Crafts as a Therapeutic Technique??

It is hard to believe that crafts was the one of the first therapeutic occupational of occupational therapy, but it is in fact true.  In one of our classes last semester we worked with crafts and learned about the importance of craft in therapy.  Using crafts as a therapeutic technique is my favorite because it is fun, meaningful, and at the same time it allows therapists to work with patient to improve their cognitive, gross motor, as well as fine motor skills.  You can also adapt the craft accordingly to match the client's level of function.  If wood-burning is too hard for the client, you can have the client participate in easier crafts.  Crafts is a creative way in getting client's to work on their skills.

Woodburning/Cooper Tooling

        Significance

• Works on hand muscles and precision of fingers while using the woodburner pen
• Requires hand strength when pounding the nails into the wood
• Works on hand grip
• Requires good cognitive skills due to the handling of a hot tool
• Requires good hand eye coordination in order to draw on the design

 Holiday Wreath

      Significance

• Requires fine motor skills of the fingers to tie the sandwich bags together
• Requires gross motor skills to bend the hanger (this works on the forearm and hand muscles)
• Requires fine motor skills to fluff out the sandwich bags using two fingers

 If you want to make this wreath, this site below provides very simple and easy directions in making this wreath!

 http://hisheartandhome.com/pretty-crafts/sandwich-bag-wreath

Basket Weaving

Significance

• Work with cognition (repeating the same steps over ans over again)
• Work on arm/hand/finger movement

By: Stacy Pan