We're so excited to celebrate Hand Therapy Week, an integrated national program established by ASHT. Throughout the week, members of the hand and upper extremity therapy community sponsor and organize events and celebrations in an effort to raise awareness among various audiences, highlight the benefits of the specialty and educate the public.
Need some #HTW2025 inspiration? Here are some creative ideas for celebrating the specialty.
One of our favorite ways to celebrate is by participating in ASHT's daily themed challenges. We hope you'll take at least of these themes and make it your own, sharing with us on social media by tagging ASHT and using #HTW2025!
Monday (6/2): Empower Your Grip — Who is the strongest in your clinic? Take your grip strength or a colleague’s grip strength with a dynamometer and post the dynamometer recording to your socials. Experiment with different positions (e.g. elbow flexed, elbow extended, forearm in neutral vs supinated).
Tuesday (6/3): HandGPT — AI image generators often struggle with accurately depicting human hands due to their complex structure and variability. Try prompting AI to create hand imagery (e.g. hook fist, table top, oppose thumb to base of the small finger). Share your funniest/most absurd results and what you used as a prompt.
Wednesday (6/4): Therapy Putty Art Exhibition — Explore creativity and expression through our Therapy Putty Art Exhibition — open to patients, therapists and anyone who enjoys working with their hands. This fun, no-pressure activity invites you to create a unique sculpture using therapy putty and share it with our community. Whether it’s abstract, whimsical or meaningful, your creation is a celebration of imagination and wellness. Mold, snap a photo and submit your artwork today!
Thursday (6/5): One-hand Challenge — As hand therapists, we often treat individuals who injure their dominant hand and need to use their non-dominant, typically more uncoordinated, hand for everyday tasks. Now it’s your turn to try to perform daily tasks with your non-dominant hand! Take a video of yourself or a colleague executing a common daily task with your non-dominant hand (tying shoes, eating with a fork, putting your hair in a ponytail).
Friday (6/6): "Deserted Island" Survival Kit — If you had only one essential therapy tool, exercise or resource to choose from to "survive" your work day, what would it be? It could be your goniometer, a hammer or binder clips. Show us what and why!
There's also still time to join Team ASHT in the 10th Annual American Hand Therapy Foundation Virtual Run/Walk! We are proud to sponsor this event to support upper extremity research and education. Complete a 5K run/walk by the end of Hand Therapy Week to support AHTF's research and education grants. Please join the official ASHT team and help us climb the leaderboard!
Want to share more information about the specialty? Utilize our vast library of Patient Education Resources, including Spanish translations of our most popular topics. In celebration of Hand Therapy Week, we've released two new resources and four new translations! These resources provide information on common diagnoses and the role a hand therapist plays in treatment.
— Cyclist's Palsy
— Return to Yoga After Injury
— Finger Dislocation Injuries - PIP (Spanish)
— Shoulder Impingement (Spanish)
— Olecranon Fracture (Spanish)
— TFCC Injuries (Spanish)
You might also take advantage of ASHT's hand and upper extremity therapy flyers. We've made available different versions of the flyers for you to tailor your message to surgeons, primary care providers, the public, etc. Feel free to personalize the flyers by including your clinic's contact information in the space provided.
We know you are proud to be a part of our hand and upper extremity therapy specialty and can't wait to see how you celebrate this year!
Thank you to our 2025 Hand Therapy Week sponsor, Össur and Naked Prosthetics!