Pumpkin Quest with the Headless Horseman: OT Magic Interventions Unveiled

 In this special Halloween-themed episode, join Gina, an experienced OT and host of Animals and Aquatics, as she shares three creative Halloween intervention ideas for occupational therapists. From crafting nature-based Halloween masks to trick-or-treating on horseback in sessions incorporating hippotherapy, and even bobbing for pumpkins in aquatic therapy, Gina's unique approach promises to add a touch of therapeutic magic to this spooky season. 

Transcript

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Hello everyone. And welcome to another exciting episode of animals and aquatics. Gina, your host. And it's always a pleasure to have you here. As always I'm here to share some innovative ideas. For occupational therapists, as well as my experiences, as an OT, private practice owner, entrepreneur. OT coach adjunct faculty for an OT program. Faculty for the American hippotherapy association. Mom, wife, and I've been playing with a new venture in therapeutic storytelling. Weaving my love for Waldorf education and OT together. I'm thrilled to be your guide today on this Halloween themed adventure. In the last couple of episodes. We delved into topics that can often stress us out. We also explored the concept of growth through the metaphor of a tree. And now in the spirit of my favorite holiday, we're diving into two fun themed Halloween episodes. But before we get started with today's episode, I want to give you a heads up that we'll be taking a short break in December and January. Don't worry, we'll be back with more exciting content in February. In the meantime, let's make the most of the upcoming episodes. Today, I'm excited to share three Halloween intervention ideas, specially designed for occupational therapist. They're all about Halloween and our ones that I've done with my clients and I found to be super fun. The first idea is all about getting creative with Halloween masks in a nature based setting. For this activity. Your OT toolbox should include scissors, twine, and a hole punch. You're going to go out into your nature-based setting during your OT session and have your clients look for leaves that can be shaped like a mask. And we're lucky we have really large Sycamore trees and the Sycamore trees have leaves that are actually as big. As my whole face. And I love that we can take the leaf and we can punch holes in the sides and tie a little bit of string or twine around, and the leaf will actually take up my whole face. Then we can decorate it. If we want to add more details to it, we can decorate it with some other things that we found in nature. So if you want to bring glue, um, to decorate and include some of the other stuff on our markers, that's fine too. But actually just doing the leaves can be a lot of fun because you can whole punch and twined together. Either smaller leaves to make. Almost like bird feathers, you could say, um, cause you can kind of overlap them one over the other. And just finding the different materials you could also take, with your whole punch. In some thinner bark and hole, punch that onto the sides to make some ears. So when we've done it, the kids have been super creative in finding different leaves, different colors, different sizes. And then whole punching and using that twine to kind of weave the leaves together. Into a really beautiful face. Mask or also a crown. So some of our clients don't particularly like to have their face covered. And having it done as a crown was actually a better solution for them. So those are two options on that in making a very nature based. Piece or activity for Halloween. Now with those, we're going to address some fine motor skills by cutting with the scissors, using the whole punch weaving the twine through requires a lot of fine motor control and precision. And it's very goal directed. We're going to look at visual perceptual skills. So choosing the nature based materials for a mass decorating is going to help develop visual perceptual skills, scanning the environment to find that just right leaf. That you want to use or figuring out how you're going to overlay the leaves together is also working on a variety of visual perceptual skills. For sensory processing. We're working with a lot of natural materials that can be calming for some clients or stimulating depending on the client's needs. And as I said, some clients didn't really like to have their face covered. So with that, we worked on making something that was a little bit different. So it was more of a crown rather than covering their face. There's also the tactile element of touching all of the different materials. Whether those are leaves or the bark putting everything together. So it's a pretty sensory rich. Uh, activity for them to complete. For our clients, this is an activity that encourages self-expression. And imagination in designing the mask or the crown, they really get to express how they want to put it together, whether it's a one piece or multiple pieces. What colors they're most drawn to, how they want to arrange everything. And it also requires asking for help. So making requests, knowing when you're going to need help. And when we think about self-advocacy being able to. Say, this is what I like. This is the way I like it is really important or saying, this is something that I need help with. And can you help me with this part, but I can do this part has been a really big piece of making these nature masks or nature crowns. So in a nature based setting for Halloween, We'd like to do nature masks. The clients can then take those home with them. They're kind of fun. And eventually if you're using natural twine, they biodegrade back into nature. And there's a lot of variety in the way our clients can make those. So I'll be trying to share some pictures of those as well. Next step we have the thrilling experience for our OT sessions that are incorporating hippotherapy. We can do our trick or treating on horseback. And this really. Is a great way to focus on the movement component when we're incorporating the horses, we want to be able to focus on the movement component and trick-or-treating is great because we're going to keep moving. Just like when kids are trick or treating from house to house where they're moving. And so this is a great time to practice some of those trick or treating skills I found that can be. Really helpful and parents generally appreciate. The opportunity to practice some of the skills ahead of time. And to make this really memorable, your OT kit will need a pumpkin container or bag. And I like to use laminated pumpkin shapes. And then on those pumpkin shapes, I like to write various activities for my clients to do during the session. So depending on the level of the client and their goals, some may be sequential. More like an obstacle course, and some are very basic imitation types of tasks written on the pumpkin's. So as we go to each area to go trick or treating, and we say trick or treat, and we get the pumpkin, we read what the activity is on the back. Or we look at the picture. If it's something simple, Like an imitation tasks. We might go ahead and do that right on the horse. If it's something that's going to be more complex, the pumpkin's may be numbered. So the client will have to. When the movement portion is done and we're getting to our activity portion, they're going to get off and sequence the pumpkin's by number or by the steps, and then follow the directions on the pumpkin's to do the steps. So some of the areas that we might be working on with this would be sensory integration. We know that with the movement of the horse, we're providing a variety of sensory input. And that can help with sensory processing. We can also modify the movement, the intensity of the movement or the position that the client is in to impact the sensory input that we're providing. So we can use all of our kind of typical tools that we are using when we're using equine movement and then a layer in the activity of trick-or-treating over that. We can be working on balance and core strength, especially when we have one of those larger kind of plastic pumpkin containers because the client is going to have to sit up and hold those. So I like having those held right in midline, really to work on that balance and core strength piece rather than having it either clip to the equipment, but for a client that couldn't hold it or is prone to throwing things, um, clipping that pumpkin container or bag to the equipment can be a safer choice. Motor planning we can have our client plan and execute a lot of. Actions like reaching for the pumpkins or on the pumpkin's. We can have written a variety of motor planning tasks, like turning around from forward sitting to backwards sitting or reaching tasks on those. And there's a lot of social interactions. So we are having that social interaction. And again, Practicing the skills of. Approaching saying trigger. Treat. And then receiving something, we may be practicing something like manners. Thank you. Afterwards. So that way it makes it a little bit easier when they are going to go out and trick or treat. This also can be helpful for confidence and self-esteem. In the fact that the client is collecting the pumpkins from each trick-or-treat station. And then completing the activity afterwards. Now there's another kind of fun way that I like to do this trick or treating, and it's a fun, little twist to consider. So you could also do this by using pieces of a jack-o-lantern face. If you want to cut out little black pieces for the jack-o-lantern face. So it could be the nose, the mouth, the eyes, and then having your orange, pumpkin construction paper cutouts, the client can do the kind of trick or treat. At stations by collecting those different pieces and then they complete the jack-o-lantern. After the equine movement part of the session. So then they'll come wherever you're doing your activity portion to our activity room, and then they would go ahead and they would put on. The eyes, the nose and the mouth that glue them on to kind of the pumpkin shape that we've have available for them. You could also add in a stem, you could add in some other options, if they wanted to put glasses on their jack-o-lantern or ears or arms feet, things like that, depending on how complex you want it to be. So I definitely consider the jack-o-lantern version, a downgrade as opposed to the collecting the pumpkins and completing the actions, whether that's imitation or sequencing. For there. So those are two options with that. If we're incorporating a Halloween themed activity into an OT session where we're using hippotherapy. And last but not least, we have an aquatic adventure, of course, bobbing for pumpkin's. And I love this activity. It's so fun to grab a bunch of those mini pumpkins, those really little ones, those little blue ones. And they come in a variety of different colors and shapes. There's white ones or spotted ones. There's ones with like orange and green. And then there's just the traditional orange ones. And we're going to place. Those in our area, in the water. And then we can have the client use a net to go ahead and catch those mini pumpkins floating in the water. Again, we could do it sequenced. So. There's a variety of different ways. You can sequence them. You can do it by pictures. So you could take pictures of the mini pumpkins in a particular order. And then print that out and show it to the client so that they have to catch them in a sequence. You could just number the pumpkins with a Sharpie, marker, and then have them go ahead and do that. So a variety of different ways. And the one thing that we'd like to do with these is have the client take home one of the pumpkins at the end of their session, as a little treat for them as a little, thank you for working with us and allowing them to really choose what it is that they want out of the pumpkins that we provided. So. We can work on this, sitting on a flow-through mat. If the client needs to work on some of that balance and coordination. We can use a little itty-bitty scooper for one hand scooping where we can use a larger net with two hand scooping. And some of the skills that we might be addressing with this is our sensory processing. Again, the water provides resistance, tactile sensations we can be using again, that flow through mat to be providing a variety of vestibular and proprioceptive input. We can work on hand eye coordination because catching floating pumpkins with a net requires pretty good hand-eye coordination. The pumpkin's do move around in the water and depending on the size of the net, whether it's just kind of like a small strainer, which is about the size of a mini pumpkin. Or a larger fishing net that requires less hand-eye coordination, but then it does require more bilateral coordination. Because for the fishing net, it's a little bit bigger and most of our clients do need to use two hands. Whereas with the mini scooper, most of them can just use one hand with the strainer or the small scooping net. Strength and endurance in order to collect all of the mini pumpkins and we'd like to collect them into a basket. Now you can make a floating basket with some pool noodles. Or you can just place your basket on the side of the pool deck. And if you're doing the sequencing, then you can go ahead and have the client sequence them on the side of the pool deck. Also problem solving because our clients need to strategize on how to catch these pumpkins. And sometimes that takes a little bit of problem-solving skills. So each of these Halloween activities can be adopted to meet the individual needs and goals of your clients. So what I think about with this is thinking about it ahead of time and deciding, okay, what are the goals that I would try to address with this? And since each of these activities has a variety of different ways that you can incorporate them into your OT sessions. You can think about it ahead of time and decide what you want to focus on. Is it going to be the sensory piece? Because if it was going to be the sensory piece, like with the pumpkins, I might have one large pumpkin at the end where we're going to take that apart and we're going to scoop out the guts. So we're going to continue to scoop and catch and maybe we'll pile all those little pumpkin's in there. If I'm focusing on more, the coordination. Then with a lot of the activities, having. The bilateral hand skill piece is more important than, so I'm going to spend more time on that. And I think whichever way we go. You can take a little bit of time to tailor your goals specifically into the activities. Each of these activities offers a playful and engaging way to work on various skills while embracing the spirit of Halloween. And again, Halloween being one of my favorite holidays I like to take maybe sometimes two or three weeks to incorporate Halloween activities. And anything around this time of year that we can do that I can send one of the clients home with. I really enjoy. And I find that the clients really enjoy it. And the parents seem to appreciate. You know that there's some activity that we're doing, that there's a little bit of a take-home with. So that wraps up today's episode on Halloween intervention ideas for OTs that are working in unique practice settings. I hope you found these ideas as exciting and inspiring as I do when I use them in my sessions. You now have a week to prepare the materials you need before trying these activities next week for Halloween. So if any of these activities have inspired, you. Go ahead. Look around in your particular environment in case you need to make any adaptations. Start to gather your supplies together and then go back over again. Look at those OT goals that you have written down and decide how exactly you're going to modify. These intervention ideas that I've suggested. And be sure to share any pictures of your fun projects. Before we go, I want to invite you to engage with our community. Leave us a review. Submit a question for us to answer in a future episode. And consider joining our upcoming coaching group. Thank you for spending your time with us today. Remember, as we head into November, we'll be discussing topics around planning. To help you prepare for an amazing 2024. And don't forget our short break in December and January. Wishing you all a wonderful Halloween season filled with creativity. Fun. And of course a touch of the therapeutic magic that only OTs can bring. Until next time, this is Gina signing off. Stay inspired and keep making a difference.