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Healthcare Training Institute - Quality Education since 1979

Section 15
Velcro Baseball Mitt, Balloon Batting, Pillow Maze

Table of Contents | NCCAP/NCTRC CE Booklet

Velcro Baseball Mitt
(The last track of the DVD that accompanied this course contains slide(s) illustrating implementation of this activity.)

If you have a resident who does really well with Bean Bag Rolling, described in the previous section, and Bean Bag Rolling and the Activity Apron are clearly below his or her ability level, you might try a Velcro baseball mitt with the resident.  Some residents, males especially, can relate to playing baseball as a child.  As part of this activity, they would repeatedly throw a baseball into a mitt.  Some residents like to pick up the ball from the mitt and drop it back into the mitt, because this is an activity that they can remember doing. 

Here's how you construct the Velcro baseball mitt. 
1. Trace a mitt shape out of brown felt. 
2. Sew the right sides together. 
3. Then turn the sides right side out. There is really no wrong way to make the mitt.  It looks like a big round mitten with one slot for the thumb.
4. Then, hot glue two strips of the hooked portion of Velcro around a small plastic wiffle baseball or ping pong ball purchased from the internet, toy store, discount store, or sports store.

Of course, if you can find a Velcro baseball mitt already made, through an activity supply company, toy store, or Internet, you can save yourself the time of construction.  However, as mentioned earlier, the less cost you have in the item, the more likely you are to leave it in the resident’s room.  A volunteer with minimal sewing ability can mass-produce twenty or thirty baseball mitts in under an hour once a cardboard pattern is drawn.

Residents with whom to try Velcro Baseball Mitt

Culture Change Implementation: Place Velcro Baseball Mitt in labeled Activity Project Bag left in resident’s room for CNA, etc. use.
                 
Balloon Batting

Think of a combative resident in your facility.  An activity you might try is simply having that resident bat a balloon on a string. Here's how it works.  Large balloons 12" or larger work best.  Since these balloons are not filled with helium, the larger balloons tend to provide more of an upright target, as opposed to a small balloon that just flops over to the side of the chair.  Tie the balloon to the arm of your resident's chair with the stem of the balloon toward the inside of the chair to prevent it from flopping to the outside. Balloon Batting also can support a nursing or physical therapy goal of helping the resident to maintain a certain level of range of motion.

To introduce this activity, tell the resident that it is a hand exercise.  You might start off by saying something like, "Joe, do your hands ever feel cold or stiff?  I noticed you have pretty good hand movement.  Would you like to try a hand exercise for me today?  I've got something for you to try.  Can you hit at this for me?"  Of course, with each comment or question, you are assessing the Joe's preference.  You might have him first hit at the balloon while you hold the stem.  Then see if he or she is receptive to tying it to the arm of their chair. 

 
Residents with whom to try Balloon Batting

Culture Change Implementation: Place Balloon Batting in labeled Activity Project Bag left in resident’s room for CNA, volunteer, etc. use.

The Pillow Maze
(The last track of the DVD contains a slide illustrating implementation of this activity with a resident.)

As mentioned in the activity apron section, some residents like to manipulate items in their hands.  For example, a resident might fold and refold the hem of her skirt.  For a resident who can use both hands and is able to bring his or her thumb and index finger together in a grasping motion, you might consider trying the Pillow Maze.  You will note throughout this section of the Manual that I alternately use the term "pillow" or "bag" maze, because I have found some residents refer to these items as pillows, and some residents refer to these as bags.  Clearly, you will facilitate the resident's involvement in this Activity by using the terminology he or she prefers. 

The Pillows or bags are created out of various colors and textures of fabric.  The series of pillows can range in size from the largest, which can be 15” x 15”, to the smallest pillow, which can be about  7”x7”.  Obviously, the sizes can vary to suit your residents' needs.  The pillows or bags are nestled one inside of the other, and have a variety of closures.  For the set I made, the largest is closed by a zipper with a big ring on the end to facilitate easy opening and closing.  The next largest bag closes with buttons.  Since I did not want to make button holes, I used a polyester material that would not ravel around the button hole.  The third largest bag closes with large snaps.  The smallest bag closes with a draw string.  If you do not have access to a sewing machine, you might contact a high school and ask if a few students from a Life Skills class might make the Pillow Maze as an extra credit project.  Nestle one pillow inside the other, starting, of course, with the smallest first.  Once again, using the concept of a “Person Appropriate” Activity, inside the smallest pillow, you might place an item familiar to the resident like a strainer or a food preparation instrument, or a small stuffed animal, depending on the resident. 

The idea behind the Pillow or Bag Maze is to open each bag to find the next one inside, and so on.  Here are three Approaches you might use to get the resident involved in the Pillow Maze:

Of course, use whatever words seem to motivate your resident best on that particular day.  Usually with this level of residents, they don't remember from one day to the next that the surprise is, for example, a small stuffed bunny.  With some residents, this can be a totally passive activity where they just observe you slowly pulling out each bag and the quality of the activity may be in your conversation, which is practically a monologue. 

Residents with whom to try the Pillow Maze

Culture Change Implementation: Place a Pillow Maze in labeled Activity Project Bag left in resident’s room for CNA, volunteer, etc. use.