Here is a sample activity idea from our electronic book, Motor Magic: Turn Fine Motor Skills into Gross Motor Skills. This is a fun, outdoor activity that encourages fine motor skills, eye hand coordination, motor planning, gross motor skills and balance. The electronic book has 25 activity ideas incorporating fine and gross motor skills and is available at www.YourTherapySource.com/motormagic.
Heard about this from @KarenJan on Twitter. Speech recognition software enables computer users to use voice commands to control the computer such as typing and mouse functions. Some students with dysgraphia, physical or learning disabilities use this type of software. If you are thinking of recommending speech recognition software for a student, you may want to check out this website – www.customtyping.com. They have created a short evaluation form to determine if the student has the ability to use speech recognition. This type of assistive technology requires training and considerable practice (not to mention money for certain programs). This evaluation tool helps to determine the level of assistance and training a student will need to learn how to use voice input.
Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly reports on research indicating that persons with intellectual disabilities frequently join inclusive sports but do not continue with the inclusive sports overtime. Parents reported rejection by staff and other participants. In addition, parents felt there was a lack of contact and understanding of people with intellectual disabilities.
Physical activity for persons with disabilities is extremely important. It is disappointing to hear that parents find inclusive sports not appropriate for children with intellectual disabilities. School based occupational and physical therapists can be instrumental in promoting physical activity for the disabled. Try to schedule a presentation on inclusive sports for your community or school. Here are some tips to help any children with disabilities participate in inclusive sports programs:
1. First and foremost make sure that the sports program is accessible for the child. If not, offer some modifications that can make the program accessible.
2. Educate the coaches and volunteers on the child’s disability. If a coach does not know what to do this can make participation very difficult.
3. If any modifications require adapted equipment, make sure all sports staff know how to use it.
4. Offer suggestions on how to present the directions or rules in different formats instead of just verbally. Maybe the coach could provide written rules or visual demonstrations.
5. Inform sports staff that the child may need accomodations such as more time to complete a skill.
6. If a child requests additional help, perhaps assign a partner (peer or adult) to help.
7. Do not assume a child can not do a task. If possible and safe, always let them try first before determining that something can not be accomplished. Most likely, sports staff will be amazed at what children can accomplish.
8. Remind staff of safety precautions that be necessary for specific disabilities such as a visual or hearing impairment.
Based on your own expereinces, what have you done to support inclusive sports? Please comment.
Reference: Eva Hiu-Lun Tsai, Lena Fung. Parents’ Experiences and Decisions on Inclusive Sport Participation of Their Children With Intellectual Disabilities
APAQ, 26(2), April 2009.
Your Therapy Source Inc is the host this month for the OT Blog Carnival Edition #3. This is a summary of the blog posts that were submitted for the Blog Carnival. There was no specific topic for this edition therefore there is a variety of topics discussed. I have started with the pediatric posts since our blog focuses on pediatric therapy.
1. Barbara Smith OTR, submitted a post from her blog, HorseOT, which shares hippotherapy ideas and resources. Her post is a book review of The Horse Boy . She submitted this topic because she thought that this book poses many questions of importance to occupational therapists, as well as all therapists involved with hippotherapy.
2. Alison M. Bodor, OTR/L, submitted Wii for Pediatrics posted at OT-Advantage.com. This is an overview on how pediatric clients can benefit from the Wii.
3. Margaret Rice, PT, submitted from Your Therapy Source Inc, a sensory integration quiz to test your knowledge of sensory processing.
4. Karen Dobyns, an OT student submitted from Occupational Therapy Students Belong blog a post on her impression of ADHD.
5. Rintu submitted from Me and Occupational Therapy blog an article on the role of substance abuse in OT.
6. Ventan Mailoo also submitted a post on substance abuse from meta-OT blog entitled Drunkenness is Stupid.
That is it for submissions. Although, I wanted to include one more item. A funny comic strip on occupational therapy – Agnes.
Want to be included in the next OT Blog Carnival? Submit your article now at Blog Carnival.
The FDA has added some updated information regarding the use of Botox in children. They are now requiring that all manufacturers of Botox add a box warning “regarding the risk of adverse events when the effects of the toxin spread beyond the site where it was injected”. The manufacturers also have to come up with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy. This is to measure whether the benefits outweigh the risks. THE FDA has reviewed new data regarding the use of Botox in pediatric cases. This is the summary:
In pediatric postmarketing adverse event case reports, botulinum toxin products were mostly used to treat muscle spasticity in cerebral palsy, a use that has not been approved by the FDA. The reported cases of spread of botulinum toxin effect beyond the site of injection were described as botulism, or involved symptoms including difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, muscular weakness, drooping eyelids, constipation, aspiration pneumonia, speech disorder, facial drooping,double vision, or respiratory depression. Serious case reports described hospitalizations nvolving ventilatory support and reports of death.
The FDA continues to support the recommendations that they made previously on Feb 8, 2008 which you can read below.
On February 8, 2008 the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) issued a report on the use of Botulinum Toxin Type A and Type B in children and adults. They have received reports of severe adverse reactions (which may be botulism) to botulinum doses including hospitalization and death in children. These adverse effects have occurred mostly in children with spastic cerebral palsy. Doctors are currently using Botox off label in children with cerebral palsy for the drug is not approved for this use in the United States. The FDA is presently reviewing: data from pharmaceutical companies, medical research and evaluating cases from its reporting system. Currently the FDA reports that most of the pediatric cases were children under 16 years old with cerebral palsy limb spasticity.
The FDA recommends that any professionals that work with clients who receive botulinum should be aware of the symptoms of botulism. Some symptoms of botulism are:
difficulty swallowing
weakness
difficulties breathing
voice changes
shortness of breath.
They should also inform the clients of these symptoms so that they are aware of potential side effects and to seek immediate medical attention. In addition, the FDA reports that these symptoms of botulism have been reported to occur as quickly as one day after Botox and as late as several weeks after the Botox treatment.
If you have had experience with serious side effects of botulinum, the FDA would like you to report it by filling out a form at http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/report/hcp.htm.
Reference:
US Food and Drug Administration UPDATE Follow-up to the February 8, 2008, Early
Communication about an Ongoing Safety Review of Botox and Botox Cosmetic
(Botulinum toxin Type A) and Myobloc (Botulinum toxin Type B)
Retrieved from the web on 5/1/09 at http://www.fda.
gov/CDER/Drug/early_comm/botulinium_toxins200904.htm
US Food and Drug Administration. Early Communication about an Ongoing Safety
Review Botox and Botox Cosmetic (Botulinum toxin Type A) and Myobloc
(Botulinum toxin Type B). Retrieved from the web on 3/19/08 at
http://www.fda.gov/cder/drug/early_comm/botulinium_toxins.htm.
Disclaimer: These pages are not intended to provide medical advice or physician/therapist instruction.
Information provided should not be used for diagnostic or training purposes. Consult a therapist or physician regarding specific diagnoses or medical advice.
New research published in the Journal of Pediatrics reports that 16 children (ages 6-11 years old) with developmental disabilities had decreased anxiety during dental visits when a sensory adapted environment was used. The study compared developmentally disabled children to typical peers. During the first dental visit, no environmental adaptations were used. During the second dental visit, each group experienced a sensory adapted environment of
1. color lamp
2. examiner wore LED headlamp aiming light directly at patient’s mouth
3. soothing music
4. wearing a heavy vest to give feeling of a hug
5. vibration in the dental chair.
During the second visit, anxiety levels were decreased in all children. The children with developmental disabilities experienced a more significant decrease in anxiety.
These are very simple adaptations to try during a dental visit. Keep in mind, that each child reacts differently to certain sensory stimuli. For example, one child may like the vibration and one child may find it to be noxious. A trained occupational therapist could offer further suggestions on an individual basis for children with developmental disabilities.
Reference: Michele Shapiro OT, MSca, b, , , Harold D. Sgan-Cohen DMD, MPHc, Shula Parush OT, PhDb and Raphael N. Melmed MD, FRCPd Influence of Adapted Environment on the Anxiety of Medically Treated Children with Developmental Disability The Journal of Pediatrics
Volume 154, Issue 4, April 2009, Pages 546-550
Here is a video on 4 children with autism and how they use Google Sketch Up. This is a great program for visual spatial learners. If anyone has used this with older children on the spectrum please comment. I would love to hear how it worked.
Here is a slide show on how to make your own ink dabbers. The great thing about this idea is that you can modify the dabber for children with varying abilities. This works well with our electronic book DOT Letter and Shapes.
Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine published research that indicated children who lack self regulation exhibit excessive weight gain. This was a longitudinal study of 1061 children. The children participated in self regulation tasks at ages 3 and 5 years old. They were then followed until 12 years of age with body mass index (BMI) being measured 6 times throughout that time. The children who exhibited a decrease in the ability to self regulate had the highest BMI and the most rapid weight gain.
Curious to know do you observe this trend in children with a lack of self regulation?
Reference: Lori A. Francis; Elizabeth J. Susman
Self-regulation and Rapid Weight Gain in Children From Age 3 to 12 Years
Arch Pediatr Adolesc Med. 2009;163(4):297-302.
