Your Therapy Source Magazine for Pediatric Therapists May 2015 | Page 15

Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation is completing a skill or activity based on
personal interest and enjoyment not for external rewards.
Many times young children need external motivation to
complete activities during therapy sessions. Therapists may
use different reward systems such as Punch Cards and
Reward Cards for Therapy to encourage children to
participate in therapy sessions. Intrinsic motivation can be
harder to facilitate in children. Here are a few tips to increase
intrinsic motivation in children:
1. Independent thinking: Allow the student to work on a
certain skill and report back to you how they have improved
that skill. They can improve or change it anyway that they
think will help.
2. Provide choices: Children can be more intrinsically
motivated if they have a say in how they are accomplishing
a goal. Try not to make any activity a requirement.
3. Teach self direction: Everyone feels a larger sense of accomplishment when you are able to
do something all by yourself.
4. Power of positive thinking: Having an “I can” attitude can help tremendously and build up a
student’s confidence. Check out Positive Affirmations Posters and Cards for ideas at
http://yourtherapysource.com/positiveaffirmation.html
5. Cooperative learning: Students may feel more motivated when they can work with other
students to help or teach them a skill
6. Ask questions: Encourage students to think for themselves rather than provide answers for
them. For example – what suggestions do you have to increase your handwriting speed?
7. Keep it fun with some competition: Most kids like to win and feel a sense of pride when they
do . Therapeutic activities can be intertwined with games.
8. Shoot for your personal best: Don’t compare your abilities to others but rather that you
improve each time. Teach the student to track his/her own goals to visually represent
improvements over time. Check out My Goal Tracker at
http://yourtherapysource.com/goaltracker.html for student generated data collection.
9. Plan together: Ask the student how they would like to reach a goal? Explain what options
are available (ie different types of strengthening or aerobic exercises) and plan together what
may work best.
10. Educate the student: When you are working on a certain activity, explain to the student
why you are doing that specific activity and how it will help him/her in their everyday life.

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