Activities, Activities, Activities!

Today in Innovative TR we had one more group facilitating their short activity. There's was called "Model, Clay, Artist" and was an activity that needed people to be in groups of three. One person chose to be the artist and blindfolded themselves while the model moved their body into a certain shape for the artist. Then, the artist felt the position of their arms and legs and then molded the third person, the "clay" into that same position, trying to accurately replicate the model's while still staying blindfolded! It was a fun activity for sure, but we discussed as a class how to make it less touching oriented and more imitation oriented for certain client groups with disabilities that may feel uncomfortable with touching other people's bodies. We decided the activity should be focused more on working on learning how to make body positions and creativity instead of randomly feeling the other people and trying to imitate them.

             The rest of the evening we focused on discussing and creating specific goals for games/activities in a therapeutic setting. We first talked about specific goals for the simple childhood game of Red Light, Green Light. 
          A few of the goals we determined as a class were: to follow directions, have leadership roles, engage in competition and healthy physical activities and to include everyone! We also talked about the possible limitations for the game: physical needs, processing time, and auditory skills. However, we decided that the game could be easily modified to include everyone by making small changes such as having more adults help direct the kids and allowing more time to process the commands.

We also talked about the train game, where all of the kids are involved in a human "train" and have to follow certain commands such as switch, reverse, tunnel, and whistle. This game works on processing and cognitive training. Other ideas we came up with as a class that have similar goals were Captain's Coming, Fish&Whales, Frogger, and Blob Tag! (Coming from working in a summer camp environment for the past 5 years has got all of those children's games completely engrained in me, so I will definitely be using those as my go-to games when working with peds in the future!!! :) )

      Our final class activity was to pick a certain population, (ours was Alcoholism) and to create three different "fashion/design" related competitions that would have three specific therapeutic goals.(Mr. Lewis inspired us by showing a clip from "Project Runway"'s show using materials from a hardware store to create clothing!) For our population, we decided to have them create jewelry together using the 3 unusual materials of silverware, different types of cloth (like jeans, etc) and keys! The 3 main goals we had for them were to 

1. Develop new social skills

2. Find a new enjoyable hobby/leisure activity

3. Gain a sense of accomplishment/success

We decided on a 2nd activity that has the same goals to be creating hair accessories with the same materials. The last part of the project was to think of a completely different activity that had nothing to do with fashion but would still allow our clients to meet the same goals. We decided that a dessert baking competition would definitely fulfill our goals and would be super fun as well! Who doesn't like desserts?!

While thinking back to my days of summer camp, I remembered a really cool activity that we did with a wide range of age groups...Parachute Games!!! There are so many different variations on parachute games... Shark & Lifeguard, Anaconda, etc.. One basic one that I've played with younger age groups is a simple game where everyone has to grab a handle on the parachute and begins to shake it. The leader gives commands to the group to change the action of the parachute by making small waves, big waves, put it down on the ground, put it way above your head, etc. Adding fun little toys like plastic bugs, bean bags, and stuffed animals can be put in the middle of the parachute and can be catapulted off by the kids. (Having them each go find a creature that flew off and bringing it back can be fun too) Music can be added to the game and can be related to different motions with the parachute (stopping or starting when the music does, rotating handles when the song changes, etc) 

Parachute games can easily be modified for kids with any kind of disabilities. Kids with physical disabilities or who may be in wheelchairs can still participate, but may need some assistance with holding onto the parachute. Maybe the handle can be attached to their leg or another part of their wheelchair that will allow them to participate in the movements. For kids with cognitive disabilities, leaders can assist the children in following the directions properly. Even kids that have visual/auditory impairments can enjoy the game because there can be many different senses incorporated into it. 

       Another slightly complicated version this game can progress into is having everyone put the parachute above their head creating space for them to walk/run underneath and saying certain commands like "If you are wearing red, go to the other side of the parachute," or "If your birthday is in May, go to the other side." LIke I said, there a a million and a half variations of parachute games but they can definitely adapted for anyone with any type of disability. The kids I work with at camp absolutely love even the simplest of parachute games and just think being able to use a parachute is super cool! (and it is...even for adults like me!)

I really like this website for ACTIVITY IDEAS!!!!  There are a lot of good ones that relate to the outdoors as well!

Short Activities!!!

Hello world! (I'm still kinda weirded out by the fact that this blog is available for the entire world to view)
Last night in Innovative TR Activities we had our short activity presentations. It was pretty much a free for all as far as what kinds of activities we could choose from. There was a really good variety of activities--I'm surprised that everyone picked activities from a different category (music, art, physical activity)

One group did "Innovative Painting" using random materials as the tools to paint with instead of a usual paintbrush. Everyone got a piece of white paper and could choose from a lot of different paint colors. To paint with, there were feathers, wooden balls, sponges, foam pieces, leaves and a few other random things! I personally liked using the feathers and the wooden balls--they created a great texture with the paint and were fun to use!

Another group did "Making Music" where everyone got into their groups and had to create a short song using random household objects to make music with. There were a ton of interesting things to use: rubber bands, paintbrushes, keychains, cans with money in them, etc. Our group did an instrumental song with a lot of the random objects and tried to switch them up halfway through our song to use them in a different way. It was a lot of fun and everyone did a great job!

The next group was us, Group #3! We decided on doing an activity that combined art and music that would really get people to become introspective. Ours was a "Music and Emotions" type thing where everyone got into their groups and each had a piece of white paper and a colored marker. We played six different songs of different genres (rock, acoustic, pop) and had everyone close their eyes and color/draw our their emotions and/or how the music playing at the time makes them feel. Here's a few pictures of our class hard at work interpreting their emotions through song:

The whole point was to get everyone to not worry about what everyone is doing and just focus on themselves and enjoy how the music makes them feel. After each song was over, everyone switched their papers with their group members and continued on to their drawings for the next song. There turned out to be a lot of interesting drawings and squiggles that were created. We tried to decipher during which songs they were drawn during, and what those emotions brought out in those songs might mean to the individual. I think that it was a great activity that can be used for a lot of populations--but definitely needs to be modified for each specific population. As for improvements, we decided that we would make sure the groups could be in a circle so they could feel like more of a group and would be able to pass their papers more easily. Also, each group should have an individual leader that can help each group stay on task and make sure everything is running smoothly.

The next group did the "Don't Break the Egg!" activity. I remember doing this back in middle school as part of our physical science class, and it was a lot of fun. This time, I thought It would be so much easier since I'm now a more intelligent college student, but alas, it was still hard! We only got newspaper and a lot of straws and tape to use to protect our egg from breaking! My group decided to make a little nest for our egg with the newspaper and tape, then make a little raft-like object surrounding it to (hopefully) protect its fall. We named our egg Violet. Here she is after she unsuccessfully took her trip from the 2nd floor of the Health Science Center and unfortunately did not survive. :'( RIP Violet!

As I said before, I really enjoyed how diverse the activities of our groups were! They could all be used in many different settings, but of course modified based on the different populations involved. General safety precautions are to make sure all materials used, especially for the painting and music activities, are safe for the group to use. (Sharp objects or objects that could be interpreted inappropriately) Also, for the geriatric population for example, having larger, easier to grasp objects and more textured things to paint with would probably be a good idea. In general, I think all groups concluded that more individual attention and guidance would be good to have for all of our activities with all populations.

While searching the web for therapeutic activities, I stumbled upon this really neat article in the Washington Post about new therapeutic art programs for patients that have cancer and other disabilities while they are patients in hospitals. There have been a lot of grants given to hospitals around the country for some really unique programs like dance for stroke patients, photography for parents of stillborn children, beading, and even creating tapestries! It's a really cool article that describes some extremely innovative therapeutic things that are being implemented right now in the inpatient setting!!

Happy no winter-coat weather day! :) 

Namaste!

So now its Thursday! Wow this week has really flown by.. which is a good thing! While doing some research for our short activity facilitation for next week, I did some research on yoga, specifically the adaptive kind. While another group chose to do yoga as their activity, I still thought it would be cool to post all of the unique poses and resources that I found that I think will be really beneficial to all of us as future CTRS's!

I absolutely love doing yoga.. I have used it as a tool for myself to relax and maintain my flexibility after I stopped dancing in high school. Especially in college, it is a tool to keep my stress levels down.

What I find so innovative about adaptive yoga is that most people think that you need to be fully functioning in all aspects to participate in yoga, but that is absolutely not true at all. You can even be an amputee and participate in yoga----> (check out this awesome website!)

 Here is the reasoning behind how yoga benefits all people with all types of disabilities! (to read more you can check out  THIS website!

Yoga Helps All Disabilities
The gentle stretching of yoga and its centered-breathing discipline can benefit people who may have arthritis, multiple sclerosis (MS), Parkinson’s disease, or osteoporosis as well as those who have had a stroke. The “asanas,” or poses that make up a yoga practice can also help with balance and strength while helping you find a calming emotional space that helps not only with healing, but also with the day-to-day challenges of life.

In addition, notes the National Center on Physical Activity and Disability (NCPAD), yoga aids your:

• Digestive system, as the bending and stretching poses stimulate the digestive system
• Cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary systems (also known as your heart and lungs!), as the more active poses increase heart rate and lung capacity through aerobic activity
• Lymphatic system (essentially, the primary component of your immune system), which needs strong muscles and active interaction among the lungs, diaphragm, and thorax to stay strong
• Skeletal and muscular systems, which benefit from yoga’s focus on proper alignment, flexibility, and muscle-strengthening

As you can see, yoga benefits people with disabilities in so many ways... by stimulating all body systems that may not have been focused on before and by working on the flexibility of muscles and ligaments and alignment of the body--things which many people with disabilities do not make a priority. Just working on basic breathing exercises to induce deep relaxation can work wonders on reducing the everyday stresses people living with disabilities often experience.

There are many websites on the internet that describe different specific yoga poses and styles that are the most beneficial for each specific disability. One article that I found was really interesting was the story of a 42 year old paraplegic named Matthew Sanford that says that yoga has  allowed him "to reclaim his entire body and enjoy a renewed sense of wholeness."  After being involved in a car crash, doctors told him that it was basically pointless to focus on working on any muscle groups below his waist, so they assigned him to a weightlifting routine for his upper body. He finally discovered Iyengar yoga, which stresses alignment and precision in the body. While you would think that yoga would be extremely pointless for someone who has no sensation below his waist, Matt explains how he came to understand and feel the sensations and energy coming out of his legs and feel like he was back being "one" with his own body.

Matthew became an innovator in yoga by starting up yoga classes for people with disabilities, especially paraplegic yoga which was never emphasized in the yoga world before! 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE!!!!

So in conclusion, yoga is a great tool for CTRS's to use for ALL clients of ALL ages with ALL types of disabilities!!! I really feel like the possibilities are endless and it has the potential to be extremely innovative! Everyone can do it and it offers so many benefits to all populations. I will definitely be utilizing adaptive yoga in my future career as a CTRS.

SIDE NOTE: There is an excellent website on doing yoga with children with disabilities, specifically with CP.  Check out these videos!

The Wonderful Wide World of the Web (WWWW ???)

Hello world and Happy Happy Tuesday! (it's that much closer to Friday! :) )
Tonight in Innovative TR Activities we learned how to use the databases on the library website to find info on TR activities or for searching anything that you need to find a scholarly article on. It was super helpful to have Galadriel the librarian go over in detail how to use the database search engines on the Murphy LIbrary website because for me, they are super intimidating. I haven't had much experience using them, so it was nice to have a step by step guide on how to use them properly. I had no idea you are supposed to use OR in between different search keywords, or that stringing along different synonyms for the words you are looking for can help you find what you're looking for! For example, when looking up "youth and alcoholism" it made the world of difference when we put in all the synonyms for "youth," like adolescent and teen. Also, there is no way I would have known that putting an asterisk after a word like teen* means that the search will include teenager as well!


    When I first started doing my own searching, I utilized some of the techniques Galadriel showed us when looking for TR treatment issues in kids with Cerebral Palsy. It took me a few tries to get the wording right, but after doing some preliminary research I used some terms I found in certain articles as jumping off points for more searches. While at first I was kind of struggling with getting the info I found some really cool scholarly articles on Hippotherapy and it's effects on kids with CP, which I think is going to be the topic of my research paper!

Adorable, right?

Balloons and Turtles and Rocking Chairs, Oh My!

Tonight in class we were introduced to the wonderful world of tape art!! I was amazed at seeing all of the cool things artists are doing with such a simple material like tape! The  pictures of artists with their tape art showed how innovative they were with their tape; I was so amazed at how they made all kinds of cool tape people in different positions out on the streets holding different objects like street posts and dangling from buildings.
      Even though it was our first time doing tape art, I think we all did a pretty fantastic job collaborating in our groups. My group created Violet: 

We created her by making her head out of tape using a balloon and oversized sunglasses, which was one of the random objects Mr. Lewis provided for us! We added a metal scrubbie for her nose, and cut a mouth out of a sponge. She was completed by adding sparkly strings for her hair. Our group decided that Violet represents the field of TR as a whole in the fact that TR is extremely client centered, and that TR is focused on the individual needs of every person and helping them become the best they can be! We discussed how tape art is an extremely innovative activity that can be translated to work with any population, such as ours which was youth at risk. This type of project can benefit youth at risk in many ways, but a few of the benefits we came up with were: enhancing self-esteem, cooperation with others, building positive relationships, and increasing positive communication in general. However, one of the main contraindications we came up with was to make sure the youth make appropriate things out of their tape art.

Here are some other pictures of the great things the rest of the groups made:

     While I have never considered myself to be an artist, I do consider myself to be creative. I love to make bracelets, headbands and collages, but when it comes to drawing, a stick figure is as about as intricate as it will get. While I never really thought I would be able to utilize art that much in my career not knowing a whole lot about the technical aspects of it, after doing tape art I am more confident in my creative/artistic abilities that I can use in my future career.

I discovered another cool "artsy" activity online that relates to something that is definitely up my alley: "Jigsaw Puzzle Portraits." (taken from the website http://www.recreationtherapy.com/tx/txpaper.htm)

I think this is a great activity for people with special needs that is like tape art in that it can work well with any population and is extremely versatile. It really does emphasize that anyone can do art! I think the "Jig Saw Portraits" are so cool because it is not a so-called "cookie cutter" activity where all projects turn out the same. It is specific to each individual in that they can take pictures of whatever they want to make a puzzle out of that is meaningful to them. Also, this project could become a collaborative effort with the entire group where all of the puzzle pieces are put together to become a huge jigsaw puzzle! The possibilities really are endless with this project and I think it would work really well with a lot of different age groups.

         After participating in making cool things out of tape, I definitely agree with the statement that "Everyone can do art!"