Alison Self Occupational Therapy

Building projects can be such fun to do whilst challenging a persons cognitive skills, bilateral coordination, and calibration of force. Reading diagrams and planning how to assemble multiple components is such a transferable skill (think assembly of IKEA furniture for example). These models have been a fabulous tool to teach various skills and strategies and again the pride a person feels having accomplished a task they perhaps doubted they could achieve is wonderful to see. Models completed have varied from marble runs to biplanes, the Eiffel Tower and pirate boat and even a gramophone that really does play a record!!

Getting back to tertiary education can be a daunting prospect when you have sustained a head injury. Testing out your capacity for new learning is an important part of this process and attending short courses can be a really useful activity to help you work out what challenges you might need to resolve. Group learning can present its own challenges when you get easily overwhelmed around people, loud noise and other distractions. Sometimes the motivator has to be super strong to enable a person to put their concerns to one side and just give it a go. For this young lady learning to make candles was the motivator she needed and has found that she really enjoys making these beautiful scented candles. We are working towards courses that require a regular commitment to test out her endurance over time and hopefully she will be enrolling at TAFE within the near future.