Goal setting

Occupational therapy

﻿Hi, I'm really looking forward to our lesson today. I hope you are too. Before we get started, this is just a little reminder. We're here to support any approaches you might already be using and any work you might have already been set. We know that this lesson is going to be going up to so many different children and families. So if you're not sure about anything or have any questions, then please do contact your usual therapy team. Setting goals is really important. It helps us be able to think about things that we want to achieve, and it helps us get there and achieve those things. Today, we're going to be learning about how to set goals and how to set times for those goals. Why do we need to set goals with time limits? So within certain timeframes. Well, if you think about it, when you have a time limit, you can plan accurately. And it means that you won't waste any time. You won't need to rush. And when you won't need to rush, that means you won't become worried or stressed and you'll then be able to achieve all of the goals that you've set for yourself. Pause the video now to get the items you will need for today's lesson: paper, a pen or pencil, and a diary or planner. Resume once you're finished. When you set a goal for yourself, it can often seem like it's quite a big goal and it might feel a little bit worrying. So a really good idea is to take that big goal or your longterm goal and break it up into smaller goals. Okay? So you can take your longterm goal, which might be for say a year, and say, right, I'm going to break it into some medium term goals. And these are the goals that say last about a term, so three months. And then you can take each of these goals and break them into short term goals. So little goals. And these are ones that you can work towards say weekly or every two weeks. And by breaking up your goals, it means that you are actually able to work towards your big goal. And you can see all the little achievements that you're making. So you can see your progress, and that will be really encouraging to you. I like to think of goals as a ladder. Okay? And at the top of the ladder, you have your longterm goal. And as you're going up the rungs of the ladder, you can see you've got little goals and then you've got medium sized goals. Okay? And it all helps you because it all builds on top of each other and helps you to get to your big, your main goal. So what is a long term goal? Well, it's something that you really want to achieve and it's something that's really important to you. Okay? Sometimes we have to do what other people have set for us in order to reach or work towards our own goals. So we need to do certain lessons at school before we can get a job for example. We have to pass certain tests before we can move to the next year of school for example. Okay. I want you to write one longterm goal for yourself. You can ask an adult to help you, but try and make it something that you really want to achieve. So some examples could be: I want to get dressed by myself before and after PE, because you may not like having help from one of the teaching assistants. You want to be able to ride your bike to school so that you can go with your friends. And then you can leave a little bit later and not have to go with mom or dad or your carer when they are leaving really early to drop everyone else off before you. Your goal could be that you want to cook a meal for yourself, or you want to be able to make a snack for your little brother, or you want to have really good writings so that you could write a letter to granny or another relative. Your goals are yours. They are for you. And they may seem really easy or really difficult for someone else. I want you to pause the video now to write at least one big goal that you want to set for yourself. Resume once you're finished. we need to think about how long our goals are going to take us. So for example, if you're thinking you want to get dressed all by yourself before and after PE, you could say, actually, I think I can achieve that by the end of the spring term, so that I'm ready for sports practise. So that's about six months. Okay? Or if you're thinking, I want to be able to ride my bike to school, you can say, right, I want to be able to do that really well by the end of the summer term so that I can ride with my friends in the summer holidays. So what skills do you need for your goal? Okay, so now you're going to think, okay, if I want to be able to get dressed by myself before and after PE, I need to be able to stand on one leg when I'm taking my trousers off and not lose my balance, I need to be able to stay still and upright. So those are going back to unit one when we were talking about our gross motor skills and our core skills, okay? You need to be able to do buttons, zips and velcro. And again, that's going to go back to unit two where we discussed all about fine motor skills? You're thinking, okay, to be able to get dressed really quickly, I need to be able to tie and untie my laces. And I also need to be able to know when my clothes are the right way round or if they're inside out. So then you need to know your... That comes back to our visual perception, which was in unit three. And then we're going to talk about our sensory skills. So you need to have good touch skills so that you can feel your clothes really quickly. For the next activity. I want you to break down your longterm goal. So what skills do you need for your goal? Ask an adult to help you with this and see if they think it's achievable. Okay. There I've written some skills for you. So for example, gross motor skills might be things like: balance, kicking, catching, or your core strength. Your fine motor skills might be: writing, dexterity, bilateral skills, hand strength. Visual perceptual skills could be things such as: finding a hidden item, sorting and matching. And your sensory skills could be: good touch, correctly judging how much force you need to use, your balance and not being too scared of loud noises. And so those are just examples. And I want you to think about your goals and how they could maybe fit in. Pause the video now to think about your goals and what skills you may need to help you achieve your goals. Resume once you're finished. Okay. So let's have a look. What skills do you need for your goal? So an example, we said, if it was ride your bike to school. So you can see you need to gross motor skills, you need to be able to balance, you need to be able to steer and to aim, to pedal, you need to be able to put your helmet on and take it off, so do the little clips. You need to be able to read the road signs. You need to know when you can cross, you need to be able to scan the road and know when you can manoeuvre past say a tree. And so those skills are then going to become your medium term goals. Okay? So your medium term goals might be for example, to be able to change direction while you're riding and signal which way. And you might say, okay, I want to be able to do that by Christmas. Or you want to be able to clip and uncap your helmet all by yourself. Because if you think about it, when you're leaving in the morning, someone else can maybe put your helmet on for you. But when you get to school, you don't want to have to ask someone else to do it for you, right? So you want to learn how to be able to do that for yourself. And maybe another goal could be to know when it's safe to cross the road. Okay? I want you to ask him at all to help you with this activity, make two medium term goals that fit with your longterm goal that we did now, first activity, and then have a think. Do they think the time you've set is achievable? Do you think it's achievable? Pause the video now to write down two medium term goals. Resume once you're finished. So let's keep looking at what skills do you need for your goals? So your second goal that we wrote in my example was to be able to clip and unclip my helmet by myself. So in order to do that, we need to be able to push the ends together, clip to pull them apart. But we also need to be able to do this without looking, because if we have to loosen it each time we're going to be wasting time. So we need to feel exactly what is needed. And in order to do that, we need to have good muscle strength and our finger so that we can unclip them, and also to clip them back together. So these then become your short term goals. Okay. So I might say to be able to unclip and clip my helmet straps, and my first part of that goal is going to be while it's on the table or in my hands and I'm looking at the straps. And I think I'll be able to do that say three weeks. You might reach it in two weeks, but let's just say three weeks. Okay? Then your next goal is going to be able to pull the straps to tighten and adjust your helmet because a nice tight helmet is a safe helmet. And now this requires quite a little bit of skills. So let's say you want to do that by half term. And then you want to say, okay, I want to be able to clip and unclip my helmet straps while I'm looking at them under my chin. And you might set yourself a goal for six weeks again, which is half term. I want you now to make three short term goals that will fit into your medium term goals, which fits into your longterm goals. Ask an adult to help you with your goals. And again, ask them if they think that the time you've set for each is achievable. Pause the video to make three short term goals. Resume once you're finished. Remember, set goals that you really want to achieve and then break them down into smaller goals. Okay? Talk to an adult or your parent or carer about your goals and see how they can help you reach these goals. And also be realistic when you're allocating a timeframe for each goal. Okay? If you'd like to, please ask your parent or carer to share your work on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter, tagging @OakNational and #LearnwithOak. Bye.

Goal setting

Goal setting

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