The blog

About a week ago, I had the plea­sure of giv­ing a talk on struc­ture and per­son­al pro­duc­tiv­i­ty for West Swedish Sports Con­fed­er­a­tion here in Gothen­burg. We were at Ulle­vi Con­fer­ence and the par­tic­i­pants came from the sports con­fed­er­a­tion and from the munic­i­pal­i­ties of the City of Göteborg.

In con­ver­sa­tions after my talk, it became clear to me that those who by pro­fes­sion is work­ing with recre­ation­al activ­i­ties have a par­tic­u­lar chal­lenge when it comes to sep­a­rat­ing work and leisure. For them, their work is work, while for those they work with, the peo­ple in the sports asso­ci­a­tions, it is recre­ation. So, espe­cial­ly for those who work with young peo­ple, there will be a lot of text mes­sages and mobile calls also in the evenings. Then, it’s a must to draw the line your­self between when you want to be avail­able and when you want to be off duty.

But, what in par­tic­u­lar stayed with me from this day was what Lars said, when we had lunch togeth­er afterwards.

He said:

“You know, David, I have some expe­ri­ence of work­ing with autis­tic chil­dren and chil­dren with spe­cial needs, and for them, struc­ture is love. For them to func­tion in every­day life, what we do togeth­er, need to have a very clear struc­ture. For them to feel safe, they need to know what excer­cis­es we will do, when we are doing what and what tools we will use. Clear and con­crete struc­ture is the finest thing we can give them.

That way, struc­ture is for them pure love.”

Is it pos­si­ble that clar­i­ty and clear con­di­tions are some­thing that makes us too, who do not have autism, feel safe and relaxed?

What do you think? Share your thoughts in a com­ment below.

Also, Rehab Recov­ery offers free advice and guid­ance for autis­tic peo­ple who suf­fer with an addic­tion to drugs or alcohol.