CO-OP approach online training

About the CO-OP approach

The CO-OP approach is a top-down approach. It is focused on your child and young person. helps children and young people to develop skills, use strategies and solve problems. 

It can be used to help children and young people with:

• ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)
• Autism
• Brain injury
• Cerebral palsy
• Dyspraxia or DCD (Developmental Coordination Disorder)
• Dystonia
• Stroke

For more information, please watch the video below.

Cognitive Orientation to daily Occupational Performance - InfOT

Factors to consider

The factors that affect how a child will perform a task:

• Person - Your child may have some limitations that is affecting the ability to perform the task. This could be a physical, emotional or cognitive condition or disability.
• Environment - Their environment or surroundings may be affecting their ability to do the task. The room that they are working in may be too noisy or the lights may be too bright.  
• Task (also known as occupation) - The task may not too hard, inappropriate or unrealistic for your child. They may need some changes made to the task such as adaptive tools, a firmer cushion or a higher table to work at.

CO-OP approach stages

The CO-OP approach is completed in 4 stages.

1. Setting goals
2. Planning
3. Doing the activity or task
4. Checking

Make sure to only work on 1 goal at a time. 

Setting goals

This is the stage when your child or young person sets the goals they want to achieve. It's important that these goals are realistic and achievable for your child or young person. It can be frustrating and disheartening if a goal is beyond their capability. 

You may need to help your child or young person break down a big goal into smaller goals. Your child should be working towards 1 goal at a time. 

Example of a goal: I want to tie my shoelaces

Planning

This is when your child or young person figures out the steps to help achieve their goal. You can help your child or young person by encouraging them to look at the task in detail. Break the task down into stages. 

Encourage your child or young person to give you step-by-step instructions on how to complete the task. They can say the instructions out loud so you can write it down for them. Try to make sure to write it using the language your child uses. This will help them remember the instructions later.

Coach your child or young person through the steps. Ask them questions. Don't tell them what to do or give them the answer immediately. This will help them solve the problem by themselves. With younger children, you may need to help them by being more obvious with clues or suggestions. 

You may find your child or young person struggles with one specific stage. Help your child to recognise this. Encourage them to think about how they can change what they are doing to complete the task.

Doing the activity or task

Your child or young person should do the task using the instructions they gave in the planning stage. You can ask your child to read the instructions, or you can read the instructions out loud to them. 

The instructions should be written in their own words, which will make it easier for them to remember.

Checking

Encourage your child or young person to think about how they did in the task. You can ask them questions like:

They can rate how they feel about it using smiley faces or a scale of 1 to 10. 

• Did you follow the plan?
• Was it successful? 
• Were any of the steps confusing?
• Do you need to write more instructions?
• Did it all go according to plan?

When they practice the task, ask them to rate how they feel and ask the questions again. Hopefully they will give a higher rating. This will help them see that they've improved. 

Checking their work and self-evaluation is an important part of learning. It's a way for children and young people to see their improvement and success. It can help build confidence in the activity. 

Try to find ways to transfer skills to other areas. For example, if they are learning to tie shoelaces you can encourage them to help tie bows with ribbon when wrapping presents.