Sunday, December 7, 2008

Painting All By Myself

Painting all by myself says it all.
A friend had sent me an article about helping your child find a way to independently do artwork no matter what their disability. Some kids use their feet and some hold a brush in their mouth. Well it suddenly hit me that Junior uses his head switch for toys and his computer so why not use his head for painting(one of those duh, why did I not think of this years ago moments). I put a couple holes in a length of elastic and some velcro on the ends then we put it around Junior's head. The hard part was the brush itself, it needed to be long enough so Junior was not getting his face in the paint. We ended up taking the insides out of a marker then sticking a paint brush into one end a a length of flexible plastic tubing into the other. It did the job for today but definately has some kinks(for one it would go to far to the side), please share any ideas you might have to help this work best for Junior, we would be so very appreciative.

Now for the artist at work. First him trying on his new brush, love the look on his face, "what in the world are you putting on me".
Ahhh, now I know what it is for.
Look at me I am painting all by myself.
Junior was turning his head to either side to move the brush, I was not helping. He also would stop and holler for me to get him a new color. I was so excited watching him(yes the tears were rolling), especially when I gave him a new color and he moved the brush to the other side of the paper to use it.
Here he is with the red
Now after I put the blue on his brush (I didn't move the brush, it was all him).
Look how focused he is on what he is doing.
Then he wanted some yellow and went back across to add it to the other side.
Junior loves doing art projects but for the most part they are all hand over hand. He doesn't mind that and still has a blast. Today though he was more proud than I have ever seen him of something he has made. When he was all finished he just sat and looked at it and would then bust out in a grin. Now Junior will tell you about his painting. He was talking very quietly so I hope you can here him. I know you can't understand what he is saying but isn't that just the most proud and happy little guy.

3 comments:

Sky said...

very cool idea! It turned out wonderful, and he is so pleased with it... It was good to hear your voice Junior and see that BIG smile Hugs Sheila and Sky

The Kings said...

Oh wow Heidi!!! That is awesome. Junior looks so excited about it.

LauraJ said...

Oh how wonderful! Now I want to cry! What a wonderful mama you are!