What might baking mean to me as a practicing occupational therapist?

I stole some ideas for this section from our groupwork text: Group dynamics in occupational therapy.  In Appendix D of this book, there are performance areas, components, and contexts.  I've made a diagram below with examples of what might apply when baking.

The performance components section has just some examples.  When I really started to think about it, there is so much involved!  Apart from the shop beforehand, just reading and memorising the recipe, maintaining your body in a neutral posture, having physical ability to stir and lift, being able to measure accurately, the list goes on...

Also, if you are in the kitchen, there is often a social aspect.  People gather around, often brought in by a (hopefully) delicious smell, and hover until they can try whatever you are making.

What does baking mean to me?

Mary asked us to write down words that express what our activity means to us, and here is what I came up with:

I also thought of the poem 'Sunlight (for my grandmother)' by William Bedford.

This poem helped me link baking into the wider set of activities we call labour, as well as my history.  Although the kitchen in the poem is not exactly like the kitchen of my grandmother, there are parts I recognize, the sunlight coming in through the trees, Grandma sitting at the table; doing everything there, the crossword, reading the paper, dealing with fruit that was to be cooked, talking and having a cup of tea.  These are universal rhythms, life and death, and eating.  The kitchen is a centre for other food gathering activities to occur around.

Bedford, W. (1980). Three poems by William Bedford. Ariel: A review of international English literature, 11(1), 47-48.

What is baking like for me?

Baking is usually relaxing, but can be stressful, especially if I have given myself a timeframe.  Recently I left too little time to bake a cake for my flatmate's birthday and was running around at the last minute trying to get it iced before he came home.

There is a bit of trial and error involved, like when you don't have a certain ingredient and try a replacement.  The sense of pride when it all works out is awesome!

I like giving my baking away:  to my friends, my flatmate, my boyfriend.  My mum and Nana used to always have baking in the tins, so I associate it with love to a certain degree.

The main things that make me happy about baking are

1. eating mixture.  Now that I'm an adult, I can lick the spoon, beaters, and the bowl, and eat raw mixture with abandon!
2. people eating the results and saying "Wow" or "This is so goooooood"
3. having full baking tins so when I need a pick-me-up I have a sweet treat available.

I'm back! Participation in Occupation TWO

Just when I thought I would never have to blog again...I'm back!

The posts from now until the end of the year will be for the Participation in Occupation II paper - run by Mary Butler.

For this course, we will explore participation in occupation by analysing the value of meaningful activity and develop and test a framework to demonstrate the value of activity.  We will do this by taking part in an activity for two hours a week and analysing according to instructions from Mary.

The activity I will be taking part in falls under Mary's classification of 'Food' and will be baking.  I chose this because I already bake for two hours a week and love to make sweet treats for me, my family and friends.

The End.

Well, that's the end of that.  I never ever wanted to write a blog that simply contains my thoughts on things, but I've learned a lot from doing this.


Thanks James for setting the questions.  The research aspect of it was useful because I found new websites and ideas I never normally would have gone trawling for.

It's a crazy world out there in cyberspace...thanks for the guidance.