It has been a great privilege to have had Romain as an Occupational Therapist colleague at the Unit. A special thanks to him, to teach me the carpentry skills very much necessary to make handy therapy resources. In the four months of our association, we built various therapy resources for the special needs children of Handimachal. Described below are the Materials, Skills and OT activity ideas of the various therapy resources we developed.
1. Sensory path and sensory wall
Materials – Bamboo sticks, Pebbles, Rajma dall (local red beans), Foam, Sand, Wood cutter, nails, carpet, Colorful strings.
Skills - Sensory Processing, Gait Training, Balance, Tactile perception, Color and Shape concepts.
OT Activity - The Sensory corner is used primarily for sensory exploration. The children walk bare feet over the different textures of materials. They can explore the sensory wall by hands. By using different shapes and colors for designing, color and shape identification can be done.
2. Balance Board
Materials - Wood, Woodcutter, Paint.
Skills - Balance, Standing Tolerance, Body Awareness, Proximal Stability.
OT Activity - The child can stand or sit on the balance board and try to balance the body. Peg transfers can performed to make the standing more challenging
3. Standing Frame
Materials - Wood, Woodcutter, Nails, Straps, Form, Paint
Skills - Standing Tolerance, Positioning, Weight Bearing, Contracture management.
OT Activity - The child can be made to stand actively by using the straps at the knee joint. A table top activity can be done while standing.
4. Tangram
Materials - Wood, Woodcutter, Paints.
Skills - Hand Functions, Visual Perception, Visual Spatial, Memory, Imaginary skills, color and shape concepts.
OT Activity - The large wooden tangram helps to develop hand function skills. As the tangram is colored, color identification can be worked on.
5. Elephant Activity Board
Materials - Wood, Form, Colorful cloth, Shirt,
Skills - Bilateral Hand use, Crossing Midline, Hand Function, Sensory Exploration, Exploratory Play, Body part identification.
OT Activity - The children can use the elephant activity board for exploratory play, by trying to find what’s in the trunk and the ears. Place different texture colorful cloth in the pockets.
6. Tube Swing
Materials - Inner Tube, Tape sling, Carabineer, Suspension Bolts.
Skills - Body Awareness, Sensory Stimulation, Trunk control, spatial awareness, reflex maturation, core strengthening, tone normalization.
OT Activity - Passive swing while prone lying or sitting. Lying prone on the swing, the child can do peg/ring transfers.
7. Tool Box Corner
A Tool Board was developed to be able to store all the tools together and in handy setting, necessary to make the various therapy resources.
Shruti More, 19 August 2013
