Woodworking for a 14 year old with Cerebral Palsy?

[Roger Feeley]

I haven’t met the kid yet but I’m told that his symptoms are not too severe. My thought is that wood turning might be something he could do. A lot can be done with one hand holding the tool steadied by the tool rest and the other holding the handle against the body.

I saw that one form of therapy is something called bimanual training. These are activities where both hands must work in concert. Wikipedia listed as example holding a marker in one hand and a pad of paper in the other. Well, heck, most stuff in the shop is pretty bimanual.

I’ll know a lot more when I meet the kid and find out what he would like to do. I can’t offer up any expertise other than my patient attention.

I’m open to suggestions…

[Jim Becker]

Roger, I think this will be a situation where you'll need to evaluate the student's physical limitations directly so you can plan the activities to be productive, safe and fun. It may end up being a combination of assisted and independent work all mixed together. In addition to the "making", the individual will undoubtedly have a great time with the design and planning of various projects, too!

[Bill Dufour]

Band saw or jigsaw, sanding, drill press, files, rasps. hand miter box, come to mind. He may have to use jigs and assembly guides more then usual.
I would say as a general rule kids are less rigid that the entire project has to be made by them. They have no problem incorporating store bought items into the design. Like a factory made medallion or such.
Bill D

[Bill Dufour]

For some reason high school woodshops here no longer use stains. They use a propane torch to scorch the wood. It actually looks good if you want the dark 60's look.
It probably has to do with solvent fumes and safe storage. No one ever got high by inhaling propane. Just make sure it is not alight when inhaled.
Bill D

[Doug Garson]

No suggestions on what projects to do but good for you for what your doing. :)

[Ronald Blue]

I'm with Doug. This speaks volumes about you as a person. I have no doubt you will find exactly the right project(s) to work with his abilities. Keep us posted on where this goes.

[Frederick Skelly]

No suggestions on what projects to do but good for you for what your doing. :)

+2. Good on ya Roger. Thanks for caring.

[Ron Citerone]

Start with something simple like a 2 piece pencil holder. Holes drilled in top piece for pencils and bottom with countersunk holes in the down side to attach together. This will be more of a learning experience for you to see his strengths and weaknesses. Then move on to more difficult with your understanding. Repetition is not a bad thing either for kids with some limitations. My 2 cents

[Mel Fulks]

I suggest that instead of using paint or stain, show him how to marbleize paper. Makes a great show on boxes and such. And that would be
a situation where the palsy would not be an impairment .
Roger, thanks for your kind effort.

[Roger Feeley]

Hmm.. I’ve never marbelized paper. I saw a documentary about it once. It was about this guy in Lawrence Kansas that was sought out by high end book publishers. His technique was to float oil based inks on a large tray of water and then swirl the inks like a barista does with coffee. Then, very carefully, he would lay sheets of paper on the ink and very carefully peel them off.

Mel, could you direct me to a resource that doesn’t require the “very carefully” part? I’m going to nose around also.

To be honest, I have general tremors in my hands that is becoming more pronounced as I age. I have intermittent problems putting a philips screwdriver into a screw. Soldering is difficult. My point here is that I might not be able to do the aforementioned “very carefully” steps.

[Mel Fulks]

I guess some of the patterns might be more difficult than others, but I think that only the people making it for a set of leather bound books
that need to show ‘family features’ would be able to pick out the work of an expert over that of a child. Autumn leaves are not hand painted
by skilled artisans. Google up something about making it ,not admiring it. We used a pan of water and oil based colors thinned way down.
Dropped with sticks and medicine bottle bulb droppers. We thinned the stuff way down, dropped the drops. Then stirred , “not shaken”

[Clark Hussey]

Roger, such a fantastic thing to do. Jim hit the nail on the head with first evaluating their abilities. I have extensive experience volunteering with people with special needs. From teaching visually impaired people to ski and golf. To just getting people out for a fun day on the slopes. Everything starts with a thorough evaluation. Please feel free to contact me with any questions. I look forward to following you, on this most rewarding adventure.

[John Stankus]

No direct experience with this specific set of limitations...

But I would suggest asking him what he needs help with and what he feels comfortable trying. I know of a situation where a person who is differently mobile gets very frustrated when one of their relatives jumps in and tries to do everything for them because they are "disabled". They are much happier with the approach of being asked what would they like help with.

I would think a key here would be working with him, to identify appropriate accommodations for his challenges. Self actualization can be very important. I would probably say the most important thing you are bringing is your "patient attention"

Do consult with the parents and the occupational therapist if available, they may have some key inputs.

John

[Bill Dufour]

With preschoolers my wife did marble painting. paper in a shallow box. dip golf ball in paint and set it on the paper and let kid move the box around to make a pretty pattern. use multiple golf balls and different colors in small saucers.
Ben Franklin. used leaves and flowers to print currency paper that no one could counterfeit.
Bill D

[Jim Becker]

But I would suggest asking him what he needs help with and what he feels comfortable trying. I know of a situation where a person who is differently mobile gets very frustrated when one of their relatives jumps in and tries to do everything for them because they are "disabled". They are much happier with the approach of being asked what would they like help with.

This is sound advice and consistent with what I mentioned in my first response. Until there's a clear understanding directly with the individual (and I do mean directly with them), everything else is pure speculation.

[Stan Calow]

Is there a special ed teacher in his life, or a therapist, or some trained professional you could consult with? Sometimes there are issues with attention span or hand/eye coordination or stamina, that they might have identified that parents might not think about, especially if the parents aren't familiar with woodworking. I'd go with hand tools first and see how safety conscious he can be.

[Dave Fritz]

Some good suggestions. Celebral Palsy can manifest itself so differently it's best if you met the child and evealuate yourself as has been suggested. You know what's needed for woodworking skills, others probably don't. Also, our daughter is an adaptive phy. ed. teacher and she works with these things daily as well as an occupational therapist. The suggested to consult is an excellent one if your able to do so. Both of these professions deal with small motor skills and implimenting real life situations. Good for you for offering to work with the youngster. Our daughter recently sent us photo's of her students on a fishing outing and the smiles were something to warm you're heart. She has no trouble finding others to help too, don't be afraid to ask. The police, fishing clubs, service organizations all show up.

[Roger Feeley]

Thanks to all for the advice. The mom kind of ghosted me after initially expressing great enthusiasm. But, it’s the beginning of the school year and she’s a teacher. I’m sure things are a bit hectic right now.

that’s ok, I have two other projects. One is a processional cross for a church where my cousin goes and our great-great grandfather was rector. The other involves a means to display challenge coins for the daughter of a friend.

That challenge coin thing will be interesting. My philosophy is that if they want an imitation of what they can buy commercially then they should buy commercially. I generally don’t take on a project unless I can add my own flourish. My plan is to imbed one of those magnetic levitation modules so I can float a little platform with a couple of coins.

[Roger Feeley]

Well, I met the kid today. We hit it off pretty well. The cerebral palsy really isn’t a big deal. There are three flavors of CP.
1. Spastic where there are uncontrollable movements.
2. Rigid where muscles it’s difficult to move things at all
3. Sort of floppy limbs where there is little muscle tone.
He falls into the third category which is probably the easiest for me to work with.

The bigger challenge is the Asbergers. He was very enthusiastic and really wanted to plunge in. He really bonded with my little Sherline metal lathe. We puttered around for about three hours while his mom hung out in the other end of the shop where the bride was working on her own project. I had no way of knowing but his mom told Diane that this was the longest he had talked with anyone. She said his limit is about 15 minutes before he gets overstimulated. So I was shooting the bull with the kid and mom was in tears.

so he liked both lathes. I have a Jet something. 16” swing x 40” bed with speed control. He liked that. Then he met the Sherline. I think the swing is something like 1.75” with a 17” bed. But it has a Frog single axis CNC on the lead screw. I have the Frog simply because I’m too lazy to turn the crank. He had a great time with that. We chucked up some wood and he went to town.

[Ronald Blue]

As I said before this speaks volumes about you as a person. I'm glad you were able to find a focus point to work from. From my limited knowledge those with Asbergers are usually very smart and able to engage well. It sounds like you kept his attention where very few or no others have. I would be willing to bet that he is still talking about yesterday with his mother. Do you have plans for a follow up shop date? I think the Dr Seuss saying applies to you here. To the world you are one but to one you are the world. Update us when you get together with him again. Thank you for making a difference. You are truly a good person for this.

[Jim Becker]

I'm glad it went well, Roger! It seems that your student found something there and that's a happy thing!

[Larry Frank]

A scroll saw might work.

[Roger Feeley]

A scroll saw might work.

Thats the one tool where I’m weak. Years ago, my brother gave me an old Walker Turner jigsaw. At some point the cast iron bed was replaced with 1/4” aluminum. My guess is that the saw tipped and fell and the bed shattered. The saw functions but vibrates badly. Now I’m a little stuck because it was a gift and…. So I’ve just worked around it all these years. I figured I would do something with it if the need arose.

[Roger Feeley]

Awww shucks. You are too kind.

One reason he connected might be that I am also on the spectrum. I was diagnosed as Aspergers as an adult. So, in a way, we speak a common language.

I’m going to try to talk to the mom tomorrow. There are two paths:
1. I proceed like a traditional shop teacher. He picks a project that he wants and we make it.
2. We throw out the whole shop class paradigm and approach it more like unstructured play. This would do more to address the autism, I think.

[Frederick Skelly]

Well done Roger and thanks for the follow-up.
I find what you are doing here to be inspiring ...... ever so appropriate fot the Season.

I wonder if you two could craft a Holiday gift for mom on that little lathe? Maybe just a steel bauble that could hang on a chain? It wouldnt have to be much to make her smile every time she put it on...

Good on you Sir!
Fred

[Roger Feeley]

I’ve turned a lot of wood on the Sherline and that’s what we were doing yesterday. I’m going to try to talk with his mom tomorrow and see where she wants this to go.

[Bill Dufour]

Good job! Sounds like it will be no problem for him but some vibrating tools like scrollsaws, sanders etc may be hard to use for long. They even have warning stickers about numbing hands. I have no idea if that could be a problem with MS but it seems like it might be for some since MS is a nerve issue as I understand it..
Bill D.