The Seeds OT Model · Part 2 of five · 3:03
Problems are patterns
How the Seeds OT Model looks at recurring difficulties, feedback loops and the conditions that can keep a pattern in place.
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Video transcript
0:00Describe what happens
Part two asks us to look carefully at the words we use for a recurring difficulty. A label may be useful, but it does not tell us everything about what happens. The Seeds OT Model invites a more specific description: what does the child do, in which situation, at what time, and with what consequences? This does not remove the need for diagnosis or assessment. It gives us another level of detail for understanding daily life.
0:29A pattern has a context
A pattern has a recognisable shape, but it also has timing and context. It might be more likely during a particular transition, after a demanding day, or when an activity asks more than the child can manage with the support available. Looking for the occasions when it does not happen is just as useful. What is different then? That comparison can reveal a condition we would miss if we looked only at the most difficult moment.
0:57Effects can become conditions
The model also pays attention to feedback loops. What happens after a difficult experience may become part of what happens before the next one. For example, a difficult day, exhaustion and a harder evening may leave less opportunity for recovery before tomorrow. This is an illustration of the reasoning, not a conclusion about any particular child. A clinician still needs to find out whether that connection is actually present in the situation being assessed.
1:27Why the pattern stays familiar
Patterns can feel fixed because the conditions around them are repeated. Ways of coping, responses from other people and expectations can become part of the picture too. A strategy may help with one part while other demands remain. If its effect changes, the useful question is not simply whether the strategy worked or failed. It is what else changed, what remained difficult, and whether the original understanding still fits what the family is seeing.
1:57Observe change without promising it
A change in conditions may change the pattern, but improvement is not guaranteed or necessarily steady. The model encourages observation over time instead of treating every difficult day as proof that nothing is helping. Ask what is becoming easier, what still costs too much, and whether something unexpected has appeared. The child and family’s account matters here. A quieter outward response alone does not tell us whether an activity has become more comfortable or meaningful.
2:29From a pattern to a question
For reflection, take one recurring difficulty and describe it without making it the child’s identity. Note the circumstances before, during and after it, and an occasion when things went differently. You are not trying to list every possible cause or prove a preferred theory. You are building a working explanation that can be questioned. Part three takes the next step: among the conditions that seem relevant, which are both influential and realistically within reach?