Strengthen those Hands!

 

We spent the beautiful spring day outside and the kids were all in great happy moods.  This little guy is facing sideways while we walk up a hill. I am encouraging him to put weight on his right hand. I gave him some joint compression input to the elbow when not holding the camera, too. He has very low muscle tone and avoids touching let alone grasping objects.  We played the game called "you grasp the chick with both hands and don't let go even when I pull". He is starting to understand that he has to really use some muscle to play this game! 

The video demonstrates very briefly how my client pulled links apart and placed in a container (highly edited to remove her face) and a client who just loved the whooppee cushion to no end. I discovered that if I tell the riders to stay in the 1/2 seat (leaning forward with bum off horse all the way to the top of the hill (about the time it takes to sing the ABC song) I can reward at the top of the hill by playing with the whooppee cushion since they can finally sit down. WHOOPEE!