愛荷華大學

Learning Outcomes

The B.S. degree in therapeutic recreation:

prepares students to pass professional credentialing examinations;
exposes students to service and experiential learning with opportunities to apply skills learned in the classroom;
integrates and exposes students to research in all courses to make them intelligent consumers of research, critical readers of research, and enables them to apply research to professional practice;
enhances their ability to build therapeutic relationships with patients and clients;
teaches critical skills necessary in practice to assess, plan goals, appropriate interventions, and evaluate effectiveness;
teaches students how to include persons with disabilities in usual and customary life activities to the greatest extent possible; and
how to facilitate therapeutic recreation programs.

The Bachelor of Science with a major in therapeutic recreation requires a minimum of 120 s.h., including 69-70 s.h. of work for the major. Students must maintain a g.p.a. of at least 2.00 in all courses for the major and in all UI courses for the major.

The therapeutic recreation program prepares students for professional work with persons who have disabilities, impairments, and illnesses. The major's track emphasizes the use of a systematic process of assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation to provide recreation, leisure, and play activities to various special populations.

Therapeutic recreation is a health-oriented field that involves providing recreation programs designed to improve or maintain the physical, emotional, mental, and social functioning of patients and consumers. Therapeutic practice involves a continuum of services that use recreational activities to improve functional abilities; leisure education to help individuals acquire skills, knowledge, and attitudes that facilitate an independent lifestyle; and other activities to enhance health, growth, development, and independence through intrinsically rewarding leisure activities. Additionally, inclusive recreation provides opportunities for people with all abilities and disabilities to participate together in meaningful and purposeful therapeutic recreation programs based on choice and common interests.

Therapeutic recreation graduates find jobs in a variety of settings. Therapeutic recreation professionals are employed in settings such as skilled nursing facilities, community recreation centers, state and community mental health institutions, general medical hospitals, physical rehabilitation centers, special recreation districts, the Special Olympics, correctional facilities, senior centers, facilities for persons with intellectual disabilities or mental illness, substance abuse programs, and camp programs as inclusion specialists. The majority of children’s hospitals and pediatric units in other health care facilities employ child life specialists to address cognitive, social, and psychological issues associated with child illness and hospitalization. Child life specialists also work in rehabilitation centers, private practice and consulting, school systems, special-purpose camps, and hospice.