Kentwood Park resident Thomas Munro poses with some of the 30 pictures he has coloured over the past three months. Munro, a retired home renovator, began using colouring books as a tool to help improve motor skills.
Resident creates colouring program to enhance skills
Wednesday December 5, 2007 -- Deron Hamel
A resident at Kentwood Park has taken to colouring as a form of therapy, and he’s encouraging some of the other guys at the Picton long-term care home to join him.

After sustaining nerve damage that left him with limited use of his left hand, southpaw Thomas Munro wasn’t about to let it get the best of him. Instead, the retired home renovator decided to focus on improving the co-ordination in his right hand, using colouring books as a tool.

So far, he says the books have been successful for him.

“I completely changed hands. I was left-handed, but now I do everything with my right hand,” says Munro.

The idea to be an advocate for his own therapy came to Munro one day while shopping with a friend. While at the store he bought a colouring book and a pack of crayons and everything took off from there.

"I couldn’t write or anything, so I said, ‘Well, I need some therapy for my hand so I can get writing,’” he recalls.

Eventually, Munro hopes to be able to improve his right-hand co-ordination to the point where he can print legibly. By perfecting his abilities in colouring, his plan is to work his way up from colouring to improving his penmanship with his right hand.

For Munro, it’s like learning to write all over again, he says. And just like his early school days, Munro says he’s starting with basic concepts like colouring and drawing different shapes.

Not only does learning how to write with a different hand take a lot of practice, it also “takes a lot of mind work,” Munro adds.

Since starting his own therapy regime a few months back, two other male residents at the home have joined Munro in his colouring program. Both of Munro’s recruits have suffered strokes and, like Munro, they want to improve their co-ordination and mobility.

“I’m trying to get another guy into it, too, but he’s kind of backed off. I’ll keep nagging at him,” says Munro with a chuckle, adding that it “feels good” to have created something that’s not only helping himself, but also helping other residents at the home.