Ketchup Bottle -> Watering Can?

The biggest thing I took from this assignment was that therapy tools do not need to be expensive. I remember during my observation hours, I heard a lot of therapists complain about how expensive the materials they used were. I think it is just easier to order exactly what you need instead of looking at something simple and trying to adapt it to be what you need. When I first was assigned with a ketchup bottle, I was so confused as to how I could use it for anything other than something to fill up and squeeze a material out of. When I was brainstorming ideas, I came up with many other options, such as turning it into a birdhouse. I think that in America, we are so fortunate to have so many resources available to us that we forget to stop and try to fix the problem given the resources we already have instead of just going out and buying the solution.

I believe this project really allowed my creativity to resurface. In my undergraduate studies, every assignment or project was pretty straight forward, but with this assignment I had to turn one object into another. This was a task that I had never done before and it made me wish I had a child’s creativity again. I had not really needed to be very creative up until now, so it was really cool to use those neural pathways again. I feel like I was using a part of my brain that I had not used in a long time, but I feel like it was something that I will need to keep using, so I was really happy and proud of my finished project. It was really cool to see an intervention that I came up with by myself that I believe would be extremely useful for my “client” now or future clients with similar symptoms.

After completing this assignment, I believe I will be more likely to collaborate with others when I have a problem. My roommates really helped me when I could not figure out what I wanted to do, or how to grade this activity up and down. One of my best friends was also having a really hard time coming up with an activity for this assignment, so five of us really brainstormed for her and tried to figure out the best device for her to make. I think it made me realize that everyone is really willing to help, and a group brainstorm session is better than a singular one because we bounced ideas off each other and decided why one idea would work or why it would not. Eventually we could combine ideas and figure out the best option for her.