I recently dug up my life vests for boating and decided to try them out as pressure vests at work. The individuals LOVED them. I like them better than the weighted vests that I made with bags of sand inside the pockets using a fishing vest.
The life vest applies pressure uniformly rather than having the weight unevenly distributed with the sand bags. Using the weighted or pressure vests is a lot of trial and error and someone who loves it one day may refuse it on another day. So I don't like to invest a lot of money in these..... However, I will keep my eyes open for yard sales vests.
The client sitting at the table typically does not want to do anything other than flip through magazines. I gave her a book stand and a pile of pictures that attached with Velcro and she worked pretty independently in placing them. She was not able to do the matching 2 halves of the picture activity (shown in the photo ) but that one is perfect for some of the higher functioning clients.
Another lady is enjoying wearing the vest while doing her sensory activity, pushing a heavy cart and placing the bottles filled with sand on the floor.
I love the idea of teaching them to wear the vests or perhaps weighted ankle or wrist weights during specific time limited activities so that they know that everything is done for a time period and will end and then some type of reinforcement follows....
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