Lost in Translation

Formulating objectives in an integral part of every single thing we do, only most of the time it happens in our heads. Who knew that so many thought processes were involved in making them tailor-fit to each client. We made instructional designs that day given a specific set of clients, actually. The professors stood by to answer our questions and explain things further if ever we had trouble sorting out the ideas in our head. I appreciated this kind of set-up because it was definitely more hands on and the universe knows we needed a clinical perspective on this.

I learned that mapping things out like this is an under-appreciated prerequisite in implementing even the simplest of activities. Each step is a precursor to the next as evident in how your content can only be created when you finish your objectives, and yet your objectives can only be relevant if you figure out how to evaluate them. I’m actually grateful we’re asked to do things in the systematic way and in proper sequence because the essence of why we do certain things tends to get lost in translation in our heads; we end up doing things mechanically and mindlessly nowadays.

Diving headfirst into a treatment is one of the worst things we can do in internship; what if the activity we decide to facilitate doesn’t measure what we want to measure? What if our objectives are inappropriate for the client’s level of competency or functioning in the first place? What if we decide to “wing it” and leave out vital content like the rationale or feedback? There is so much that can be taken for granted so meticulously walking through this matrix (in spite of the numerous revisions) is something we’ll thank ourselves and our professors for in the future.