Top 12 Therapeutic Recreation Specialist Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the dynamic field of therapeutic recreation, showcasing the right blend of skills on your resume can meaningfully lift your chances of landing the role you want. Below, you’ll find the top skills every therapeutic recreation specialist should consider, reflecting the mix of interpersonal, creative, and technical strengths employers prize in this work.
Therapeutic Recreation Specialist Skills
- Patient Assessment
- Program Planning
- Adaptive Technologies
- Group Facilitation
- Therapeutic Modalities
- CPR/AED Certification
- SMART Goals
- Microsoft Office
- Behavioral Management
- Leisure Education
- Documentation Proficiency
- Outcome Evaluation
1. Patient Assessment
Patient assessment, in the context of a Therapeutic Recreation Specialist, is a structured process to learn a person’s needs, strengths, interests, risks, and goals so interventions can be tailored to improve physical, emotional, cognitive, and social well-being.
Why It's Important
Assessment drives everything. It makes programs person-centered, aligns goals with real abilities and preferences, and supports safer, more effective care that actually moves the needle on outcomes.
How to Improve Patient Assessment Skills
Elevate assessment by sharpening observation, communication, and documentation—then folding it all into a living plan.
Enhance observation: Watch patterns, not just moments. Track verbal and nonverbal cues across settings to capture a fuller picture.
Strengthen communication: Use plain language, reflective listening, and open-ended questions. Invite the person and their supports into the process.
Use validated tools: Select standardized measures appropriate to age, diagnosis, and setting. Combine scales with functional observations.
Collaborate across disciplines: Coordinate with OT, PT, SLP, nursing, behavioral health, and family to close gaps and triangulate information.
Document clearly: Record baselines, goals, progress, barriers, and responses to treatment. Be timely, accurate, and compliant with policy and privacy rules.
Pursue ongoing learning: Refresh knowledge through coursework, case reviews, and supervision. New evidence, better care.
How to Display Patient Assessment Skills on Your Resume
2. Program Planning
Program planning means designing, organizing, and delivering therapeutic recreation services that map to assessed needs and measurable goals while remaining inclusive, engaging, and safe.
Why It's Important
Good plans prevent guesswork. They focus effort, clarify outcomes, support adaptation, and make results easier to evaluate and improve.
How to Improve Program Planning Skills
Start with needs: Use assessment data and participant voice to set direction. No assumptions, no filler.
Set SMART objectives: Specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time-bound. Tie them to function and participation.
Design inclusive activities: Modify rules, equipment, and pacing. Offer choice. Build in progression and rest.
Map resources: Inventory space, equipment, staff, volunteers, and community partners. Plan around real constraints.
Pilot and monitor: Start small, watch closely, tweak fast. Document changes and why they were made.
Evaluate and iterate: Compare outcomes to objectives. Capture feedback, then refine the next cycle.
How to Display Program Planning Skills on Your Resume
3. Adaptive Technologies
Adaptive technologies are tools and devices that alter activity demands so people of varied abilities can participate meaningfully and safely.
Why It's Important
Access changes everything. The right device can unlock independence, reduce frustration, and expand social participation.
How to Improve Adaptive Technologies Skills
Run targeted needs assessments: Match devices to function, goals, contexts, and user preferences. Fit matters more than flash.
Stay current: Track advances in low- and high-tech solutions—from grips and switches to apps and wearables.
Co-design: Partner with end users, caregivers, and rehab engineers to test, adjust, and personalize setups.
Train and support: Teach use, maintenance, and troubleshooting. Provide simple guides and refreshers.
Champion universal design: Reduce the need for one-off fixes by choosing environments and activities designed for broad access.
How to Display Adaptive Technologies Skills on Your Resume
4. Group Facilitation
Group facilitation means guiding activities and conversation so participants feel safe, seen, and engaged—while steering toward therapeutic goals.
Why It's Important
Groups magnify change. Skillful facilitation sparks connection, builds social skills, and keeps sessions productive without losing warmth.
How to Improve Group Facilitation Skills
Listen deeply: Reflect feelings and content. Catch what’s said—and what’s not.
Communicate clearly: Short instructions. Consistent cues. Adjust pace and tone to the group’s energy.
Set structure: Name goals, outline flow, define roles, and set norms. Predictability lowers anxiety.
Manage conflict: De-escalate early, validate perspectives, redirect to shared goals, and mediate with care.
Adapt in real time: Modify tasks, break into pairs, add visuals, or shift to a calming activity when needed.
Foster empathy: Model respect and curiosity. Invite peer support and positive feedback.
Use feedback loops: Quick check-ins, pulse surveys, debriefs. Then tune the next session.
Keep learning: Practice, observe peers, and seek supervision to sharpen your style.
How to Display Group Facilitation Skills on Your Resume
5. Therapeutic Modalities
Therapeutic modalities include methods such as art, music, movement, nature-based activity, games, and mindfulness—selected and adapted to meet assessed goals.
Why It's Important
Diverse modalities offer different doors into progress. They target physical capacity, mood, cognition, and connection, often all at once.
How to Improve Therapeutic Modalities Skills
Keep up with evidence: Pursue continuing education and scan new research. Retire what doesn’t work; scale what does.
Blend tech wisely: Use apps, wearables, video prompts, or VR thoughtfully to boost engagement and track progress.
Work as a team: Align with clinicians across disciplines to build integrated treatment plans.
Stay client-centered: Co-create activity choices with the person. Interests drive motivation; motivation drives change.
Measure outcomes: Pair each modality with clear indicators. Function first, then satisfaction and participation.
Protect your energy: Use supervision, boundaries, and self-care. Better you, better sessions.
How to Display Therapeutic Modalities Skills on Your Resume
6. CPR/AED Certification
CPR/AED certification verifies training to recognize and respond to cardiac and breathing emergencies, including the use of an automated external defibrillator.
Why It's Important
Emergencies don’t announce themselves. This training safeguards participants and supports risk management during activities.
How to Improve CPR/AED Certification Skills
Refresh regularly: Renew with accredited providers such as the American Heart Association or American Red Cross to stay aligned with current guidelines.
Practice hands-on: Use manikins and scenario drills. Reps build confidence under stress.
Simulate scenarios: Run unannounced drills, vary environments, and include team roles and communication.
Peer review: Train with colleagues, trade feedback, and correct technique in real time.
Prepare mentally: Rehearse checklists, breathing, and self-talk to manage adrenaline when it counts.
Adapt for your setting: Plan for the populations you serve, the spaces you use, and your available equipment.
How to Display CPR/AED Certification Skills on Your Resume
7. SMART Goals
SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound targets that guide intervention and make progress visible.
Why It's Important
Vague hopes don’t track. SMART goals focus effort, clarify success, and make evaluation straightforward.
How to Improve SMART Goals Skills
Specific: Name the activity, the skill, and the context. “Participate in 20-minute small-group art session with one verbal contribution.”
Measurable: Choose countable indicators—duration, frequency, prompts, assistance levels, or standardized scores.
Achievable: Fit goals to current ability with a stretch. Calibrate supports and grading.
Relevant: Tie directly to assessed needs and personal interests. Motivation matters.
Time-bound: Set a timeline and review point. Then adjust based on data, not guesswork.
How to Display SMART Goals Skills on Your Resume
8. Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office—a suite including Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Teams, and more—supports documentation, planning, reporting, and communication.
Why It's Important
Efficient tools reduce friction. Better records, clearer plans, and clean data mean better care.
How to Improve Microsoft Office Skills
Forms for feedback: Build intake and satisfaction surveys to capture needs and outcomes quickly.
Excel for tracking: Use tables, formulas, and pivot tables to monitor attendance, goals, and progress.
PowerPoint for engagement: Create visual, interactive session guides with images, timers, and embedded media.
OneNote for collaboration: Centralize plans, session outlines, and resource libraries that the team can update.
Teams for virtual care: Run remote groups, share files securely, and keep communication organized.
Access or lists for databases: Build simple, consistent client data systems with defined fields and views.
How to Display Microsoft Office Skills on Your Resume
9. Behavioral Management
Behavioral management uses structured activities, environmental supports, and positive strategies to reduce challenging behaviors and build desirable ones.
Why It's Important
Behavior shapes participation. Effective strategies protect dignity, keep groups safe, and open doors to learning and connection.
How to Improve Behavioral Management Skills
Assess first: Identify triggers, functions of behavior, skills gaps, and strengths. Then plan accordingly.
Set clear expectations: State rules, routines, and transitions. Visual supports help.
Reinforce the positive: Catch and reward desired behavior immediately—specific praise, access to preferred activities, or tokens.
Model and teach: Demonstrate coping, communication, and social skills. Practice with prompts and fade support.
De-escalate calmly: Use nonthreatening stance, low voice, space, and choices. Safety first.
Review and revise: Track data, reflect with the team, and update the plan as patterns change.
How to Display Behavioral Management Skills on Your Resume
10. Leisure Education
Leisure education teaches the knowledge, skills, and attitudes needed to discover, choose, and enjoy meaningful leisure across settings and stages of life.
Why It's Important
Leisure isn’t fluff. It’s a health behavior—connected to mood, function, resilience, and community participation.
How to Improve Leisure Education Skills
Personalize: Assess interests, barriers, and supports. Build from what delights the person.
Teach skills: Practice the nuts and bolts—planning, budgeting, transportation, social skills, and self-advocacy.
Increase access: Adapt equipment, scout locations, arrange transportation, and simplify logistics.
Offer workshops: Cover benefits of leisure, stress management, and strategies to overcome barriers.
Connect to community: Link participants with local classes, clubs, volunteer roles, and peer groups.
Evaluate: Gather feedback and track participation. Keep what’s working, drop what’s not.
Keep developing: Update your toolkit with new activities, inclusive practices, and facilitation techniques.
How to Display Leisure Education Skills on Your Resume
11. Documentation Proficiency
Documentation proficiency is the ability to record assessments, plans, progress notes, and outcomes accurately, efficiently, and in compliance with policy and law.
Why It's Important
Clear records tell the story of care. They support continuity, accountability, reimbursement, and quality improvement.
How to Improve Documentation Proficiency Skills
Master the standards: Learn required formats, time frames, and legal/ethical rules for your setting.
Be consistent: Use templates and structured fields to capture the right details every time.
Write plainly: Objective, concise, behaviorally specific. Avoid jargon and ambiguity.
Leverage technology: Use EHR features—smart phrases, checklists, and outcomes dashboards—to speed accuracy.
Peer review: Swap notes with colleagues to tighten clarity and completeness.
Reflect and refine: Audit your own charts. Look for missing links between assessment, goals, intervention, and outcome—and close them.
How to Display Documentation Proficiency Skills on Your Resume
12. Outcome Evaluation
Outcome evaluation measures how well interventions achieve their goals and how they affect participants’ function, well-being, and quality of life.
Why It's Important
Measurement guides improvement. It shows what’s effective, for whom, and under what conditions—so programs get better over time.
How to Improve Outcome Evaluation Skills
Define success upfront: Write SMART objectives and choose indicators before starting.
Use validated tools: Select measures appropriate to population and setting, then pair with observational data.
Blend methods: Combine quantitative metrics with qualitative stories and interviews for a full picture.
Engage stakeholders: Include participants, families, and the care team in what to measure and how to interpret results.
Monitor continuously: Track progress midstream and adjust the plan rather than waiting until the end.
Leverage tech: Use simple data systems or dashboards to collect, visualize, and report outcomes efficiently.
Close the loop: Share findings, implement changes, and re-measure. Improvement is iterative.
How to Display Outcome Evaluation Skills on Your Resume
