Happy Hand Therapy

These summer weeks I will share ‘one image explaining one solution’ with you. Today this is ‘Found Flask Fish’, as I call it.

 

As you can see the main character is a bottle you find at home that is not used anymore. Clearly it can be transformed into a fish, with some imagination. Will it fly due to air pressure that is released?

The picture is colorful, probably targeting kids in the age of 8 to 12 years old. The phrases are stimulating, calling the reader to take action; for example ‘spray water on your plants’. It also suggests the activity to build a crane. How? This might be explained elsewhere.

The images of hands in the yellow and blue circles caught my attention. What do they stand for? Is this sign language for the blind? When I take a closer look it is clear that this might be hand gestures and finger movements. The instructions for something to do with your hand, like spraying water, combined with the hand movements ‘categories’ indicates that this image describes hand therapy exercise.

Up in the left corner you see ‘Happy T(H)inkers’ and the phrasing gives the impression it has to do with enjoyment, become happy while doing something with this flask fish.

 

About the team and project

Happy T(H)inkers’ is a team of trainees of the Digital Transformation Intensive Programme at Digital Society School. They designed this exercise card. The team wishes for kids to be happy and creative while doing their hand therapy at home. When it can be very boring to do hand exercises several times in a row, day after day, this team – of three nationalities and disciplines varying from design, marketing and programming – developed a set of cards and a booklet with instructions for hand therapists, parents and children to use together.

 

They took off researching the following question:

How can a DIY (do it yourself) activity kit designed for children with cerebral palsy, created with household objects, develop an intrinsic motivation to follow home-based hand therapy?

“We designed Happy T(h)inkers tinkering cards. It is a carefully curated DIY kit which consists of activity cards, object cards and playful guide for parents. This fun DIY kit allows children to follow hand therapy at home. We aimed to inspire children to get creative in using objects found in their home, explore shapes, learn new skills and enjoy the feeling of creating their own hand therapy toys.”

 

Watch ‘how to make’ and ‘how to play’ videos on Instagram.

This project is focused on the Sustainable Development Goals

This design is based upon general cerebral palsy hand movement therapy and research on play and is executed in collaboration with the research labs Digital Life Centre and Play & Civic Media.