Using Apps during Hippotherapy

I occasionally use my Iphone during hippotherapy to have fun and motivate my very young clients. They love touching pictures that make things happen-such as an animal that makes a sound. This involves nice finger isolation and motor control. I have to remind some of them to use the index finger and not the middle finger.

In the video you will see how the app motivates him to make sounds. I can also ask the children to find and press the animals I name so that they need to scan and follow directions. That would be a bit more challenging but I will work up to it with this 2 year old.

I have worked with 3-4 year old children doing this same activity while they kneel, stand on top of and are prone on their belly (extending arms like superman)  while the horse stands stationary.

Usually riding is so exciting children don't need much more to motivate engagement but there are a couple of clients who are particularly cooperative when they know they will get to use my phone app either during or at the end of my session. One almost 4 year old who has down syndrome ends her session walking up 3 steps to put her helmet away on a pole. Sometimes I ask her to remain balancing on the top step while pressing some animal pictures. This takes her mind off her fear of falling (while I hold her belt)  while doing something she loves.

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Working on cognitive skills

My clients are familiar with the animal pictures I hang up on  the indoor arena walls. So I completely hid one picture behind the snowman decoration and asked them to guess which one was hiding. If they couldn't remember which picture was missing, I would show part of the picture. This works on the visual perceptual skill called "visual form constancy". This is the ability to recognize a shape even when it is rotated, partially hidden, bigger or smaller than usual or a different color. It is a skill occupational therapists often test for. 

After guessing what is behind the snow man I show them the full monkey picture.

I have a smaller version of each animal picture- I call the "baby" attached to the back of the larger "mommy" or "daddy" picture. In the video you will see me handing the picture with the mommy side showing so that the 2 year old has to remember to turn it over to see where to attach the smaller picture. This works on visual memory and object permanence-remembering something that is not visible.

 

 

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Feed the Therapist

 

Wanting to do something related to thanksgiving during hippotherapy with my little clients, I had my husband take a photo of me with my mouth open. Then I placed 2 of the same photo on 2 sides of the cider jug. One has a large hole cut out of the mouth area and the other has a smaller hole that requires positioning the folded paper in a vertical position to fit through the opening. I attached the photos with clear contact paper.  

I printed pictures of yams, potatoes, cider, turkey and pumpkin pie. I forgot the cranberry sauce. The children loved folding or pushing the pictures through the opening to "feed the therapist". Either way, it was a great fine-motor activity.

I cut an opening near the bottom of the bottle to remove the pictures and the motor from an electric toothbrush. Some children wanted the bottle to shake, some did not.

Ghost Pull Toy

 

 

 

 

I made a little ghost pull toy this morning before heading over to the hippotherapy farm. It was very easy to cut a ghost shape out of a detergent bottle. I punched holes for the eyes and nose and a larger hole for the mouth. Then I inserted a long red strip of fabric through the mouth and another hole in the back of the bottle and tied knots on the ends.

The children loved the ghost with the extra long red tongue and I used it in many different ways to motivate children in holding various positions and reaching out of their base of support including-

 

• while kneeling
• facing sideways
• facing backwards with legs together in long let sitting
• supine over the barrel (facing sideways) to perform sit ups
• standing on top of the horse
• prone over the horse's barrel with arm and neck extension

I also used the ghost to promote language (after each step completion, the client said "boo") and motor planning skills as I asked the children to wiggle their tongues in and out, up and down as I wiggled the ghost's and my own tongue.   

Adding the extra step of touching the withers and making raspberries after each sit-up makes it fun to work on postural control during hippotherapy.