Summative reflection:

Overall I thought the placement went well. And apparently so did my preceptors. Last week I was honored to receive an “exceptional pass”. I want to take a moment to reflect on what made this possible.

Firstly, of course it had to do with my preceptors. They allowed me opportunities to demonstrate my communication, professionalism and my ability to work with children. Without them giving me room to perform sessions with clients on my own, I would have never been able to show them what I was capable of. In addition, they also were excellent at providing feedback and guidance. We always debriefed appointments afterwards in the office or on the car ride home. This afforded me the opportunity to learn from what I had done and gain an experienced perspective on what I had done correctly and what I could improve on. They both were so encouraging and positive I felt like I was always being set up for success. 
I have worked for supervisors who were the opposite of Dan and Jackie, people who tear down what you do, are over critical and accusing and who micromanage. In these situations I was always felt like I had to watch my back and was worried about taking risks or thinking outside of the box in case I made a mistake. I felt like in those situations I was really limited in my capacity to grow and learn. Therefore, my performance was average.
I think the second thing that allowed me to have such great success was my past experience with children. Its hard for me to think of a summer job or a part time job that I have had that didn’t involve working with kids. Maybe my 4 co-op terms and when I worked painting houses. Other than that I have worked at summer camps, cycling camps, skating lessons and as a behavioural assistant etc. Experience working with children was a huge asset. According to my final review I am good at communicating with kids at all age levels, don’t get flustered when children don’t listen to me and am a good motivator.  I found it easy to communicate with these clients. Of course when you have past experience in something it allows you to draw on those experiences to apply them to what you are doing at that moment. So even though I had never worked one-on-one with a child to improve their hand strength before I was able to draw on my past experiences of making up fun games and getting children to be interested in what we are doing to make the experience enjoyable for the client while meeting the goals of the session.
The last thing that really helped my case doing the thing that I love doing every day. Its great waking up in the morning excited to go to work and excited about what you get to accomplish for the day. I feel like this excitement and interest in what you choose to do as a career brings another element to what it is that you are doing. Your clients can tell when you are excited to be there and they feed off that and follow your lead. I found it easy to get my clients interested and motivated when I was interested, motivated and excited.

I really enjoyed my time working in early intervention pediatric physio and could see myself doing this in the future after graduation. I hope to gain more knowledge and experience to become even better in this field. I also hope that my placements to follow live up to the high standard that this one set.