Opening trails and consolidating paths: reflections about my professional trajectory

The present essay aims to describe passages from my professional history and trajectory, based on theMemorial presented for the full professor application process, at the Department of Occupational Therapy fromthe Federal University of Minas Gerais, in 2010. Since the beginning of my academic training, the desire to studyand contribute with the body of knowledge in rehabilitation and child development marked my trajectory. Thechange in rehabilitation paradigm played essential role to structuring such research. To help ground my workconceptually, the search for studying and researching abroad contributed to the interest in bringing assessmenttools that could inform about child development and, thus, support actions and interventions, as well as scientificinvestigation and production. Such interest unchained a process of translating and adapting functional tests targetedat children; it contributed to the development of studies and a line of research about functioning of children withdifferent health conditions and disability. The interdisciplinary work, along with the binomial teaching-research,marked and continue to impact my paths, knowing that I still have much further to go and the trails that are thereto come, I go breaking away, innovating and (re)constructing; I do not wish to stop.