Posts on other blogs

Posts:

Cara: 4th posting

Chloe: 1st post

Godhelp 5th post

Heather: 5th post

Reference list: 

Algase, D., & Yao, L., Son, G., & Beattle, E., & Bec, C., & Whall, A (2007). Initial psychometric of the         ambiance scale: A tool to study person- environment interaction in dementia. Aging & mental health. 11 (3): 266-272.

Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in
psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822–848

Caulton,K., & Dickson, R. (2007). What is going on? Finding out an explanation for what we do. In Creek, J.,& Lawson-porter, A. (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy. (pp. 87-112). Chichesten John Wiley & sons Ldt


Christiansen, C., H & Townsend, E., A. (2010). Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (2^nd ed). New Jersey USA:       Pearson Education Inc.  


Crepeau, E. (2003). Analysing occupation and activity: A way of thinking about occupational performance. In         Crepeau, E.. Cohn. & Schell B (Eds.). Willard and Spackman's occupational therapy. (10th ed., pp 189- 198). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins


Mahy, M. (1976). A work of art. In The door in the air and other stories. Delacorte books for young readers.


Majercsic, E. (2005). Hierarchy of needs of generic patients. Gerontology. 51:170-173

Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for
depression: A new approach to preventing relapse. New York: Guilford Press

Practical considerations: 5. Ginger breadmen

For this baking session I baked with my partners niece.We made ginger bread men, her choice. It reminded me of the article called "A work of Art" by Margaret Mayhe, 1988 where a character in the story, Mrs Baskin was baking for her son Brian with her three youngest children. This article related to that day that I was baking as I was also baking with a small child and I was able to relate to the story in that way. We began by gathering all the ingredients together on the bench and making sure that we had all of the ingredients (ergonomics). Madison is 5 years old so to be able to reach the bench I had to get a box for her to stand on (practical consideration).  Baking the ginger bread men is done in stages. First you mix all the main ingredients together. The the mixture is then taken out and cut into men shapes using cookie cutters. Once baked and cooled we ices them. This was Madison's favorite bit. I had to be real careful with the food colouring and electric mixer while I was baking with her as she is not quite at the age that she can handle responsibility independently, this was another practical consideration. We used pebble lollies as the buttons for the ginger bread men and gave then all eyes and mouths. After we iced them we waited for them to set before we ate them.The environment that we baked  was a good positive atmosphere. As shown in the photo below the gingerbread men are aesthetically pleasing, they look good and were all iced with only a few that had to be redone! I enjoyed doing the baking.  It was a bit time consuming which could be considered bad ethics, but overall the baking went well.

Gingerbread men
125g butter
1/4 cup golden syrup
2cups flour
1 T ginger
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup self raising flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing:
1 egg white
1 1/4 cup icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon
Food colouring
Lollies

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees
2. Beat butter, sugar and syrup in a bowl until light and creamy
3. Add egg gradually
4. Sift dry ingredients and mix with a knife until combined
5. Knead for two minutes
6. Put in the fridge for 10 minutes
7. roll out using a rolling pin
8. Cut into shapes
9. Put onto a greased tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes
10. Cool once out of the oven

Icing
1. place egg whites in bowl and beat until foamy
2. Add lemon juice and icing sugar gradually
3. Split mixture into different bowls and add the food colouring
4. Ice the cookies and add lollies for buttons (optional)

Mahy, M. (1976). A work of art. In The door in the air and other stories. Delacorte books for young readers.

Work and labor: 4. Baking bread

            For my fourth baking activity I chose to bake bread. I don't have a bread maker so I usually bake my bread in the oven. I start but making the yeast up with warm water, sugar and yeast. Making bread is a new aspect to baking for me and I have only started doing it in the last year. As I was a baking I thought about the difference between me making this bread and some one that is making food to survive. The difference is in the reason for the occupation which can fit into Mazlo hierarchy of needs (Majercsik, 2005). The need being for survival (labour) or leisure (work). Work and labour are two separate focuses of occupation. Work is an enjoyed activity, a choice that an individual makes to do an activity. Labour is a activity that is required to survive, a necessity to live     

            

     Baking bread is an example of labour in Mazlos hierarchy of needs. It is an activity that can be done for fun but it also is an activity that is needed for survival as it is a food. The act of baking bread is not necessarily a laboriousness task however it can be a labour of love as described in Caulton and Dickson 2007. Eating is a survival need and as baking is food it is a need, however the fact that I enjoy baking, it can be argued that it has another layer involved as I am not just baking to eat but to have fun. Work is a activity that involves an individual doing the activity for a non survival purpose such as playing cards. It can be found in some aspects of baking such as the aesthetics of cake decorating or drawing a design in the mixture. Cooking is a activity that contrasts some aspects of my chosen activity of baking as it is mainly a task described as a high labour task. It is essential to eat to survive and cooking usually involves more nutritious ingredients to promote healthy eating compared to baking.

 Home made bread recipe:
 3 cups flour
1t baking powder
2 teaspoons oil
pinch of salt

1 teaspoon yeast  
1 Table spoon sugar
1 cup warm water

1.Combine yeast sugar and warm water and leave to sit for approx 10- 20 minutes
2. Combine flour baking powder and salt by sifting into a large mixing bowl
3. Make a well in the center of the flour, add oil and yeast mix
4. Mix together and kneed for five minutes
5.Put aside for 20minutes to let the dough rise
6. Place on baking tray and bake for 20 minutes at 180 degrees or until brown

Reference

Majercsic, E. (2005). Hierarchy of needs of generic patients. Gerontology. 51:170-173

Cauton, R.& Dickson, R. (2007).  What's going on? Finding an explanation for what we do. In Creek, J., & Lawson- Porter, A. (Eds.) Contemporary issues in occupational therapy. Chichester John Wiley & sons ltd

Affordance and Ambiance: 3. Baking apple and cinnamon muffins

The day I baked apple and cinnamon muffins was a wet rainy day. Rainy days always trigger my baking as this is when I did baking with my mum when I was young.The rainy days create connections from previous baking experiences. Rainy days connects me to the kitchen of my mothers home, to the mixing bowls my mum used, to the baking that I did using the bowls, to the baking that I did when I was young on rainy days. It brings back memories from my childhood and baking with my mum and sisters. I began searching for a recipe  but could only find a recipe for blueberry muffins. I thought berries and apples are both fruit so id just substitute the recipe and go with the flow.  The smell of the muffins in the oven filled the room. I then removed them from the oven. I did all the dishes.Doing the dishes is important in my spirituality as after I bake it is important to me to have a clean kitchen.
I used ethics when I considered what were the good and bad things about this baking experience. The good was that  the baking  was enjoyable and gave a sense of accomplishment, the bad were that I did not follow a recipe and it took a bit of time to do. I also considered what my muffins looked like (aesthetics), the muffins need to look appetizing and enjoyable to eat.The environment was cool as it was raining. The atmosphere was perfect for my baking as I was not rushed so it was a pleasant environment. This reminded me of a passage in an article that talked about occupational based activity analysis. It talked about how a persons interests, goals, abilities and the context all interact and put different demands on an activity (Crepeau, 2003). Baking  consists of all my memories, connections, ethics and personal influences as well as the kitchen I bake in which put demands on how I bake.

Apple and cinnamon  muffins ( my adapted recipe)

2 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup milk

50g butter

1cup stewed apple

2 teaspoons cinnamon

1. Combine in one bowl sugar butter and eggs until light and fluffy

2.Mix in flour baking powder and cinnamon
3. Make a well in the center of the mixture and pour in milk and apples
4. fold together mixture, do not mix as muffins will turn tough
5.   Bake at 180 degrees for 20minutes or until brown

Affordance are the environmental properties that support goal directed behaviour (Christiansen & Townsend, 2004). It is the factors in the environment that provide potential for an opportunity these are through connections, memories and ethics for example .

Ambiance is the mood or atmosphere of the environment, it is the term used to describe
the overall effect of the physical and social features of an environment and the individual feelings behaviour, actions of a person (Algase, Yao, Son, Beattie, Beck & Whall, 2007)



Algase, D., & Yao, L., Son, G., & Beattle, E., & Bec, C., & Whall, A (2007). Initial psychometric of the ambiance scale: A tool to study person- environment interaction in dementia. Aging & mental health. 11 (3): 266-272.
Crepeau, E. (2003). Analysing occupation and activity: A way of thinking about occupational performance. In         Crepeau, E.. Cohn. & Schell B (Eds.). Willard and Spackman's occupational therapy. (10th ed., pp 189- 198). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins

Christiansen, C., H & Townsend, E., A. (2010). Introduction to occupation: The art and science of living (2^nd ed). New Jersey USA:       Pearson Education Inc.   

Ergonomics: 2. Baking a chocolate cake

 There are lots of different ways to bake a cake, but the cake that I baked was a microwave cake. This is not the conventional way to bake, however it still turns out the same. I had to change the way I baked my cake as I did not have access to an oven at the time. First I went to the supermarket to purchase  the ingredients I needed to make the cake. I  went to the local supermarket to buy my ingredients which made me consider how this related to the use of ergonomics in my chosen activity. As stated in Caulton and Dickson, 2007, part of a good ergonomic system involves direct exchange in goods and services. For my chosen baking activity I exchanged money for the ingredients I needed to do my baking and was limited by the money I had to exchange for the food.   I then began putting all the ingredients together found in the recipe and continued making the cake using mindfulness. I use ergonomics again while baking by making slight adjustments to the activity so I was able to bake the cake using a microwave instead of an oven.


Baking  this cake  required an environment that had specific equipment and features such as a microwave and cooling rack. This cake  can be baked all year round as seasons do not effect this activity. My baking is usually done inside in a kitchen. To bake for example a chocolate cake you need an oven or microwave, baking trays, cooling rack, mixing bowel, spatula, measuring cups and spoons, a knife and all the ingredients listed below.  Baking can be graded in difficulty as some baking tasks will be easier to do such as a microwave  chocolate cake. Baking a cheese cake or gateau requires more skill and more steps to complete which have to be considerd.






Chocolate cake:
1 1/3 cup flour
 3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3 Tablespoons cocoa
2 eggs
130 grams butter


 1. Combine butter, sugar and egg in a mixing bowl until fluffy
 2. mix together in another bowl the flour baking power and cocoa
3. Add baking soda to milk
4. Combine dry ingredients with butter mixture
5. Make a well in the center, pour in milk and stir.
6. Put cake mix into microwave proof dish
7. Microwave for 7 1/2 minutes on high
8. Cool for 10 minutes




 Ergonomics can be broken into interrelationships between the person, activity and environment (Caulton and Dickson 2007). This balance creates a area where productivity is at its greatest. 

Caulton,K., & Dickson, R. (2007). What is going on? Finding out an explanation for what we do. In Creek, J.,& Lawson-porter, A. (Eds.), Contemporary issues in occupational therapy. (pp. 87-112). Chichesten John Wiley & sons Ldt

Mindfulness: 1. Baking Cookies :)

This week the class looked at the use of mindfulness. Mindfulness is looking not at just one aspect of an activity but the activity as a whole. For my first activity experience I baked chocolate chip cookies.  I baked the chocolate chip cookies using an altered sense of consciousness using all the body's senses to do the activity. I began with finding the recipe and the ingredients to make it. Then I began mixing all the ingredients. I enjoyed the experience of seeing the different ingredients mixed together, smelling the fresh baking and rolling out the cookies. This baking experience was enjoyable as for the first time I used mindfulness and all my senses; Sight, smell, touch, sound, taste. The smell of the chocolate chip cookies stimulates the senses and makes me think about how they taste. Using mindfulness during my activity related to an article I read that described it as a present-moment awareness that is believed to enhance balance and psychological well-being (Segal, Williams, & Teasdale, 2002). The baking did  enhance the balance in my day, I was able to open my mind to think about the present moment and relax in doing so. To be mindful a person needs to be in touch with their innermost self and be aware of what is around them.


Baking chocolate cookies: the recipe
125g butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup caster sugar
1 egg lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cup flour
1 cup chocolate chips

Instructions:
 1. Beat butter, essence, sugar and egg until smooth.
 2. Then stir in remaining dry ingredients until mixed through
 3. Bake at 180 degrees for 10- 15 minutes or until slightly brown

Mindfulness refers to being aware of and attending to ongoing experiences (Brown & Ryan, 2003; Kabat-Zinn, 2003).

References:

Brown, K. W., & Ryan, R. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in
psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822–848


Segal, Z. V., Williams, J. M. G., & Teasdale, J. D. (2002). Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for
depression: A new approach to preventing relapse. New York: Guilford Press

Participation in Occupation 2

This blog will now continue on to the second semester of participation in occupation 2. The class has been asked to pick a chosen topic of interest to talk about though out this next few weeks. My chosen activity is Baking. I will be blogging each week about this chosen topic. The blogs are related to the different topics we learn in class. These are Mindfulness, Ergonomics, Affordance, Ambiance, Practical considerations and Work and labour. I will head my bloods with each of these titles and will touch on the different areas throughout my blog.

Baking is a very special and meaningful occupation for me. I have been baking ever since i was able to hold a mixing spoon. It was one way that me and my two other siblings spent time with my mum. Baking was always  done as a family when I was young. Eventually as I got older I mastered the skill of baking and became the baker of my family known for my Christmas ginger bread men,  chocolate chip cookies and chocolate cake. Baking is an occupation I am good at and is definitely appreciated by my friends and family. It is meaningful to me and is a way for me to relax after a busy week at course and to think. Also the reward of eating home baking once out of the oven YUM!

I will be adding additional recipes and definitions at the bottom of each blog which should not count towards my word count.