?

Question 2

How many sessions we will have with the client is determined by: (Considerations for Teaching Clients)

Answer 2

• Expected length of stay
• Insurance coverage of services
• Acuteness of medical condition
• Learning potential of the patient

Question 3

Application of Theory to Practice: (Clinical Considerations for Teaching Clients)

Answer 3

Three Stage Model
-Cognitive
-Associative 
-Autonomous
Consider the stage of learning of our client and their resulting intervention needs.

Question 4

Desired learning outcomes: task-specific versus generalization

Answer 4

-Task-specific skills and transfer of training
-Acquired skills are expected to enhance
function solely within the training tasks.
-Learning process is embedded in the performance environment, with surroundings and objects becoming cues.

Question 5

Task-specific skills and transfer of training (Clinical Considerations for Teaching Clients)

Answer 5

• Given enough repetition, the hope is that the routine will be carried out automatically.
• Therapists must utilize techniques that optimize patients’ ability to execute skills learned in therapy during routines when they get home.
• Transfer of learning should be facilitated through appropriate practice conditions

Question 6

Empowering Change in Your Clients

Answer 6

• Using a new skill or strategy in daily life depends not only on recall, transfer, or generalization but also on learners’ beliefs about their competence and their stage in the change process.
• People’s beliefs about their ability to handle a new situation largely determine whether they attempt the new task and their ultimate performance.
• Occupational therapists actively create opportunities for patients to demonstrate to themselves that they are indeed competent with the new skill or strategy.