by Eleanor Cawley, M.S. OTR/L
Lately, I have been seeing a rash of IEPs in a number of school districts with the phrase, “the student lacks the motivation to….” Every time I see this phrase in an IEP it really blows my mind! As an occupational therapist, I know that there are many factors to becoming motivated to complete any task.  Business Dictionary.com described motivation and it just happened to include a statement about students and studying which really hit home.

What is motivation? Internal and external factors that300 stimulate desire and energy in people to be continually interested and committed to a job, role or subject, or to make an effort to attain a goal.Motivation results from the interaction of both conscious and unconscious factors such as the (1) intensity of desire or need, (2) incentive or reward value of the goal, and (3) expectations of the individual and of his or her peers. These factors are the reasons one has for behaving a certain way. An example is a student that spends extra time studying for a test because he or she wants a better grade in the class. 

When I read this statement, the first thing that I thought was “Why doesn’t the student want better grades?”  What turned the student off of studying or what was never turned on?  What comes to my mind is the “Just Right Challenge.”  I really like
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