Media Project

For my media project, I had to come up with an intervention or an adaptive device using newspaper/magazine paper that could help my client with ALS. My clients name is Susan and she is a 55 year old woman who enjoys decorating, crafting, and scrapbooking. Due to her diagnosis she is having muscle weakness and needs help opening food packages, which led me to realize that for OT intervention we could work on her fine motor skills. Since she has been working on a scrapbook that she plans to give to her daughter as a graduation present and would like to create a series of videos, cards, or something similar to leave behind for her husband and children, I chose to create a basket make out of newspaper! This basket could be used to hold and store all the supplies and materials used when working on the scrapbook or cards. Making the woven newspaper basket would be apart of the OT intervention and will be broken up into smaller tasks. One session for folding the newspaper, one session for weaving the newspaper together, and one session for putting it all together. The weaving aspect of this intervention is great for fine motor skills. This intervention task ultimately allows the client to look back and see their accomplishments of therapy in their own home when they finish the basket and actually take it home to use. 

While doing this project, I felt accomplished in a sense that I was able to create something just from newspaper/magazine paper that could be beneficial for my client. I have also learned that with a little creative thinking, a small object can go a long way for an activity in therapy. I learned that ALS can impair a lot of activities that once came easy to someone. This assignment has impacted my thinking for the future in that as long as you keep the client's interests and goals in mind, there are so many opportunities on how to help them achieve them.