Recently, the Journal of Intellectual Disabilities published research comparing responses to verbal versus tactile requests in children with congenital blindness, intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For trial one, requests were given verbally. For trial 2, tactile requests were given. The results indicated the following: 1. All students perceived tactile symbols to be explicit […]
A group of researchers at the CanChild Centre in Canada completed research comparing child focused therapy and context focused therapy for children with cerebral palsy. The participants included 128 children with cerebral palsy who received one sessions of therapy per week by an OT or PT of either child focused therapy or context focused therapy. […]
Brain and Cognition published research on event-related brain potentials (ERPs) in children to determine the relationship between aerobic fitness and language processing. ERPs were recorded while children read normal sentences and those containing semantic or syntactic violations.The following results were found: 1. higher aerobically fit children exhibited greater amplitude when processing semantic information and shorter […]
Adapted Physical Activity Quarterly has published research on motor skill deficiencies and the severity of symptoms in 159 young children (110 with autism diagnosis) ages 12 – 33 months. The researcher, Megan MacDonald, from Oregon State University, found the following: 1. children with autism were nearly a year behind their typical peers in […]
Psychological Science has published research on 9 month old infants reaction to tactile input. The parents sat the infant on their lap while the experimenter stroked the back of the infant’s arm with a paintbrush. The experimenter varied the rate of the brushstrokes among three defined velocities: slow, medium and fast (0.3, 3, or 30 […]
IEP Goals Related to the Common Core for OT/PT Grades 3-5 has been published in electronic format. Head on over to https://www.yourtherapysource.com/commoncore35.html and scroll down to download some free goals suggestions. There is one freebie for higher level gross motor skill goals related to English Language Arts for Grade 5. The other freebie is for pre-writing/writing […]
I am so excited to announce this new electronic title – Tai Chi for Children. You can download some sample pages from the ebook at https://www.yourtherapysource.com/taichi.html. This excellent resource includes a delightfully illustrated story for children with all abilities: It describes the history of Tai Chi and some basic principles and movement patterns (from Tai Chi […]
Clinical Rehabilitation published research comparing core stability training versus task oriented training in improving motor proficiency in 22 children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD), ages 6-9 years old. The intervention consisted of one time per week for 8 weeks, face to face sessions of either core stability exercises or task oriented training. Children in both groups […]
Self regulated strategy development (SRSD) is an instructional model to teach writing strategies to students. SRSD has been researched and shown to result in significant and meaningful improvements in writing knowledge, writing quality, writing approach, self-regulation skills, and motivation. School based occupational therapists may focus on the actual skill of handwriting and also the […]
The Journal of Child & Adolescent Behavior published research comparing the gross motor skill performance on 21 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and 21 age matched peers (5-10 years) using the Test of Gross Motor Development-2 (TGMD- 2). The motor performance scores on the TGMD-2 were compared. The following results were recorded: 1. For the locomotor subtest, 67% […]