To gain more insight and research, I wanted to do testing on myself as well with a sensory ball that is being used by many stroke survivors. I tried this experiment over three days and documented it. This was also important for me to understand the life of a stroke survivor better.
Day one: I carried it around throughout the whole day in order to use it as often as possible. The feeling of holding it in my hand felt like a massage to a healthy hand like mine and distracted me from feeling anxious or nervous, but overall I figured out that the ball was slightly too big for my hand. In my opinion, I would have needed a smaller one to make it more handy. When thinking of stroke survivors, who often can’t even really open their hands or not at all, this would also come in their favor. Having not just different strengths, but also a bigger variety of sizes would probably be more engaging for many patients. Additionally, some stroke survivors can’t even move their hands at all, which makes it even harder to press the ball at all.
Day two: I had the ball with me during my daily activities but recognized how the usage is lessened when it comes to the practice itself. After about three minutes I became disinterested. Also touching and feeling the same without having any variety made it even more dull.
With this a ball that could turn came into my mind, to get the feeling of more than just the spikes.
Day three: the engagement and motivation were also not much better than on day two, nevertheless I tried to make use of it more on the last day. Again what bothered me was also the fact that it did not fit my hand properly and was therefore not practical. This made me also realize how it can fall out of a stroke survivor’s hand easily since they are not capable of grabbing items in many cases.
