Picture a magician on a big stage in front of hundreds of people who are ready to be blown away by illusions and tricks. Kevin Spencer has been in that setting, but he recently took his skills to a much smaller stage – a classroom at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
Spencer is an illusionist, author, educator and the creator of Magic Therapy. It’s a research-based technique therapists can use to incorporate simple magic tricks into their practice. Last month, Spencer published his newest book, Using Magic Tricks in Occupational Therapy: Performance, Play, and Purpose, which is a guide for occupational therapists on how to use the technique.
OT hocus pocus
For eight years, Spencer has visited UAB to hold workshops. He said the concepts of Magic Therapy are used in thousands of hospitals and rehab centers around the world.
A life-threatening car accident pushed him to incorporate his passion for magic into his own recovery.
“I was thinking about it from my perspective as a patient in rehab,” Spencer said. “What would help me stay more engaged in my therapy? What would motivate me to want to develop my fine motor skills or develop my cognitive processes? And magic just became that, in my thinking, very logical way to do that.”
Spencer said magic helps enforce functions including cognition, motor skills, receptive and expressive communication, and social skills.
Those are some of the ideas Spencer imparted during a three-hour class with occupational therapy graduate students earlier this fall. About halfway through his presentation, Spencer showed the class a video of Tristan, a young boy who has hemiplegia – a condition that causes paralysis in parts of the body.
During the clip, Tristan is doing a magic trick using his affected hand. Tristan struggles a bit, but his determination overpowers the frustration, and he successfully completes the trick.
“The end of the first week when his mom came to pick him up, he reached up with his affected hand, took his mom by the hand and says, ‘Mom, I don't think you're going to have to take care of me for the rest of my life,” Spencer told the class.
Spencer said over his years of teaching magic, he’s noticed how inspired the children and the students become.
“Giving that motivation to a child to feel proud of something that they're doing, I think, is a great way to incorporate that into our care,” student Phoebe Notter said.
With the students riding on inspiration and excitement, it was time for them to learn Magic Therapy with their own two hands.
Work your magic
One by one, students grabbed magic kits, complete with a magic wand, from the front table.
Spencer started the lesson by teaching them how to tie a knot without removing their hands from either end of the rope.
“I still can’t figure out how to do it without somebody knowing it, but now I'm dedicated to learn it when I get home,” student Sydney Scarpula said. “So, I'm probably gonna practice instead of studying tonight.”
It's a game of trial and error for some students. Spencer watched closely and coached them through every trick while explaining how the moves can be incorporated with clients.
For a final trick, each student took two paper clips and placed them on a folded dollar bill. Once the bill was pulled to its full length, the paperclips became connected.
Excitement burst forth from many students when they finally figured out how to do the tricks themselves.
“It just showed me how different therapy can be,” student Adaeze Okafor said. “You can also be creative with your therapy with clients as well.”
The students will have the chance to put their skills into practice next summer. As part of the UAB-backed Magic Camp program, they’ll teach those tricks to children with disabilities ages nine to 18. Spencer said the work makes a difference.
“When you have a disability, society already makes you feel less than.” Spencer said. “When you can give them something to do that can't be replicated by normal society, that's incredibly empowering for them,”
It’s said that a magician never reveals his or her secrets. But by sharing his tricks, Kevin Spencer shows how magic’s impact isn’t confined to the stage.
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