RECREATIONAL THERAPY by B. E. PHILLIPS Editor, Recreational Therapy Section, 3411 N St., N.W., Washington 7, D. C. Significant Research six months. The second experimental group was given a program of three activities which patients had not experienced prior to hospitalization, during the same hours and length of time. The control group, in lieu of participation, remained on the ward. Martin W. Meyer, chairman of our Recreational Therapy Section, after approximately ten years with the VA's Adapted Sports and Recreation programs, has accepted the position of Coordinator of Activity Therapy for the State of Indiana. Findings. Briefly, the findings were these: (1) Patients not actively participating in recreation showed, after 3 and after 6 months, a marked unfavor. able change in behavior. (2) Patients participating actively in recreation showed a favorable change in behavior after 3 and after 6 months. (3) Patients actively participating in recreation based upon their pre-morbid experience showed a more favorable change in behavior after 3 months (but not after 6 months) than patients actively participating in recreation based upon no pre-morbid experience. Recreational Therapists Needed Joan M. Doniger, director, Occupational Therapy, Neuropsychiatric Institute, Univ. Hospital, Univ. of Michigan, is recruiting a recreational therapist supervisor and two assistants interested in and qualified to work with disturbed children in a newly activated Children's Service. The new building in which this service is located includes such modern facilities as gymnasium, swimming pool, theater, and playgrounds. Those interested should write directly to Miss Doniger. Recreational Therapy Meeting In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ed. D. degree, which he received from the New York University in October, Dr. Meyer completed a study entitled The Influence of Recreation Participation Upon the Behavior of Schizophrenic Patients. Because of its material contribution to research in our professional area, and with the hope that the study will stimulate further research of this calibre, the essentials of the study are herein presented. Purpose of Study. The primary purpose of the study was to determine whether prescribed active participation in recreation can favorably influence the behavior of long term, chronic, inactive, schizophrenic patients. Secondarily, the study proposed to determine whether prescription of activities based on premorbid experience is more beneficial than prescription of activities based on no pre-morbid experience. SEC b IMNOTCHRII. CCEL DECE Conduct of Study. The study involved 60 patients at the VA Hospital, Montrose, N.Y. These were divided into two experimental groups and one control group, of 20 patients each. Data on pre-morbid experience were collected from patients' next of kin and other reliable sources. The Recreational Therapy Section, Eastern District of AAHPER, under the Chairmanship of Ben Fiore, has announced plans for its meeting in Atlantic City, April 23, at 9 A.M. Your editor has accepted an invitation to address the group on "The Rationale of Recreation in Hospitals." What are the basic concepts, the philosophy, the firm foundations upon which we must build our relatively new profession? Do we need either to be recreators or therapists? Those feeling strongly along these lines are invited to forward their observations to your editor, along with related problems warranting discussion at the meeting. Revised References Leon L., et al., "A Group Method for the Rapid Screening of Chronic Psychiatric Patients.' The American Journal of Psychiatry, Feb. 1953.) This rating scale was also administered midway in, and at the termination of, the experimental period, and results were handled statistically to determine the significance of any change in behavior taking place during the six months experimental period. Since the three groups of patients lived together, they followed identical routines with the exception of the single variable of active participation in recreation activity as follows: The first experimental group was given a program of three activities, selected from patients' pre-morbid histories, from 1 P.M. to 4 P.M. daily, for A revised edition of Selected Refer ences on Aging-An Annotated Bibli ography, prepared by the Committee or Aging in the Dept. of Health, Educa tion, and Welfare, may be obtained by forwarding 30¢ to the Supt. of Docu ments, Govt. Printing Office, Wash. 25 A well-annotated list of references entitled Hobby Publication-1955 Edi tion may be obtained free. Champions by Setback This is the title of a book about te well-known athletes in varying sport who overcame physical handicaps t become champions. An interesting eve ning's reading, it is written by Davi King Boynick and published by Thoma Y. Crowell Co., New York, 1954. * THE DOCTOR EXAMINES YOUR HEART. 11/2 min., 16 mm., b&w, $60, rental $3.50. Bray Studios, Inc., 729 Seventh Ave., New York 19. Made with the co-operation and approval of the American Heart Association to stress the importance of regular check-ups; shows actual procedure of heart examination. MEAT ON FILM. Each 14 min., 16 min., color, free loan plus transportation. United World Films, 1445 Park Ave., New York 29. Series emphasizing the many things, particularly meat, that are needed in the diet to satisfy the requirements of good nutrition. Varied and conservative ways of cooking meat while retaining food value are shown. (1) The Right Track (2) Our Mrs. Fix-It (3) Thanks to Beef (4) Pork 'Round the Clock (5) It's Lamb Time Write Visual Education Dept., National Livestock and Meat Board, 407 S. Dearborn St., Chicago 5, for catalog listing complete selection. THE GREATEST GOOD. 27 min., 16 mm., color, free loan. Upjohn Co., 7171 Portage Rd., Kalamazoo, Mich. Shows results of combined efforts of medical and pharmaceutical research in the development and use of new medical products. Physical Education THEY GROW UP SO FAST. 27 min., 16 mm., sound, color, $135. Purchase only. Sponsored by AAHPER, The Athletic Institute, College Physical Education Assn., National Assn. for Physical Education of College Women, Society of State Directors, State and District AHPER and other organizations. Available from AAHPER Film Sales, 1201 - 16th St., N.W., Washington 6, D. C. This film depicts a well-rounded and integrated program of physical education for all children and youth. It is designed to interpret physical education to the public. Schools and colleges will want to show this to community groups and professional organizations. Recreation and Outdoor 1 reel, MAKING A BALANCED AQUARIUM. 16 mm., sound, b&w, $55. Coronet Films, 64 E. South Water St., Chicago 1, Ill. Demonstrates procedure of collecting soil and river gravel, placing these and water in a tank, planting pond weeds, and completing the aquarium with fish and other water animals. SMALL CRAFT SAFETY. 14 min., 16 mm., color, $150, b&w, $75. Herbert Kerkow, Inc., 480 Lexington Ave., New York 17. Demonstrates basic safety methods in prevention of accidents with small boats and teaches elementary small craft rescue techniques to enable boaters to help themselves and others. NEW RECORDS HAPPY HOUR RECORDS. Literature sent upon request, Windsor Records, 5528 N. Rosemead Blvd., Temple City, Calif. Series of basic dances for grades 3, 4, 5, and 6. 4-record series or single. Instructions for each dance with record. EDUCATIONAL SERIES: NURSERY RHYMES, SONG PLAYS, PARTY RECORDS. Write for complete list, Russell Records, 2480 Thompson Blvd., Ventura, Calif. Two to eight selections on each record. $1.59 per record. Designed especially for kindergarten and lower elementary grades and timed accordingly. RADIO TRANSCRIPTIONS. 16" discs, $10. Division of Press and Radio Relations, National Education Association, 1201 16th St., N.W., Wash., D. C. (1) Listen Judy, a play about school health services, and Search for Trouble, a dramatized account of help given a juvenile delinquent by his school. (2) School in Trouble and A Premium for the Teacher, are plays concerning the need for new school construction and higher pay for teachers. FOLK DANCES. Folkraft Records, 1159 Broad St., Newark 5, N. J. A new record series designed for use in the high school (see Dec. JOURNAL p. 55 for elementary series). Instructions, prepared by Olga Kulbitsky of Hunter College, included. Pressed in unbreakable plastic. $1.05 each. A Series of 4 Motion Pictures on EDUCATION CHILDBIRTH Sound, 16 mm, b & w Now being widely used at the senior high school and college levels • PRENATAL CARE •LABOR AND CHILDBIRTH . A NORMAL BIRTH • POSTNATAL CARE For rental, purchase, free preview MEDICAL ARTS PRODUCTIONS jay fro BASKETBALL STEEL CHAIN NETS The Only Net GUARANTEED for 3 YEARS! outdoors or indoors Send for Free Catalog JAYFRO ATHLETIC SUPPLY CO. Dept. J, Box 1065, NEW LONDON, CONN Coaches Col. (from p. 42) Combat Sense Most teams have only two months to condition themselves for their first competition. As a result, fencers continue to learn and progress through the season. Good fencers are developed in actual competition. Many who appear less skilled prove more effective in competitive situations. Dual meets provide the battle grounds for actions learned and practiced. These meets, fraught with all the elements of combat, are the testing grounds for real fencers, those with outstanding ability, for combat sense is invaluable and absolutely necessary in a top-notch fencer. ★ FENCING EQUIPMENT by Master Craftsmen Men's Gymnasium (Continued from page 11) tion of the building, are located the intercollegiate athletic and physical education dressing rooms, storage and equipment rooms. Entrances and exits in each of these facilities provide excellent traffic and communication in this area both internally as well as to the pool and the street. The third floor comprises only the headhouse located at the front of the building and the mechanical airconditioning equipment located at the rear of the building. The third floor headhouse section also provides offices for most of the teaching faculty of the professional teacher training unit as well as a library and a semi nar room. In addition to the above described floors, the building provides a basement which occupies one-half of the total building area. This area provides some offices, a large recreation room, additional athletic dressing quarters, a custodian's apartment, a research laboratory, a maintenance shop and mechanical room. Interspersed throughout the building are janitors closets, storage areas, and toilets calculated to provide for proper maintenance and service. The building is adequately lighted by incandescent, fluorescent, and mercury vapor lamps. Over-all dimensions show the gym proper to be 270 ft. long and 106 ft. wide. The seating capacity for athletic events is approximately 6,500, while approximately 9,000 can be accommodated for mass meetings. OUTSTANDING FEATURES The building possesses a number of interesting features of which the quality of flexibility or multiplicity of use are outstanding as follows: 1. It frequently occurs that we have "going" at the same time (a) an intramural shuffleboard schedule in the basement, (b) a basektball game in the auditorium area, (c) gymnastics practice in the physical education gym area, (d) study in the library in the headhouse area, (e) classes in the seminar rooms in the headhouse area, and (f) dressing and use of such areas for outdoor swimming. 2. The arrangement wherein the gym proper is located below the entrance, classroom, and administrative offices level is excellent. This provides a very desirable academic atmosphere. JANUARY 1956, JOURNAL OF 3. The air conditioning of the auditorium area and the library has proved invaluable. 4. The locating of the intercollegiate and the physical education dressing rooms on opposite sides of the building has provided more space for both units and has provided each unit with a maximum of "individuality of arrangement" for these respective facilities. 5. The physical education dressing area is so arranged that it can be quickly converted into two separate and self-sufficient areas by the closing of steel grilles. The shower and toilet facilities are located at either end of the room in order to serve these arrangements. 6. Each dressing area is planned with "wet" and "dry" corridors. 7. While the gym floor areas are contiguous and can be used as one unit they are fairly well separated by mobile folding bleacher seat units. 8. An emergency lighting and power unit can be started immediately upon failure of the regular power system. 9. The gymnasium proper is lighted by both incandescent and mercury vapor lamps. Use of both kinds of lamps simultaneously provides near daylight illumination while the use of the mercury vapor lamps alone is adequate and several times cheaper to operate than the incandescent system. CHANGES WE MIGHT MAKE Despite all of these attractive and superlative features, we have made. some mistakes. Given the opportunity to start over, we would, among other things, provide as follows: (1) a different location (to provide for expansion and parking); (2) more entrances; (3) more storage spaces; (4) an electrically operated folding door between main gym areas; (5) faster closing windows; (6) better security arrangements; (7) wider corridors; (8) some air conditioning for special small units; (9) some higher ceilings; (10) mechanically operated staging permanently installed and retractable; (11) a full basement; (12) a larger and higher ceilinged special exercise room; and (13) a much larger general equip ment room. These and several more changes would, we feel, improve our facility. What a wonderful thing is "hindsight"! However, our building has been priceless in providing for the almost limitless needs of a University that grew from a student body of aproximately 4,000 men to one of approximately 10,000 men and women in seven short years. ★ MASTER NO. 1500 Same design and construction as No. 1525 but without key control. Full two-year guarantee. Builders of the World Famous Master Laminated Padlocks Master Padlocks Favorite of America's Coaches Master Lock Company, Milwaukee 45, Wis. World's Largest Padlock Manufacturers College Health (from p. 35) havior, are difficult to gain through the medium of traditional methods. Motion pictures have the unique advantage of depicting action or behavior with its irresistible illusion of life and reality. Role-playing works especially well in situations. where a problem is being discussed with no progress, and where there seems to be no satisfactory solution. Problem-solving acquaints one with a process of solution, as well as a solution and a personal involvement in the learning situation. Field trips emphasize the value of concrete experience. These, of course, are only a few of the many teaching methods. As one reads more in the literature of general education, it becomes apparent that its objectives are all relevant to the central purpose of educating the student to become an intelligent participant in the life of a democratic society. Methods should be employed that concomitantly, at least, teach the meaning and process of democracy. Group discussions and committee projects are examples of these. Properly conceived, class DUKE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE Course in ON OCTOBER 1, 1956, a 15months' course will begin for men and women college graduates who can present twenty-six hours of college credit in the biological, physical and social sciences. Selected applicants having 90 hours of college credit who can meet the above science requirements, may be accepted. Physics and chemistry credits are required of all applicants. For further information, address Director, Division of Physical Therapy, Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, North Carolina. room experience should not only be preparation for citizenship; it should be citizenship in action. Too many of our health educators are skeptical about such methods. This reluctance to experiment must be abandoned, if health education is to contribute adequately to the objectives of general education. INSTRUCTOR PREPARATION In the last analysis, the success of of any course in general education rests with the competence of the members of the faculty. It is recognized that the quality of health education teaching has not been good. It is not enough to turn health education teaching over to specialists in related areas such as physical education and medical services. Health education teachers must be competent in the areas our Conferences on Health in Colleges mark as important for inclusion in health education curriculums-the physical, mental, and emotional health of the individual, family, and community. They must also be compentent in the methods which make for effective learning, and achievement of the objectives of general education. SURVIVAL AT STAKE If health education is revised, especially the areas of course content, teaching methods, and instructor preparation, to contribute to the objectives of general education, it can take its place with the most important courses in the curriculum. Surely, there is no course better equipped inherently to effect such a contribution. If health education is not revised along these lines it will soon become an appendage, if it remains in the curriculum at all. The realization of the need for such modification has been discovered and reaffirmed by three successive College Health Education Conferences over a period of 20 years. The realization, however, is dangerously ahead of the practice. Soon the blueprints must be made a going concern. At stake is the survival of a course that could be one of the best in general education curriculums. ★ 4 National Conference on Health in Colleges, A Health Program for Colleges. New York: National Tuberculosis Association, 1947, page 152. Figure Skating (Continued from page 17) number of figures. These are performed in repetitions and are traced over each other. The prescribed figures make up 60 per cent of the competition; the remaining 40 per cent is allotted to the skater's own free style. Here the skater becomes a choreographer, chooses her own music, and draws upon her background of modern and ballroom dance, ballet, and all the skating movements she has ever learned. After the routine is worked out and set to the music, usually a combination or medley of pieces, it is arranged to be played the required time, specifically four minutes and ten seconds. The judges score the contestants both on the interpretation of the music and on the execution of movements. LEISURE-TIME PURSUIT From the flooded tennis court to the Winter Olympics-these are the poles in the figure skating world. But in between there are gradations and degrees to suit everyone's taste and ability. Numerous communities. in our northern states and in Canada are providing ice and instruction in figure skating for children and adults. With the introduction of newer, better, and less expensive ways of producing ice through spraying and flooding during winter months, and the construction of outdoor iceskating rinks, the lack-of-ice factor is being gradually narrowed down. More and more individuals are finding figure skating a pleasurable and an appealing leisure time pursuit. ★ |