When?
There are a number of time-related factors to consider when planning your intervention, including:
The duration of your intervention
- Do you intend your intervention to be delivered within one session, as one activity within a multi-session programme, or is it a tool that will be repeated (in different ways) over a number of sessions?
- How long would each individual session take? Consider the need for time to warm up, introduce the session, and wind down, too.
- If you intend the intervention to be delivered over multiple sessions, would these be best delivered daily, weekly, monthly, etc? How many of these sessions should there be?
Time of day, year, etc
- Do you wish your intervention to be delivered, for example, during school/work hours; as an after-school activity; or even at night (consideration of some potentially valuable activities, such as star-gazing, being often neglected by practitioners)?
- Could your intervention be best delivered during holiday periods (e.g. in the context of a holiday club or ‘camp’)?
- Are there seasonal limitations on the intervention you have designed?
Age-appropriateness
A common concern for many practitioners (especially those working with people with a learning disability or a diagnosis such as dementia) is that an intervention is not truly client-centred, as it would not be regarded as age-appropriate for the mainstream population. A simple example would be using children’s reading book’s in an adult literacy class. It is therefore important to demonstrate that you have considered carefully how to ensure that your intervention is appropriate for all members of your target-group.