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Olivia, a student at iHOPE, wears an adaptive dress from Target to live out her princess fantasies with Chau Nguyen, Senior OT.
Olivia, a student at iHOPE, wears an adaptive dress from Target to live out her princess fantasies with Chau Nguyen, Senior OT. 

Last week, iHOPE hosted its own fashion week and students had a chance to showcase creativity through various activities created by staff. All teams – vision, speech, PT, education, and paraprofessionals took part.  
“The kids have such a great experience at iHOPE because of staff and we wanted everyone to have fun,” said Chau Nguyen, Senior Occupational Therapist at iHOPE and one of the organizers. “Dressing is a universal activity and learning about adaptive fashion really showed us there was an interest for it in the school."

Each day, iHOPE had a different activity students could take part in. Monday, they held a timed dressing competition where participants used dressing tools, including a sock aid, reacher, and a folding board. Tuesday, they made jewelry such as rings and bracelets out of thermoplastic, a common material used for orthotics. Wednesday was focused on costumes and pretend play.

“Using pretend play and dress up to practice activities of daily living are fun ways to build skills related to fine motor, gross motor, balance, sequencing, and body awareness while promoting participation,” said Nguyen.  
On Thursday, Nora Henry, Senior Occupational Therapist and Transition Coordinator, led an adaptive shopping activity that included money management, making shopping lists, adapted shopping through using accessible iPad features and switches, and simulated shopping with participants driving power chairs. Friday was dedicated to personal style, and students were encouraged to wear whatever makes them feel good.

The school hopes to do a live fashion showcase next year.