Flexibility

Paediatrics placement.
I had in mind that I was going to see a child with high needs (i.e. required assistance for all self-care tasks, wheelchair dependent, and with intellectual disability). This was my second treatment session with the child, so I had a rough idea of the kinds of things/ activities he liked and disliked. With a specific treatment plan written out prior to that session, I intended to carry it out accordingly.
Little did I expect, the child had a new toy that he did not (for the world) want to let go. When my supervisor and I took him to another room without his toy, just for the session, he became highly unco-operative. One of the activities was to get him into 2pt high-kneeling position, but he kept resisting every movement and insisted to head out the door. He attempted many times to crawl out the door (I was not sure if he could or if he was safe to do so at that moment), I had to use all my strength to restrain him.
I became frustrated at his unwillingness to co-operate, and was slightly disappointed that my plan could not be carried out smoothly.
Then, he tried to stand up to walk towards the door. I reasoned that since he was not co-operative, and walking was a functional activity, I might as well get the most out of the session with that few steps of walking. So I gave him assistance and we walked out the door towards his new toy. After that, to my surprise, I managed to get the child to happily walk for at least another 10m along the corridor successfully.
From this experience, I learned that, especially with this group of clients, situations often do not work out as planned. In order to get optimal co-operation, it is important to be flexible, and modify my treatment activities to suit the child.