A Mission Trip: but who for?

Jack is far right

About six months ago my 15 year old son (Jack) came to me and said he'd like to attend a local Methodist Youth Group. He said a lot of his friends attended, and the Youth Minister was really cool. I am a Quaker. So is my wife. My kids have grown up in Quaker Meeting. However, I'm of the mind that if your teenager comes to you expressing interest in a religious youth group, you support them! You know, unless they are worshipping snakes or something. A few months later Jack mentioned that he wanted to go on a Mission Trip with the Youth Group to the Appalachian Service Project. My wife and I supported this idea 100%. I think teenagers greatly benefit from hard work, from service to others, Spiritual exploration, and traveling to see how other folks live.

Then, back in April, the 17th to be exact (and I know only because it was 3 days prior to my ACL surgery) my son's Youth Minister, Rush, contacted me and said, "so your son suggested that you would be a great addition to our leaders on our Mission Trip". Well, hmmm...Again, when your adolescent asks you to participate in something of this nature I think the only answer can ever be a resounding "YES"! I did however have some trepidation about hard labour just 8 weeks post surgery. Rush and I discussed my likely limitations, and he assured me that he'd make certain I was not on a physically intense project.

ASP Staff: Sam, Stephen, Margie, & Chick-Chick

The Appalachia Service Project is a Christian ministry, open to all people, that inspires hope and service through volunteer home repair in Central Appalachia. To learn more about the Washington County center, go to http://tinyurl.com/ASPWashington.

Or visit their Facebook page. 

Team Timberwolf:  Aaaawoooooo! 

Two Sundays ago, Jack and I met with roughly 40 high-schoolers and accompanying adults to load into 5 vans and head to Washington County, VA.  Three hours later we arrived at Rhea Elementary school where we would eat, sleep, organize for work days, and worship for the following week.  Each crew was divided and had five high-schoolers, and two adult staff.  Ours was named Timberwolf, and our projects were pre-selected by the ASP staff.

Tile Installation

Timberwolf, like the other teams had multiple assignments. Our assignments included removing a leaky sunlight in the top floor bedroom and installing a dormer window, installing a floating laminate floor into the living room, as well as adding a stone pad for the wood stove. In addition, we needed to install a tile floor to the bathroom, repair dangerous stairs at the front of the home, and dig a drainage ditch in the back-yard. Some of the tasks we were assigned had been started the prior week by another team, and some would be completed the week following ours.

The changes we were working on will certainly improve the home, and thereby the homeowners lives.  ASP seems to focus on improving Safety, Insulation, and Dryness, all of which are pretty crucial in a home!  ASP encourages the teams to build relationships with the families when possible, and to share lunch if the families are interested.

Sun roof leaks air and water...

With Service work like this there is powerful mojo going on both for the recipients and for the givers. Without a doubt, the work that happens on the homes is crucial. It is a gift to the homeowners, and there are countless anecdotes of emotional appreciation that are very touching.  Recipients are truly grateful. There is also the wonderful chance for our youth to experience giving Service. Sharing of their time, their skills, their humor, and their smiles. 

Hammering like Thor!

As stated above, the outward purpose of such a trip is to provide Service to the recipients. But there is far more going on under the surface. I have watched and participated in the growth of friendships among the youth and staff. I have also watched high school youth a bit anxious about using power tools become adept and gung-ho about the same tools. I have seen them use some of that math which they always said they'd never use! I witnessed teens exhausted and crabby dig deep to finish a project, and stay kind to one-another. Likely they all worked harder than their parents know they can (Jack included).

Building the Dormer

I had the pleasure of working with an incredibly skilled co-leader, Karen Beaton. She is a warm and friendly woman. She has a degree in Engineering, she home schools her three children, and she and her husband built the house they live in. Her knowledge of construction far exceeds mine, and she was a great role model for the young women on our team.

A typical day with ASP includes waking up at 7:00, and meeting for morning Devotionals, and announcements. This is followed by breakfast. Then the ASP staff (who were at Lowes or Berries hardware upon the doors opening) return with hardware and lumber for each group. Teams gather their gear and drive to their worksites.  Work goes on all day, with a lunch break and a  Devotional.  At the end of the work day, we head back to "home" and turn in a new "supplies list". Showers are available. We eat dinner at 6:00, and meet as a collective group at 7:30 for EG (Evening Group) Worship, singing, and any announcements. We were lucky, in that we were sharing the Elementary school, meals, and chores with two other churches, and a family of four who came on their own.  Big group = big fun!  After EG's, most folks made a beeline for ice-cream back in town. Then Quite time by 10:30, Lights-out at 11:00. I had my evening meditation until 11:30, then went to sleep and started it all over the next day.

Gravel up the hill, for the drainage ditch

At the end of the week, I left Washington County fairly exhausted, but very happy. My knee survived, a bit swollen and sore, but still intact.  I felt spiritually fed, and gratitude to have shared this adventure with my son Jack.  I'm pleased to have made so many new friends. In addition I had the unexpected pleasure of seeing what it might have been like to have had daughters, as I have two wonderful sons.  What a treat!

The purpose of this Mission trip is to "inspire hope and service through volunteer home repair", and yet despite the great works we did, I am confident that I got far more out of this trip than I gave, as did all of us.  Jack and I are still talking excitedly about next year, and my wife plans on joining us!

More tech-talk to come!

Ruth's Letter to Graduate Student Interns

My friend Ruth has written a letter to Speech Pathology interns. I think it's a useful letter to any intern, so here it is:

CLICK HERE

The passing of a literary genius...

"With computers, kids can connect and search libraries and the Encyclopedia Britannica, but if you don't teach them to read in the first place, they're not going to [log on], are they?" (Ray Bradbury's Speech to National School Board Association, 1995)

"For many Americans, the news of Ray Bradbury's death immediately brought to mind images from his work, imprinted in our minds, often from a young age. His gift for storytelling reshaped our culture and expanded our world. But Ray also understood that our imaginations could be used as a tool for better understanding, a vehicle for change, and an expression of our most cherished values. There is no doubt that Ray will continue to inspire many more generations with his writing, and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends."   ~President Barack Obama

Mr. Bradbury brought me on far away adventures for witch I'll always be grateful. He adventured on Earth from August 22, 1920, until June 5, 2012.

Favorite Occupational Therapy Apps

Angry Birds as Vehicle for Therapy

There are a number of great apps out there.  There are also a number that aren't great.  Most any app can be used therapeutically, with applied clinical reasoning.  Look to Ruth Morgan of Chapel Hill Snippets blog, using Angry Birds in her speech therapy.  I've referred to this activity of Ruth's before, as it's a great use of a mainstream app being used with great clinical reasoning.  Some apps though are more evidently suited to therapy. This blog will highlight a few of my favorites from an Occupational Therapy perspective.

A favorite, and really a great deal, despite the $29.99 price tag is injini.  Injini offers a collection of learning games which are designed to target cognitive, language, and fine motor delays. The games contain an extraordinary wealth of content: 10 feature games with 90 puzzles, over 100 beautiful illustrations, 8 farm-themed mini-games and more. Injini is ideally suited for early intervention - it brings fun to learning and at the same time practices children’s fine motor and language skills, understanding of cause and effect, spatial awareness, memory and visual processing.
 An Occupational Therapist's buffet!

Pinch the Crabs!

From the same company is the fine app Dexteria. At only 4.99 it's a reasonably priced app.  Dexteria offers three therapeutic hand exercises (not games, according to the company) that improve fine motor skills and handwriting readiness in children and adults. Dexteria’s unique hand and finger activities take full advantage of the multi-touch interface to help build strength, control, and dexterity.  Their three activities include a tapping activity, pinching activity, and letter formation.  I find the tapping activity to be too difficult for many of the students I work with, however I'm a big fan of the pinching and the writing activities. A unique and appealing feature of this app is that it keeps track of data, and so the therapist can use it to document skill acquisition.

Not just Co-Writer...

As an Occupational Therapist, I'm often looking for something like Co-Writer for my iDevice. So far, there's very little out there. The closest thing I've found is called Abilipad for $19.99.  Abilipad does offer word prediction, thereby reducing the number of keystrokes needed and increasing your writing speed! It can even expand your written vocabulary by helping you complete words that you may not have attempted.  What it lacks is phonetic spelling that sets Co-Writer apart from the competition. However, it would be unfair to say Abilipad is an inferior word-prediction app, because that's not really what it is designed for. Abilipad combines the functionality of a notepad with word prediction, text-to-speech and a customizable keyboard.  The Washington Post said Abilipad is one of "the best iPad apps for special needs kids".

Matches

Match-it Trains

There are so many different matching apps, and it's hard to separate one from another. I've used Match-it Trains, and Matches with good success. Kids enjoy it, and we work on a variety of skills (memory, finger isolation, figure-ground discrimination, to name a few). Match-it Trains lite is free, Match-it Trains and Matches are .99 each. Not bad.

Draw and Write!

A favorite for writing is Scribble-Press with the sweet price of FREE.  My colleague Ashley Robinson recently wrote a grant which will allow us to purchase a number of iPads with the app loaded for a number of our schools (see details here).  The program is designed for literacy development.  It reminds me of the Mad Libs from our child-hood, but all techno-tized!  I like to take it a step further and incorporate handwriting instruction into each word chosen.  A more detailed review is can be found here.

A great app for supporting letter and number formation is iWrite Words. I have yet to find a child not engaged by this app. In the settings the adult can predetermine what handwriting program the lessons will most closely mirror (think Zaner-Bloser, HWT, etc.)  I wrote a more comprehensive review of this app here.

Similarly, take a look at the review of Visual Timer, which is a go to app for many therapists (including SLPs, PTs, etc).  It essentially duplicates the large clock with the red display of remaining time.  Check out the review here.






So, these apps were not necessarily created with Occupational Therapy in mind, but they sure fit nicely. Sometimes even right out of the box.  As usual though, it's important to make sure that the app you are using is addressing the goals your working on.  Hope you find these apps useful, and I'd love to hear about other apps that folks are using.

Happy therapy!

The Little Victories...

That it should even be a question is disheartening.  But hey, we take what victories we can find.  Thanks to NCAE for their hard work!

North Carolina Coastal Federation: Lobbying Legislators

Two "things" near and dear to me: the environment. And my best buddy, Rob Lammé. North Carolina Coastal Federation: Lobbying Legislators

This is not about technology: yet it is relevant!

This blog is not about technology. It is however about relationships. Obviously, without relationships, technology is pointless! The author, Glennon, is at times provocative, and controversial... But I have to say I don't mind 'cause I tend to agree with her! Her post is a good road map for being a therapist, or just being a human.



Momastery.