Occupational Goal Setting with Children and Families

One of the most important steps in the occupation‐centred occupational therapy process is goal setting. This chapter describes the challenges of involving children and families in goal setting. It discusses the critical connection between goal setting and motivation. The chapter outlines how to embed occupation‐based goal setting into a family‐centred practice framework. It presents case studies that demonstrate goal setting with different children and families using some of these tools and describe the link to outcome measurement. The Perceived Efficacy and Goal Setting System (PEGS), 2nd edition is a tool designed for children between the ages of 5 and 9 years that enables them to report their perceived competence in performing everyday activities including self‐care tasks, school tasks and leisure activities. The PEGS also includes caregiver and educator questionnaires which contain the same paired items as written statements.