My boss’s daughter broke both arms falling from monkey bars about three weeks ago. Friday it was decided that the bones had to be adjusted and the casts , er, recast. This basically puts her cast clock back to zero and she faces 8 more weeks in them.
The breaks are very serious (she needed some surgery before the first casts were put on), and both arms are immobilized from the palms to just below her shoulders. Her elbows are fixed at about a 45 degree angle, so she can’t feed herself, she can’t dress herself, etc. She CAN grip things, but with both elbows and wrists out of action, about all she can manage is being able to use a wireless remote. Great thing that may be, but can anybody come up with some more ideas?
Get her a wireless presentation mouse, the kind with the thumb joystick, for the computer, and some good, kid safe bookmarks, and let her loose on the net. It’s better than nothing, that’s for sure.
Is she getting bags of attention and having everyone respond to her every whim?
That helps. My niece recently broke her leg. Because of all the attention she got I am sure it will on the whole have been a positive experience in her life.
Her 10 year old sister is pissed off because the 7 year old has “ruined summer for the whole family”. Which I suppose in a way she has. The mom is a nurse and the father is a county cop, and they were both overextended on their time commitments even before this happened.
Encourage her to get skillful with her toes (don’t laugh, 7-year-olds are more physical than inclined to reading, TV, internet). She’s probably flexible at that age: next thing you know, she’s showing you how she can pick up things, scratch her ears, who knows what. This may not attract her if she is inhibited; your efforts might go to encouraging her to loosen up.
Have her visit friends and vice versa. Social life is good. 7-year-olds keep each other occupied.
Also join any possible classes.
She might be able to do some cooking, but will probably need adult attention for that. Maybe her 10-year-old sister can help here.
There are a lot of hours in a week. Arranging for a lot of trading visits with friends could take care of 4-8 hour chunks of time. The idea is, she visits the Jones kid for the evening tomorrow night, the Jones kid comes by for most of Saturday. Interleave other kids and classes as possible. Parental time would involve calling to set it up, and drop-off/pick-up of kid.
For quieter times, there may be some table-top craft she would be interested in: weaving, jigsaw puzzles, …
I should have said, she and the 10-year-old can visit a lot. The reciprocal visits by the friends are a pay-back to their parents, and a few hours with four kids is not twice as much trouble as the same with two kids.* (And the parents may be glad of the free time during the trades.)
How about spending some time on a Life-Cycle just to get a little exercise? Maybe some walking, out and about, or a treadmill.
Lots of movies, books, music.
This may be a good time to begin voice lessons.
Time with a family pet and if you don’t have one, you could possibly arrange to be a foster - caretaker for a few weeks. Your local animal shelter may be able to direct you to a program that does this kind of thing.
This could be a good time to buy a telescope.
Sounds like a very tough “break” for anyone but especially for a person this age.
Hide and seek.
Tap dancing lessons.
Ice cream.
Nature walks.
Nursing home visits.
Finger painting. (with toes of course)
Jump rope.
Cartoons tons and tons of cartoons.