Finally, this month the sun has decided to grace us with its presence! We have been taking full advantage of this taking our crafts outside, going on stunning walks in Hatherden and playing games outside in our beautiful surroundings!
We have been focusing on building confidence and trying out new things, that may usually be out of our comfort zone. We have had a phenomenal month, filled with many achievements and first times!
One thing we enjoy doing at James’ Place is walking to our local pub, where our members can get themselves a drink, sit and socialise. This is really good for building confidence and independence in a public setting, alongside completing tasks that involve life skills and math skills. For example, paying for a drink. Socialising, is beneficial as it practices active listening and conversational skills.
Furthermore, leaving James’ Place to go on outings is something that is outside of Joanna’s comfort zone. However, she achieved a massive milestone and decided to join us for the first time, where she had the best time!
“I had a good time, I enjoyed seeing all of my friends down there. I felt happy that I did it!” -Joanna
One of the best things about James’ Place is the beautiful friendships that have been built and continue to grow each day. This is something that is truly special, to witness and amazing to be around on a daily basis. Having such strong friendships has such a positive impact on our day to day lives, creating such a fun and loving atmosphere. As well as this, it helps the members to achieve goals and try new things as they encourage and support each other.
This picture depicts one of our members helping another one getting over their fear and stroking the horse at the farm!
Out on our playground we created chalk pictures that represents each and every one of us at James’ Place and our values. Everyone worked together as a team, this led to an incredible outcome! This required the use of a variety of skills such as; motor skills, coordination, visual perception, teamwork, creativity and imagination.
This month we have also been focusing on different ways to remain active, collaborating with the members to let them come up with ideas of how they would like to keep fit! This month we also took one of our members swimming for the first time, this was a big success and something we plan to continue doing in the future. As it’s a good opportunity for sensory processing, movement and balance. One of the most popular suggestions was yoga, this was perfect for us at James’ Place as it was adaptable and inclusive to suit all our needs. We found yoga to be so effective as it is a low impact functional fitness, that also works on coordination and motor control.
“I love doing yoga but my favourite will always be dancing!”- JP member
Outside we have also made use of our playground, setting out our badminton net, using our basketball hoops and playing football and skittles. The members have the independence to choose which activity they wish to join.
