Tuesday, December 10, 2013

Are you sitting comfortably...?


As a therapy team at New Day we do whatever we can to give the kids all they need to help them develop into healthy strong boys and girls. This means we have to be creative with the things we use and the materials we have available.

Hudson needed a new positioning chair. All the ones we had were too big for him... but this was not to stop us! We used screwdrivers to turn the footrest upside down so it would be the right height. We found cushions and Sharon set to work covering some boxes in lovely material to be used as wedges along the sides of the seat. The finished article? Pretty good- Hudson loves his chair and sits so well in it during the preschool classes each day.


Another child that has benefited from a positioning chair is Austyn. He would happily sit in the same position all day long, but that doesn't really do his leg muscles much good, so we set to working on a good chair for him to sit in. Car seats are not often used in China, but we've found them great positioning seats for several of the kids. We found that turning a car seat round with the back rest to the floor, and adding a little extra padding created the perfect floor seat for Austyn- it helps keep his legs straight, but doesn't stop him playing with his friends during preschool.


This week we received a wonderful donation of a new positioning chair which Ella is now enjoying. It is made of great material making it soft and comfortable but also helping her to sit upright really well.


We often have fun when it comes to making new chairs or equipment for the kids; using whatever is available to adapt the chair and then normally also needing to hand sew new straps or parts to the chair also. It makes the chairs unique, and if it does the job the kids don't seem to mind either!

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 This post was written by our Occupational Therapist, Jenny

We do need a customized wheel chair for Hudson - if you are interested in helping out with this, please contact Graceliu@newdaycreations.com

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