Abhi started swimming lessons!

Every academic year, I get the same feeling, tension, anxiety etc. What the new teachers may tell... Whether they will accept abhi's difficulties. The start of this year, the new reason for my anxiety was that the school have made sports activity compulsory for every child from class VI onwards. The students will be taken to YMCA grounds, as the school do not have enough ground space for different sports like cricket, football etc.

With a heavy heart, I went to talk to the Principal. She said, Abhi can join swimming and try it out. May be it will do good for him.She said she has watched him for the past years and definitely he will enjoy with the other kids. He would not want to be left alone. Infact, her confidence on Abhi, was the real confidence booster for me. Also she said I can accompany to the pool if I feel so. I came out of the room, thanking God, that there are people around us who understand, support and care.
I talked with Abhi and he was excited about swimming. The first day, he was very much scared. Though the water level was upto the chest only, he was not having the grip of the feet. I talked with the coaches also. Let him learn in his own pace.

Water therapy is a very good for improving the muscle strength, coordination etc. It works on almost all the muscles i think. As the Prinicipal has told, it may be really good for Abhi.

Improving Fine motor movements of fingers

With Abhi, the main problem is with his fine motor movements using his fingers. I could make out the difference with his right hand fingers. He wont be able to do a smooth movement of his fingers. I could see the stiffness of the muscles when he tries to do drawing curves/circles etc. What ever comes quite naturally for any child, it seems not at all possible for Abhi. I have to sit with him and make him practice doing the activity.

As I have always found that to make the children sit for sometime, especially with a dull activity which you mention as exercise or therapy, is very difficult. Our therapist also know that. So we device art techiniques which include many activities. So depending on the child’s interest we have to change the approach to make them do the activity.
One very good activity to improve muscle strength of fingers is to make dough from the wheat flour etc as for chapathi/roti.
An alternate and interesting variety will be to prepare paper maché. This involves more than one activity for fingers.

• Tearing of paper with tip of fingers
• Mixing glue and water (wrist movement)
• Mixing the paper/tissue pieces with glue-water and making dough
• To make the activity more interesting make shapes out of this dough and colour them.

To get an idea see the below link.

http://homecraftideas.blogspot.com/2008/08/paper-mach-art-secret-pen-holder.html

One more thing which I realised is, if I make Abhi do OT as exercise or OT activity, I also get disappointed or frustrated thinking,"God, how long I have to continue this to see the improvement in him". Like the doctor has said once, it wont happen in a day as miracle. So I also stopped to say about OT activities, instead tell only about what all way you can do ART.

Colours n shading n sticking

Abhi's OT therapist has asked him to do lot of shading activity using crayons and colour pencils. This improves his finger steadiness and coordination for writing drawing etc.

As usual, to make abhi sit and do an exercise or OT acitivity is difficult. But MAY BE doing an art is possible. And it worked, he was interested to make a photo album.

See the post to make a KIDS PHOTO ALBUM :

http://homecraftideas.blogspot.com/2008/06/kids-photo-album.html

Working with beads

The occupational therapist suggested threading the beads for abhi, to improve his concentration and fine finger controls.
So to make it more iteresting, i got beads of different colours and sizes. With my little help, he made few garlands. These I used those garland for guruvayoorappan's photo, one he gifted to our neibour's little girl. And another chain with a matching bracelet. And abhi was very happy that he made those gifts.

http://homecraftideas.blogspot.com/2008/02/bead-garlands.html

I am inspired by my son

Everyone will have (or should have) a person who have inspired in life - a role model. or sometime more than one in different stages of life. Thats what exactly happening to me.

For me it has been mostly my father who has inspired me. But these days I know my inspiration comes from Abhi also. I always wonder at his self inspiration. Also he does not like to be discouraged. Inspite of his health issues, movement restrictions, he wants to try out everything - possible.

If we ask him what he want to become, his prompt answer will be pilot!

These days he is practising yo-yo along with his friend Adithya. He wanted to do all the yo-yo tricks as his gfriend does. So I have to learn first and then teach him!!!!!! And I thinks in another angle also - it is gong to improve his concentration and hand movements!

Yes..I am proud to tell that I am inspired by Abhi.

Working with different materials and texture - create an Art

As I have told in my previous post, using different materials and different activities the children
with a little help from parents can enjoy doing art.

To enjoy creating a art from tits and bits around your home, visit
http://homecraftideas.blogspot.com/2007/10/simple-and-interesting-junk-art-for.html

Children will enjoy collectin all the things required.

The art involves,
using sand which can be spread by using different fingers and thumb. This improves the finger movements.
paper cutting - hand eye coordination. If cutting is difficult on pencil drawing, draw with thick marker pens.
colouring - using of brushes, colour combinations
paper boats - doing the paper folds will improve finger movements , hand-eye coordination and concentration

Sky is the limit for our imagination!

Working with different materials and texture

Different materials found in and around our home can be used to improve hand sensitisation, finger movements, concentration etc. Some things which I use are listed down

• Sand, salt, kolam mavu, rice flour etc can be used. Our good old tradition putting kolam or rangoli is a very good activity for improving the fine finger movements! Even though for kolum we use thumb and index finger mostly, for our activity the children may be asked to use one by one finger and the thumb.


• Simple paper cuttings. Draw figures, shapes etc on coloured, textured papers and cut along the lines. Initially thick lines can be drawn with marker or thick sketch pens.


• Sticking beads, pebbles, grains, seed etc in a particular design

Pallanguzhi

Pallanguzhi is an ancient indoor game, mostly played by the women of older times, who were mostly tied upto the inside of their homes. So natuarally kids learnt from them.

My grandmother had a very old Pallanguzhi made in teak wood I beleive and also a set of Manjadi kuru and a set of chozhi (small shells). Now I regret that didnt realize the value of the game and preserve it. We also used pulliyam kottai, beads etc. During summer holiday afternoons, we are not allowed to play under sun, and we will have countless rounds of pallanguzhi!

When Abhi's physiotherapist suggested playing pallanguzhi for his fine finger movement and his hand and eye coordination, I literally searched many toy shops in chennai to find a suitable one made in wood. But I still didnt get the old type of board. I specifically wanted wood, because the of its natural feeling. I use manjadi, white channa, dried peas, beads etc. This will give a variety to the game as well as for finger movements.

Another important aspect of this game is you get more skilled in mental arithmatic. When i play with Abhi, i even play with only 2 seeds in a hole, so that it is easy for him to calculate mentally. The more both players calculate and play, the more interesting the game will turn out.

If we analyse our ancient games, we will find the good reasoning behind each, which improves our body and mind.

Making Paper rolls

Making paper rolls from used paper or news paper is a very good activity to improve the finer motor movements of the fingers.

Initially Abhi found it ver difficult to use his right hand thumb and index fingers to roll. So I used alter with right and left hands. Also I gave him pencils or straws to start the roll. Soon he picked up on the rolling. Slowly do rolls with papers of different thickness.

This activity can be made interesting for the kids, if it is done as a creative project or art. Visit the below link to check how to make a vase from the paper rolls.

http://homecraftideas.blogspot.com/2007/08/paper-roll-flower-vase.html