The physical benefits of scrapbooking became evident to me while working with a young brain injured individual in Rehab. This person used cropping tools to increase her fine motor skills, as well as photos to help with memory recall of loved ones and others from her life. Cutting with scissors or a paper trimmer and handwriting journaling helps build good fine motor skills as does using shapes and stencils. Visual/perceptual skills are also utilized with activity.

Following directions of therapist or using an idea book help with organizing thoughts and following verbal and written instruction. The organization skills needed to complete a scrapbook page can assist a head injured individual with skills needed in many aspects of their life, from Activities of Daily Living to work skills for returning to employment. The step by step tasks of building a scrapbook page allow individual to process information and put steps together to form a completed task. Then putting all pages together to form a completed scrapbook reinforces idea of task completion and overall understanding of getting an end product from their labor of love.

Overall craft of scrapbooking can be therapeutic to all of us in some way. The companies that create scrapbooking supplies and tools are often coming out with easier and less complex ways to create scrapbooks. Someone with limited hand motion or cognitive skills can learn to master this wonderful craft with minimal guidance. I highly recommend scrapbooking as a therapeutic tool for anyone and hope that if you know someone who would reap its benefits, you will pass your love of this art form on to them.

Kathy Johnson, COTA Certified Occupational Therapy Assistant and Crop Camp Coordinator

And of course if you like pictures... you'll want to bring along a camera :)

Last but not least, it would be helpful to have some sort of bird identification system or reference available. Whether you can take it with you into woods, or you have it hanging at home, these are always quite useful over long term.

Attract Wild Birds to your Garden this Spring with Bird Houses, Bird Feeders, & Bird Baths! This article may be freely published on any website, as long as author, copyright, website address and link, and this notice are left intact.