PUPPETS

Last week in class we watched an instructional video about how to work the puppet from the show "Kids on the Block". The video was interesting but seemed to kind of drag on.

We then had a discussion on different types of puppetry such as shadow puppets. I think that shows like this could be great for different populations. I learned that the usability of puppets really depends on the subject matter covered as well as the age group and situation of the audience.

Last week in TR my group gave our presentation on Adaptive hunting and fishing. We focused on types of adaptive equipment, different state laws, and groups that help lead hunts for people with disabilities. My part of the presentation focused on all the different kinds of adaptive equipment that has been invented to give people with physical disabilities a chance to hunt as independently as possible.

I would group the two major types of adaptations as location adaptations and shooting adaptations. Locational adaptions include the used of hunting blinds or even lifts like the one shown above
 that allow the hunter to get high into the tree alone. Some other adaptations include different types of tripods and mounts. My personal favorite was a computerized system that can be controlled by a joystick and fired with a puff system that causes a shot to be fired by blowing through a straw


We also watched a couple movies about people who have various disabilities but do not let that hold them back from doing extreme sports

Today we are gonna be talking about Powerpoint. Powerpoint, Powerpoint, Powerpoint....

For those of you that aren't office fanatics this video is what my title if referring to! :)

Last week in Innovative Activities we had group presentations on how to make many common activities more adaptive. The first group informed us about adaptive boating, including everything from Kayaking to sailing. The coolest adaptation I saw was the the Puff-Sip kayak that allows some one with quadriplegia to control the paddle with different breath combination on a specialized tube. We had the opportunity to hop in our kayak/canoe/table with a partner and practice our different strokes as we went "Just around the river bend!"

The second group discussed therapeutic horse riding. I learned that there are way more physical and mental benefits than I thought. I learned that it can be very helpful when working with amputees such as wounded warriors to help them relearn how to walk since the gait and pelvic movements of a horse are nearly identical to ours. I also gained more insight into the social interaction benefits of children with autism.

The third group discussed different adaptions for arts and crafts. I was aware of many of the items that were available but what really interested me was the number of great artists with disabilities. My favorite was the man who started doing pottery after he became completely blind and had never seen anything that he had made. Another was a young man who leaned the to paint by learning the differences in color of the paint by feeling their consistency.

The final group of the night talked about how you can adapt high ropes courses to accommodate people with disabilities. With how hard it seemed for me to be able to do high ropes, I was amazed with how easily and avoidably a course could be adapted with just a couple sets of pulleys.

Be ready for next week to hear all about my group presentation!!!!

Red Light, Green Light

I'm back again bloggees. Last week in IATR we started out with the final group doing their short activity. In this activity we got into groups of three. One person was the model and chose a pose. The second person was the artist who had to mold the third person into the same pose. The only catch is that the artist was blind folded hand could only use their hands to figure out the exact pose and recreate it.

After that we talked about the game "Red light, Green light" and what the goals are for the game including: being able to listen to directions, have motor control, and process information. We then had to come up with an activity that included these goals. My group chose a rock, paper, scissors game with actions instead of hands. Personally I wanted to do a modified version of the Hokey Pokie but i just like dancing.

We then watched a video of "Project Runway" (which personally I didn't care for much) in which the designers had create a fashionable outfit out of supplies found in a hardware store. We were then told to come up with a similar activity that would be therapeutic to the population we were given, stroke. We decided to have our patients build Halloween costumes out of house hold materials such as cardboard boxes and used paper towel rolls. We set goals for each participant to have to articulate their ideas multiple times through out the activity, as well as use the affected side as much as possible.

At the end we were given assignment to come up with a presentation about how to make hunting and fishing more accessible for people who have had strokes.

All in all i guess what i took away from this class period was that activities and games such as tag can be easily adapted to fit various populations and do not need to have definite rules all the time.

I thought I would include a story from this past weekend at Relay for Life. I was trying to give directions of how to get out of town to some of my friends and had told them to "go through the stoplight".  A older gentleman overheard me say this and was quick to correct me and tell me "You'll get in trouble if you go through a stoplight. What you should do is go through Go-light."