| Abstrakt: |
AbstractIn studying young children with autism and other developmental disabilities as occupational beings, determining what constitutes occupations is challenging, in part because existing definitions of occupation do not seem to fit the children. This paper explores what is an occupation for children with autism. By integrating literature and original research, this paper provides a working definition of occupation to fit the observed lives of five young children with autism. Occupation is defined as “a set of directed actions connected by physical movements, materials, space, or purpose within a time period, in a way that is meaningful to the individual executing them”. Words are not the only mode of defining occupation. Participants also were engaged in the process of defining, or framing those occupations in the moment that they were occurring. Framing is the process of identifying what is and is not the activity and what is relevant and irrelevant. An occupational frame has two components: the observable content (i.e., behaviors, materials used, etc.) and the subjective meaning or valuing of the occupation. Joint framing is an intersubjective process in which the occupation is defined between two people, such as an adult and child, in which one person can come to understand another's occupation. It is the in‐the‐moment defining, or framing of occupations that gives conceptual definitions of occupations their pragmatic relevance to daily life and clinical practice. |
