pottery as art therapy

I have a teenage boy neighbor who has a tumor on his spinal cord. He is home a
few weeks from his second surgery. He has a lot of pain, and I have offered to
go over with clay to see if some clay therapy will help him with his pain
management. My question is because I am not a teacher, what would you, who
teach children, say would be a good starting point? I have an extruder, and a
slab roller so I can take prepared clay to him. Any suggestions? I think coil
building would not require a lot of skills, and I have even thought about just
giving him a lump of clay and let him make a small sculpture. There are many
possibilities.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Martha

"Marmaj40" wrote in message
...
I have a teenage boy neighbor who has a tumor on his spinal cord. He is
home a
few weeks from his second surgery. He has a lot of pain, and I have
offered to
go over with clay to see if some clay therapy will help him with his pain
management. My question is because I am not a teacher, what would you, who
teach children, say would be a good starting point? I have an extruder,
and a
slab roller so I can take prepared clay to him. Any suggestions? I think
coil
building would not require a lot of skills, and I have even thought about
just
giving him a lump of clay and let him make a small sculpture. There are
many
possibilities.
Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Martha

Start with pinch pots. He can do that in his lap with the least strain on
his back I would have thought.

"Marmaj40" wrote in message
...
I have a teenage boy neighbor who has a tumor on his spinal cord. He is
home a
few weeks from his second surgery. He has a lot of pain, and I have
offered to
go over with clay to see if some clay therapy will help him with his pain
management. My question is because I am not a teacher, what would you, who
teach children, say would be a good starting point? I have an extruder,
and a
slab roller so I can take prepared clay to him. Any suggestions? I think
coil
building would not require a lot of skills, and I have even thought about
just
giving him a lump of clay and let him make a small sculpture. There are
many
possibilities.

I like your idea of not making his beginnings too complicated. Even slab
building does take a lot out of you physically as you need to move around
the object a bit to get it all together. If you have a dias/wheel on which
to place the sculpture, so that it moves around instead of him doing so, I
bet that would help.

Personally, just the feel of the clay and the ability to mould it into any
shape I like is wonderful. Even if there is no actual result in the first
couple of tries - just the distraction of concentrating on the clay instead
of the pain may be helpful.

Wishing you the best of luck and him a good recovery!

Marianne

If you make a slab for him, your neighbor can wrap it around a plastic 1/2
gallon square container (ice tea, etc). The trick is to cut a slit lenghtwise
in the container ahead of time and tape it from the inside and to cover the
container with plastic. Put a slab on the bottom and then around it. After it
dries for awhile you can take off the tape and then collapse the container and
remove the plastic.