By Grace Franko
Leisure and Occupational Therapy
As an occupational therapist, leisure matters a lot to me. Occupational therapy, as a profession, prioritizes helping clients participate and perform in the activities that are most meaningful to each individual. While many children and adolescents spend most of their day in school, their meaningful activities outside the classroom are incredibly impactful! We can consider these activities to be leisure. Leisure can be anything from an arts and crafts activity or playing guitar to going to basketball or taekwondo practice. Leisure creates balance in children’s lives!
Benefits of Leisure Activities
There are so many benefits to participating in recreation and leisure:
- School achievement
- Personal identity development
- Skill acquisition
- Interest and hobby development
- Social participation
- Development of work-related skills (e.g., following directions, time management)
- Improvement in self-esteem
- Improvement in emotion management and regulation
That’s why leisure matters.
Finding your Recreation and Leisure Preferences
Promoting leisure participation is key! But how do you know what leisure activities are the best for your child? Sometimes it is easy to spend a lot of time analyzing a child or adolescent’s current skills and interests, and we end up getting lost in deciding on the best available leisure options. Other times, it can feel like there’s no direction on where to start exploring leisure options.
The good news is that research shows it is important to try multiple leisure activities to decide what is the best fit for the individual! Children should try whatever is available to determine the leisure activities to participate in.
Some for Leisure Exploration
- Get involved with local leisure programs (e.g., park districts, community centers, libraries)
- Look into summer camps incorporating different leisure activities to allow your child to explore new interests.
- Participating in leisure activities doesn’t always have to have an ongoing cost! Consider free ways to explore leisure activities (e.g., If you have an instrument at home, try free lessons on Youtube).
- Ask about the clubs and activities your child’s school offers after school hours! There may be a group you didn’t know about that your child might enjoy.
Leisure is Unique!
Leisure exploration looks different for each child. Differences in home and school environments, learning styles, physical abilities, and social skills may impact how a child participates in leisure activities. However, even if participation in leisure looks different, every child can and should enjoy leisure activities!
We Can Help
Contact us at Conquer Therapy Services if you need support promoting leisure participation in your family! Leisure coaching with an occupational therapist may be an excellent option for your child!
Helpful Resources for Those with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities:
Key Reference: https://everymomentcounts.org/making-leisure-matter/