This week, we continued the final group projects and began with a group that presented on team building. They did activities such as having everyone hold hands and try to get a hula hoop around the circle by stepping through it and putting it over their head, a game called tooth pick basketball where members of a team needed to drop a tooth pick into a bottle, and a blind folded obstacle course with a partner guiding you. These were good activities because they involved you working together with either your team or a partner and encouraging and relying on each other to succeed. Activities like these could be very useful in Therapeutic Recreation, especially with populations like youth at risk or maybe even alcohol or drug rehab. They encourage team work and trust and encourage people to get over obstacles together. Adapted versions could also be made for people with physical disabilities to work to get past their physical disability and find their abilities.
The second group presented on drama and began with an activity where we split into our groups and chose an object in the front of the room. My group chose a video game controller and we needed to pretend we found this object while excavating and are trying to figure out what the people of it’s time used it for. Then, we needed to create a commercial for it. My group said the controller was a weapon used at some point in time. After that, they provided us with wheel chairs and we were to create a wheel chair dance number in groups. Half would be in wheel chairs and half would not. We then put on a performance for the rest of the class. The group had one more activity but because of shortage of time, they will facilitate it next week. Their activities were very creative and can be very beneficial for people as a way to express themselves and get away from the real world for awhile. People can be whoever they want in drama and can use several different means to tell a story or get a point across. It could be used as an education tool for children, youth or adults or could be used as recreation and people of different populations could take part in it and present. People who have built up emotions such as those in drug rehabilitation, girls with eating disorders, or people in prisons can participate to express themselves and their emotions. I think watching and participating in drama can really teach you a lot and is a great form of recreation!
The third and final group presented on relaxation and began with a craft to create stress balls. This was great because it was both a hands on craft activity and a beneficial object to have for relieving stress. Many different populations could participate and benefit from this. Next, they showed us a relaxation video, followed by a guided meditation video. These go through different steps with you to help you relax your mind and body. Absolutely everyone can benefit from stress relieving activity at some point or another. It can be especially beneficial for people who have pain and discomfort. It can help them release tension and temporarily help relieve pain. The stress balls can also be great for people with physical disabilities because they can exercise their hand in a subtle way by just squeezing or stretching, slowly practicing and progressing the movement and control in their hands.
All together, I think all the groups did a great job and showed how different activities and programs can be beneficial for several populations. They also offered many good ideas and techniques that we can use in our profession as therapeutic recreation specialists!
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