Teaching Problem Solving to Promote Self-Determined Leisure Engagement

The purpose of this paper is to present a review of the literature that results in a description of a particular problem-solving strategy that uses multiple examples to teach people with disabilities to make choices associated with their leisure involvement and solve related problems. To achieve this purpose the paper begins with a description of the importance of empowering people who receive therapeutic recreation services to be self-determined and continues with the current challenges of practitioners to help them develop a sense of competence, relatedness, and autonomy. A rationale is provided to start early in people's lives to teach them to make leisure choices and solve problems that might arise when participating in these chosen activities. In addition, there is a need to develop interventions that empower participants, include families, and are likely to be implemented by practitioners. A particular approach to solve problems associated with leisure choices is based on using multiple examples of problem situations as one way to promote self-determined behavior. The approach was selected because of preliminary support for this technique to help individuals generalize problem solving to various situations, thus encouraging self-determination. The paper concludes with a call for therapeutic recreation service delivery and research on the effects of such an intervention.