Participant Interview

On October 4th, 2009, I interviewed an eleven year old student named Steven. I was introduced to Steven while working at a church camp this past summer. Steven is an energetic fun loving child who has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy; however, he enjoys being active with friends and family. I was able to interact with Steven and his father on this occasion to discuss the leisure in which Steven participates on a regular basis.
Steven was very excited to see me again after camp and was very energetic throughout my time there. He wanted to talk and have fun with me and after playing a game of Yahtzee we began to go through the assessment process together with the help of his father. Steven and his father wanted to see if there were any other forms of leisure in which they could participate in together or even allow Steven to do on his own. Also, they wanted to assess Steven’s physical abilities.
Assessment. After the interview, I came to the conclusion that Steven is a very interpersonal individual that loves to hang out with friends and participate in activities. However, he is unable to often be involved in all of the activities because of becoming very tired and having limited mobility because of his medical condition. Steven wants to be heavily involved in activities with his friends and like any eleven year old he wants to play any chance that he can. Since Steven is homeschooled by his parents in order to achieve a quality education, he is limited to playing with friends at church, cub scouts, or after school. Steven’s father does a great job of allowing friends to come over when possible, but often times because of the long day it is difficult for Steven to have quality play time with others. Quality time with family is very abundant for Steven; however, there is continued need for allowing others to be around him as well.
According to the Leisure Interests Survey, Steven enjoys outdoor activities and socializing with others. I have personally seen Steven interact with others in an outdoor setting and it is surely an environment where he finds joy and thrives. Steven has very little interest in pursuing hobbies and having a general concern for his health, but like most children they are uninterested in such health factors because their parents will take care of their needs. Steven has very limited regular leisure activities, but when he gets an opportunity to participate in them he immediately seeks them out. I believe that there is growth for Steven to become involved in various hobbies and low energy leisure activities because he has some expressed interest in them, but he really does not know about all of the opportunities that are available to him.

Priorities: The biggest priority for Steven is to increase the amount of knowledge that he and his father have of leisure opportunities and activities so that Steven can still participate efficiently and still experience great joy while participating.