Storytelling

During my fieldwork experience with individuals with developmental disabilities, I discovered a new tool for my OTA toolbox - storytelling. I am still amazed at how small, everyday items and ideas can be transformed into therapeutic tools. During our weekly sessions at the facility, we have always started out with ~20min. of seated exercise. During a recent session, I realized that the group responded much more enthusiastically to moves that were descriptive, such as "climb a ladder" or "do the backstroke" vs. using exercise terminology or just modeling a move for them to mimic. The night before the next session, I sat down and briefly jotted down a story to use during the exercise session the next day. It was a journey to find a treasure chest and the moves included:

Run, a bear is chasing us
Climb up the tree
Paddle the boat
Do a celebration dance (when we found the treasure)
Punch the robber
Kick the bandit

The response from our group was incredible. The majority of the group was standing vs. their usual sitting during exercises, clients who had never participated were actively engaged, and it became very interactive with the participants helping tell the story. Storytelling is definitely a tool I will use in the future as an OTA. I think it's especially useful with children and individuals with developmental disabilities. This is an interesting website I found on storytelling: http://www.storyarts.org/classroom/index.html