Why is it important for children with spinal cord injuries to set their own rehabilitation goals?

It's important for anyone to set goals in rehabilitation to be an active participant. For children, they're often told what to do, and how to do it, and not allowed to be an active participant. And they're going to feel more like they're in control of their life, or that they have some say-so in their life, if they're encouraged to set their own goals, and work with their own goals. A small child may want to dress himself, or brush his own teeth. A small child may want to get up and down a curb in their wheelchair, so that mommy doesn't have to push them into the classroom in the morning. They may want to learn how to transfer down to the floor, so that they can play with their siblings on the floor, successfully. An older child may not care if they dress themselves, and may need more encouragement. It's interesting that you would think the small child would need more, but an older child may need just a little more push to do it themselves. But, they may want to go to the movies with their friends, and so they may need to learn how to cath themselves, so that they can go to the movies, and then go out to dinner. So, those are some of the goals that are set.

We like to have our children who sustain spinal cord injuries help set their own goals during the rehabilitation process. It's important for parents and for therapists in our spinal cord injury team to talk about goals and make sure we're all heading in the right direction. But it's crucial that the child is involved in the goal setting process. If they're not involved in that process, they won't be as vested in working hard towards those rehabilitation goals. An example: if a 12 year old girl comes to us and says she wants to do an overnight at a friend's house, and she is interested in being able to independently do her cathing, she's going to be much more vested in that goal in order to stay overnight at her friend's house, than if the nurses or the occupational therapists said, "Well, now you're 12, and we want you to catheterizes yourself independently." So, having a child look at what's going on for them at school, in their environment and at home, and come up with goals that are specific to what they want to do, helps keep them motivated in rehabilitation.