The boy Who Harnessed the wind

The book "The boy Who Harnessed the Wind" was fantastic. It might be of interest to occupational therapists as a case study of ingenuity, the drive toward purposeful activity and overcoming adversity. the boy William Kamkwamba from Malawi Africa was born to be a scientist despite living in a culture that believes in magic, struggled against famine and required students to pay fees in order to attend school. Instead of becoming hopeless when his family could no longer pay the school fees and driven to improve life he reads science books in the library and learns about how to turn wind energy into electricity that can bring electric lighting and irrigation to his family's home and farm.
As the recycling occupational therapist it was exciting to read that he found almost all the materials to make the wind mill in the junk yards, spending countless hours searching through broken machinery to find the needed parts. Being poor he even made makeshift tools such as a screwdriver by flattening out wire and compensated for the wrench being the wrong size by wrapping a bicycle spoke inside the hole to strip off rusted nuts in the scrapyard. It is hard to read about the government corruption, famine and hunger but the reader can be assured that since this book did get written, William succeeded and has the academic support he so much deserves.

http://www.brighthub.com/mental-health/autism-pdd/articles/89954.aspx

Make Your Own Books

Gretchen Hanser's article "Making Simple Books" in OT Practice has some fun activities. I love the "fluffers" used to make turning pages easier. She descirbes these on her web site: http://www.creativecommunicating.com/tips-pf.cfm
The article also describes how to make books out of food boxes and pages filled with plastic bags of materials such as dried peas to feel and view. As Hanser concludes: "students with disabilities need access to a wealth of books-no different than students without disabilities. Occupational therapy practitioners can make books thatr not only meet student's sensorimotor needs, but also their literacy needs."

Ghost Lacing Boards

I made these lacing boards a couple of years ago out of large plastic orange juice containers....  I taped chocolate kisses where the nose goes......The candy is optonal since some parents may prefer a small toy instead of a sweet. .....


Source: DIY Fine- Motor Activities for Toddlers by RecyclingOT

Finding Toys

One aspect of being the RecyclingOT is being good at finding free toys or materials to use for work. I took a walk this morning and came across boxes of free toys on the street. Obviously, someone was cleaning house. I was wearing a day pack since I had just dropped some books off at the library and was able to load up on plastic animals and a few other items including a Pony memory game. They all survived a run in the washer. I am planning to place the larger animals on the hippotherapy trail and use smaller animals for insertion activities.

Visual Perception and Illusions with Spools

The background picture is made up entirely of spools of thread. When I held up the glass globe the image was reversed so that the girl's face appeared correct. Pretty amazing! I saw this at the "The Eye Spy" exhibit at the Essex Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts

I think that this is a rather clever activity to make out of those extra pipe cleaners that are lying around.....