Woodworking for a 14 year old with Cerebral Palsy?

[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.