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Using Body Parts Perhaps the cheapest and easiest thing to use when it came to helping Zachary cope with issues of partiality were my physical body parts... my hands, my feet, my arms, my legs, and my eyes. I found that for Zachary, anything out of the "ordinary" caused frustration. Knowing the "adversary" allowed me to use it to my advantage. Consequently, I could use almost anything to help Zachary deal with his frustration... even my body parts. For example, I could use my body parts as teaching tools. I could lay down on the bed, with one knee up, the other leg flat on the bed. This created an "in between" situation... whereby the "legs" were no longer perceived as a whole but more as two separate parts. To Zachary, both legs belonged together - he could not tolerate the fact that "one was up" while the "other was down" and so he would come and literally push my knee down to make my second leg flat. As he did that, I raised the other knee. Or, I would sit down on the couch and put one leg up straight while the other foot remained on the floor. Zachary would come over and try to push down the leg that was raised, either by sitting on my leg or pushing it down with his arms. I could do much the same thing with my arms... using the ability to bend at the elbow for one arm while the other was straight out... or I could have one arm at my side, and one up. I could use my hands and put some fingers up... and some down...at the same time. Again, Zachary would try to put them "all up" or "all down". Or, I would open one eye, close the other. Anything "out of the ordinary", any "partial" provided an opportunity for therapy. As I did these things, I explained to Zachary the "odd position"... letting him know that "this was 'arm up' " or "left eye closed". I always tried to make a game of things for him, joking as my body parts went up or down, closed or opened. These simple things allowed me to work on issues of partiality and to help Zachary increase his flexibility in terms of coping with real life. I found I could easily distract Zachary and make him see that sometimes, it could actually be fun to have one leg up and one down. For example, crossing my legs at the knee, although it caused Zachary frustration could also be fun as I could give him a "ride" on my legs and bounce him around. That was an easy way to help him see that things that were "out of the ordinary", such as crossed legs, could actually be fun too rather than simply being stressful! :o) As with so much many of the exercises I did with Zachary, things that were "everyday" activities for most kids, were actually "therapy" for mine! |
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