OT Fun

So I've promised to start posting recipes.  And my chocolate/sweet-potatoe cake recipe will come soon, but I thought I will share another recipe that OT's all around will enjoy and hopefully put to good use.

If you work in a frail care centre like myself, you would have made use of the wonderful benefits of clay/play-dough.  For the more higher functioning people there is hands therapy which you can do to keep those stiff joints in their fingers mobile, so that they can KNIT KNIT KNIT.  For the more explorative people there is the fun of making the play dough together, making a variety of objects from your play dough/clay and baking it in order to have a product to take home.  And for the very low functioning people, it is still a very nice sensory tool, especially for tactile stimultation.  Or you can use it when massaging your resident and it gives some nice proprioceptive input.  Obviously there are other benefits of clay in the other fields of practise especially in peadiatrics.  But I am sure the one problem everybody has had in some or other way and especially in lower functioning people is that they tend to eat the clay.  And even though I am sure that it won't do any permanent harm, I don't think iit's such a good idea. 

So, today I went on a course on sensory stimulating activities with elderly people and we received this awesome recipe for play dough...which I am definately making next week with my oldies.  It is 100% edible, got a lovely smell and is very texturised.  So it is a multi-sensory tool even before really doing any activity with it.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients: 

• 540g peanut butter
• 6 tablespoons of honey
• Non-fat dry milk (use own judgment)
• Cocoa (use own judgment) 

Method:

• Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix, adding enough cremora (or milk and flour) to reach the consistency of bread dough. 
• Add cocoa to taste.
• Shape, decorate with other edible treats (100's and 1000's, chocolate chips, jelly sweets etc)
• Explore your wonderful smelling, tasting and feeling play dough  :)