Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Pull DogToy for Reaching

I found this dog toy (that looks like a horse)in the supermarket and just loved it because you can pull each of the legs repeatedly. There is a squeaker at the end of the leg so you can work on  squeezing the fingers, but I focused today on pulling.
 It gives great proprioceptive feedback, strengthens arms and hands and motivates children to reach out of the base of support. I had children pulling while facing forwards, sideways and backwards,  kneeling and standing on top of the horse.
I managed to catch a little bit on video.......



Thursday, March 15, 2012

Strengthening Fingers Activity

This activity jumped out at me at the Dollar Store. It is a first aid band meant to get cold in the fridge and then strapped to the wrist to relieve pain. I immediately loved the feel when squeezing one end and watching the contents squish over to the other end. this is great for strengthening fingers, especially the index, middle fingers and thumb used to grasp a pencil. My very young hippotherapy clients found it fun and some loved it so much.
I was able to use it to reinforce (read- bribe) some of them to engage in tasks they normally don't do willingly- such as lie on the belly in prone extension.