AFFORDANCE!!!!!

What is it? 

Mary Law defines affordance as the "characteristics of the environment that are uniquely identified by the person based on their cognitive style, experiences and abilities" (Law, 1998,p.111).

Toby Hamilton explains that affordance is the interaction between an object and a person and the experiences they have within this interact (Hamilton, 2010).  

In both of these definitions the core of affordance is the persons experience of something or with something. From this my understanding is that no one persons understanding or feeling of affordance is the same and that everyone’s experiences of affordance is different. In class we discussed what affordance means to us and from this came ethics, connection, communication, aesthetics, spiritual and of course physical. I will choose one of these and use my chosen activity of soccer to help explain what affordance is.

Connections

Thursday nights mean its training night, I grab my boots bag, hop in the car and head to our training pitch. On the way my boots stink out the car because no matter how much you clean them and scrub them there's still that well worn smell of a hard fought 90min game of soccer from the Sunday just been. Once at the park I pull my gear out of the bag and start putting it on. First is the shin pads with the strategically places ankle guards, I always wear these because I’m reminded of a time when watching you tube clips of people playing soccer. The players I was watching weren’t wearing any shin pads and one guy got tackled quite hard and you could see his shin bone break and stick out in an unnatural position under the skin. Next are my socks and then my boots. Boots are so expensive especially if you want them to last more than one season, and then getting the right boot for your foot is a mission in its self because all the boots are in men’s sizes (hello women play the game as well). Though this year while I was boot shopping I saw there were three pairs of women’s boots and I saw able to find some in my size. I didn’t get them though because they were ugly and had small blades/sprigs.   

Reference list:

Hamilton, T. (2010). Occupations and places. In C. Christiansen & E. Townsend (Eds.), Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Law, M. (Ed.). (1998). Client centered occupational therapy. Thorofare, NJ: SLACK incorporated.

ERGONOMICS

What is Ergonomics?? 

According to Toby Hamilton (2010) ergonomics is a means of "determining how the psychological, physical and social characteristics of people and environments influence task performance". Let’s relate this to soccer. For one to play soccer they would have to have an interest in the game an ‘I want to learn to play’ or an ‘I need to play’ attitude (psychological). They would need to be able to move around on the field, kick and throw a ball (physical). They would also need to be able to interact with others in the team and on the field. The environment has a big impact on the game too because it’s normally played in all weather. Therefore when it’s nice and sunny with a cool breeze these are perfect conditions for the game, it gets everyone in the right spirit and the right mind frame. But if it’s cold, raining and blowing a gale the mood or energy for wanting to play can become snuffed out. These all impact on the person’s performance when they are playing the game because the person who is playing on the nice day is going to enjoy the game more than the person on the bad day. This will illicit motivation and drive from the player. 

In an article by Michelle Elliot she writes how play and games is "something that allows us to explore and share our common roots and sensibilities, where ever we live and whatever culture we are from (2008, p.1)". This links well into social characteristics of ergonomics.

References:

Hamilton, T. (2010). Occupations and places. In C. Christiansen & E. Townsend (Eds.), Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Elliot, M. (2008, June 19). The games that bring us together. Time. Retrieved from http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1815747_1815707_1815705,00.html 

PARTICIPATION IN OCCUPATION 2

This is a new paper for semester two but what is it all about? What will we learn???

In short we will be looking at the value of meaningful engagement in occupation through mindfulness, frameworks and philosophies. This will be done through an occupation of our choice, which we will be regularly posting about over the next six weeks. The occupation of my choice is women’s Soccer.

What is soccer and why do I love playing it?

For those of you who are unsure or only have I general idea about this sport I will give you a little overview of the game now. Soccer is a sport played on a large patch of grass with two goals (one at each end of the field). The goals make the outline shape of a bus shelter and have a net that hangs down the back of the goal. The aim of the game is to get the ball through your opponent’s goal and into the net as many times as you can without your opponent scoring in your goal (something our present team has trouble with at the moment). There are 11 players on each team including your goalie, a referee and two linesmen (if you’re lucky). The game is played for 90 minutes, two 45 min halves, you’re only allowed to use your feet, legs, and chest or head to control the ball and you cannot take the persons feet out when going for the ball. I love this game because it is very much a team sport and gets many different people with a similar interest working together. It keeps me fit over the winter months, I get to improve my repertoire of skills every time I play and I get to play with many of my friends.

Can you see any themes relating to OT in there? I can!!

Social interaction, self efficacy, motivation, personal improvement, group/team work, structure, boundaries, physical/mental and emotional well being…. the list goes on!

Until next time this is Megan signing out!!