October 2nd, 2010
Parents are an integral part of the special education team. They know the most about their children strengths, weaknesses and personal preferences. Therapists and other school staff need to include parents in all decision making for children. Here are some tips on improving your communication with parents:
1. Always start off a conversation stressing a child’s strengths. No one wants to hear only negative comments.
2. Be very specific about your concerns for their child without using any medical terminology.
3. Do not be judgemental. If the child is the firstborn in a family, parents may not always recognize delays in the child’s development.
4. Be patient. You may be the first person to tell the parents that their child may need some extra help. Give them time to digest the information and schedule a time to talk again.
5. Allow plenty of time for questions. Make sure you have the time to address any questions the parent may have. Do not run off to your next scheduled appointment with unanswered questions.
6. Listen! Make sure you listen to the parent’s comment or concerns. They usually have the best insight into their own child.
To read more on communication, check out the article Let’s Talk: How To Communicate Effectively with the Special Educaiton Team.
Would love to hear from parents with any of their own tips on how to improve communication. Please comment.
Posted in school based therapy | No Comments »
October 1st, 2010
October 2010 is Physical Therapy Month. The APTA is promoting physical therapists to encourage families to combat obesity with physical activity this month. They have produced a hand out entitled “Smart Moves for Families”. It can be viewed below or downloaded from the APTA website. Print it out and send home with children at your school.
If you would like more ideas to celebrate Physical Therapy Month read our post from last year on PT Month.
Posted in physical activity for children, physical therapy month | No Comments »
September 30th, 2010
Finish Line Youth Foundation is offering grants to programs for youth athletic programs and camps for children under 18 years of age. They are particularly interested in helping camps for disadvantaged children and children with special needs. If you would like to submit a grant proposal there is a quick eligibility quiz you can take to see if your organization qualifies. In general, the grants range form $1000 – $5000. You can find out more information at the Finish Line Youth Foundation.
Posted in grants | No Comments »
September 29th, 2010
Many children benefit from the use of social stories to help to familiarize them with different social situations and to improve behavioral responses. A recent study followed 3 autistic children in kindergarten through 5th grade. Social stories were written to target specific behaviors for each child. The results indicated that following the use of the social stories, modest improvements were noted in on task behaviors. Further improvements in on task behaviors were seen when the social story was followed up with a complimentary visual schedule.
Reference: Naomi Schneider and Howard Goldstein Using Social Stories and Visual Schedules to Improve Socially Appropriate Behaviors in Children With Autism Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions July 2010 12: 149-160.
Sensory Mini Books and Charts: includes visual schedules for sensory diets
Posted in autism, sensory processing disorder | No Comments »
September 28th, 2010
A recent study in Pediatric Diabetes examined the neurocognitive functioning of 68 preschool children, 36 with Type 1 diabetes and 32 without any chronic illness. The two groups were administered a number of tools to assess cognitive, language and fine motor skills. The results indicated that the children in both groups performed similarly with skills in the average range. The children with Type 1 diabetes with poor glycemic control scored lower on cognitive skills and receptive language and had slower fine motor speed.
Reference: Patiño-Fernández AM et al. Neurocognitive functioning in preschool-age children with type 1 diabetes mellitus. Pediatr Diabetes. 2010 Sep;11(6):424-30. Epub 2010 Apr 23
Posted in diabetes, fine motor skills, pediatric occuaptional therapy | No Comments »
September 27th, 2010
My Study Bar is an open source applications that can assist students with reading, studying and writing. There are six areas of My Study Bar: reading, writing, studying, vision, voice and help. You can download My Study Bar for free onto your computer or a USB stick. The benefit to the USB stick is that you can provide it to students to use on any computer (home or school). There are organization tools, word prediction, speech to text app, text to audio and more. These are all for free! Check it out at My Study Bar – http://www.rsc-ne-scotland.ac.uk/eduapps/mystudybar.php
Posted in assistive technology | No Comments »
September 25th, 2010
The Archives of Otolaryngol – Head and Neck Surgery published research on the use of Botox injections to control drooling. One hundred thirty one children with cerebral palsy or other neurological condition with moderate to severe drooling received an injection of Botox to the submandibular glands. Following the injections, 46.6% of the children responded to the treatment. This was demonstrated by a significant mean reduction in the drooling quotient dropping from 29 to 15 at after 2 months and from 29 to 19 after 8 months. In addition, a visual analog scale rated by the caretakers showed decreased scores from 83 to 53 after 2 months and increased back up to 66 at 8 months. An analysis showed that after a mean of 22 weeks a relapse occurred in the patients who initially showed a response to the treatment.
Reference: Arthur R. T. Scheffer, MD; Corrie Erasmus, MD; Karen van Hulst, BSc; Jacques van Limbeek, MD, PhD; Peter H. Jongerius, MD, PhD; Frank J. A. van den Hoogen, MD, PhD Efficacy and Duration of Botulinum Toxin Treatment for Drooling in 131 Children Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2010;136(9):873-877. doi:10.1001/archoto.2010.147
Posted in botox, drooling | No Comments »
September 24th, 2010
Learning to type can be boring after awhile and monotonous. How about try some games to motivate children to learn how to type? Here are a few suggested websites with free online typing games:
Simple, basic typing skills: Sense-Lang.org Typing games at http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/games/index.php?lang=EN
Easy, Medium and Difficult Typing Games:
Typing Web at http://www.typingweb.com/tutor/games/
A video game approach to learning to type at FreeTypingGames.net at http://www.freetypinggame.net/play.asp
Good animation with this spider typing game (thanks @OTKate from Twitter for finding this one) - http://funschool.kaboose.com/fun-blaster/games/game_super_hyper_spider_typer.htmlWhat is your favorite, free online typing game?
Posted in assistive technology, pediatric occupational therapy | 2 Comments »
September 23rd, 2010
There are thousands of applications available for the iPhone and the iPad. For those of you who work with children with autism it can be difficult to know where to start when you search the applications that are available. A few people have written some informative blog posts on apps and autism. Check them out to get an idea of what is available.
Characteristics of Great Apps for Kids With Autism : guest blog post written by a mother (and ex-software developer) of a 9 year old boy with autism and the factors influencing which apps to choose
Best iPad Apps for Autism and Asperger’s Syndrome : This article is a review of different apps divided into different areas – apps for adults, behavioral, social, communication, music and books. Nice overview.
Slideshare on Apps for Autism: Nice picture images describing the basics of different apps for autism
Posted in autism, iPhone apps | No Comments »
September 22nd, 2010
An interesting study was published in The Journal of Pediatrics comparing the fitness levels of males and females with cystic fibrosis. A 6 week inpatient rehabilitation program was conducted with 158 females and 186 males subjects (ages 12-43 years) with cystic fibrosis. Lung function, peak oxygen uptake, peak workload, and peak heart rate were measured. The results indicated the following:
- lower lung function in males
- lower aerobic capacity in females
- same training effects were seen in males and females for peak oxygen uptake and peak heart rate but not in peak work load
- individuals who were less fit at the start of the program showed the most improvement
The researchers concluded that fitness level and not lung function determined the improvements following the 6 week rehabilitation program.
Reference: Wolfgang Gruber, MSc, PhDa, David M. Orenstein, MDb, Klaus Michael Braumann, MDc, Karl Paul, MDd, Gerd Hüls, MDe Effects of an Exercise Program in Children with Cystic Fibrosis: Are There Differences between Females and Males? The Journal of Pediatrics Abstract September 2010 doi:10.1016/j.jpeds.2010.07.033
Posted in cystic fibrosis, pediatric physical therapy | 3 Comments »
