Last week at FW was interesting. It was my turn to run the stretching session, so I decided to try something different. I went to the Dollar Tree, my favorite store by the way, and got some hula hoops. Let me back track a little bit. The previous week we cut pictures out of magazines concerning healthy indoor activities/food, as well as, outdoor activities, so one of the client's cut out a picture of a hula hoop, and I ran with it.
We stretched for a few mins and then we played gigantic horseshoes with the hula hoops. It worked out perfect because the one who can't see very well won, which was great for him since he's usually the one who can't see what we're doing and gets frustrated. Then things got serious and the guys were really concentrating on trying to win. They had a great time though, and I hope they have continued to enjoy them!
After the regular session, I took one of the guys outside to play basketball. I purposely took my biggest challenge. He's not "bad" just really hard to motivate and doesn't speak more than 1 word and it's hard to even get that out of him! I was so surprised when I gave him the basketball. He enjoyed shooting the ball and even made a couple of baskets. We also bounced the ball back and forth to each other a bit. I was so impressed! The best part of the whole day was when he smiled, and I knew that we're doing something that he actually enjoyed.
It was nice to find a leisure activity that he likes, and I hear he quite well at taekwondo! There's a section in our book that talks about sports and exercise on page 533.
Clink on the title for a very interesting article on TBI and exercise.
AHHH the power of Recreational Therapy!! Don't you just love when they come to life doing what they love to do? Who would have thought that sports or leisure could bring so much out of people? I wish that people would see this impact more often - there could be so much progress made with isolated or withdrawn individuals! Sorry just had to go back to my roots here !
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