SPELBRING LECTURE

​Reconsidering Occupational Enablement!​

Keynote Abstract: It is now widely accepted that the core domain of occupational therapy is occupation, our core competency is enablement. Together these serve to fulfill our core mission, to enable our clients to participate in the occupations that they need to, want to, or are expected to do.  The perspectives we hold on how occupational participation, and, more particularly, its precursor occupational performance, are achieved determine the approach we take to enablement.  Based on the work I have done in intervention, the outcomes that have I have seen accrued for clients of varying ages and abilities, I posit that our understanding of the nature of occupational performance, and by extension, the nature of occupational enablement, needs to be reconsidered.  In this lecture I will present my current thinking on the nature of occupational performance, more particularly on the nature of occupational skill acquisition. I will contrast it with traditional perspectives our profession holds and discuss the implications it has for how we best enable our clients to perform the occupations that are important to them and bring meaning to their lives.