Archive for the ‘therapy’ Category
This is a post for my therapy activities blog, and I added it to my home blog. I am linking to Between Naps On the Porch for Tablescape Thursday.
A tea party is fun for both young and old. It is even more fun when you use a nice china tea set and fancy linens. More motivation is real food and real drink. Preparation and clean-up is of course a big part of the activity.
You can work on cutting food, pouring, opening containers and packages, using an involved side to pour, setting the table, washing dishes.
Invite a friend or other client to stimulate the social interaction as well.
Materials:
- Tea set (cups, saucers, tea pot, plates, utensils depending on food used)
- Linens (if you want)
- Food – cookies, muffins, etc
- Drink – water, tea, juice, milk
- Range of motion (reaching for items and setting the table)
- ADLs – home skills
- Upper extremity strength – pouring the tea
- Upper extremity coordination
- Feeding skills – cutting with a knife and using utensils
- Planning – if they plan the food etc.
The tea set in the above pictures was from Costco 10 plus years ago. I searched tea sets on Amazon, and here is a stinkin cute one.
I am getting my new venture under way. I almost have the website set up, need to get an email template set up. I have been carrying around a note book where ever I go so that I can write down activities when they pop into my head. I’m working on getting them written up when ever I have a few free minutes during the day. My website is http://www.therapyfunzone.com/.
I have set up a blog for therapy activities. I will attempt to update it frequently as it has potential to be useful, as opposed to this blog which is not so useful. My therapy blog is http://www.therapyfunzone.com/ . I haven’t added anything yet, but will next week. Right now I have to get ready to go to Disneyland.
First off, my husband is back and it is wonderful to have him home. I have been working full time, so I have been too busy to blog or decorate, or do much of anything.
On to a new thought. I am a pediatric Occupational Therapist, and at my old part time job, I worked a lot with kids who had feeding problems. My new job, I am working for a school district, and I miss the type of therapy that I used to do. I felt like I was really making a difference in their lives. I don’t have that feeling now. I am thinking of a whole new concept in therapy. I am tossing around remote consultations for feeding problems. When I do a feeding evaluation on a child, I can see a lot of what is going on with them just by watching their mouth move and their reactions to food. These are with kids that do not have neurological problems, they are just refusing to eat or gagging on food. I am wondering if I might be able to help some kids by watching a video of their eating and talking with their parents about it and then giving them some home activities to try. At this point, it is just a thought, and I am not sure that I have the time right now, but I am definitely thinking about it. There are some kids that I would have to work with and treat in person to make a change, but there are others that might benefit from just some suggestions. Hmmm.
I am a pediatric Occupational Therapist, and I treat kids in their homes. This means that many times I bring my own toys to work with. It is such a pain to have to disinfect the toys after each use. Sometimes I will try to only use one toy with one kid so I don’t have to clean them as often. Just a couple of weeks ago, I suddenly had a lightbulb go on. I now put my plastic toys (most of them are plastic because it is easier to clean) in a lingerie bag, and put them on the top rack of the dishwasher. It works like a charm. I just dump them all in one big bag, run the load of toys, lay them out on a towel to dry, and then sort them into the right container. So much easier than washing them all by hand and bleaching them. especially when you have the million piece marble ramp. I could post a picture, but it would just be of my dishwasher because it is washing toys as I type.
The little therapy chair that I made here worked great with the little guy that I made it for. I am thrilled, his mom is thrilled, his nurse is thrilled, and his PT is thrilled. I love the satisfaction I get from my job. Next week I am going to make him some splints, one for drawing, two for upper extremity weight bearing, and two to stretch his forearms into supination.
I have been working quite a bit so haven’t been doing many house projects, but this weekend I did a work project. I’m a pediatric Occupational Therapist, and wanted a chair for one of my little guys to be able to sit in. I wanted it to keep him in “indian style” sitting on the floor, and support his trunk and give him a tray to put toys on. I also wanted it comfortable, and adjustable to grow with him a bit. I wound up making it out of foam floor tiles that fit together like a puzzle. I cut them up, glued them together into blocks, and put velcro on them. Here is the finished product, adjusted to fit a stuffed bear.
I think that it turned out pretty well. We will see how it works for him later this week when I see him for therapy. If it works, I will make more for other therapy kids.
I have discovered this great new material that is easy to use to make some positioning chairs out of. It is called coroplast, and it is a corrugated plastic that looks like cardboard, but is plastic. It is what cheap advertising signs are made out of. I got the idea to use it because people use it to make the bottom of guinea pig cages out of, and I got some for that. I realized how sturdy it can be, easy to cut, easy to glue or tape together, and easy to clean. I have a little guy that I treat for Occupational Therapy, and he has trouble sitting upright, so I made him a little high chair insert for his high chair.
First I cut it to size, and hot glued three pieces together to make it sturdier.
Then I cut holes in the right places for straps. 
Then I hot glued velcro onto it so that I could velcro pieces of pool noodle on it to use as lateral supports and as head supports. I don’t have pictures of this process. I made the straps adjustable in the back using velcro as well. 
I don’t have a very good picture of the final product. I’ll try to get a better one as I am not quite done yet anyway.
