January 3, 2014
Issue 1, Volume 7
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy New Year! 

Please enjoy our slightly abbreviated holiday edition of our weekly newsletter!
 
News Items:
  • Gum Chewing and Headaches
  • 2-Drug Combo Helps Adolescents With ADHD, Aggression
  • Hospital-Diagnosed Maternal Infections Linked to Increased Autism Risk, Study Suggests
  • New Technique Enables Patient With 'Word Blindness' to Read Again
  • General Mills begins selling Cheerios without GM ingredients
PediaStaff News
  • PediaStaff Therapy Placement of the Week: Oklahoma!
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • App of the Week:  Remind 101
  • Instagram Activities of the Week - Sparkly Ball and Q-Tip Fireworks for New Year's
  • 30+ Free Wintery Resources for Speech and Language Therapy
  • Free Speech-Language Resource Worth Waiting For! 46 Page High Frequency Word List Sorted by Phoneme

Articles and Special Features 

  • SLP Corner: The Brain of a Speech Language Pathologist
  • OT Corner: Teaching Kids with Special Needs How To Dress Appropriately for the Weather
  • Pediatric Therapy Corner:  2014 Vision Boards - Creative Goal Setting with Kids
  • Worth Repeating: Sensory Ideas for After the Holidays
  • Also Worth Repeating: Special Educator Interest in Common Core Heated Up in 2013
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Have a great weekend and Take Care!

Heidi Kay and the PediaStaff Team





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Pediatric Headaches in the News:  Gum Chewing and Headaches

[Source:  Pediatric Neurology via Your Therapy Source]

Gum chewing is occasionally recommended for children as part of a sensory diet therefore I thought this research regarding gum chewing and headaches was important to mention.  Pediatric Neurology will be publishing research on 30 patients between 6-19 years old who had chronic or migraine headaches and chewed gum daily.  The medical doctor, Dr. Watemburg, requested that the patients stop chewing gum for one month.  The following results were recorded:

 

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog 

ADHD Treatment in the News: 2-Drug Combo Helps Adolescents With ADHD, Aggression

[Source:  Medical News Today]

 

Prescribing both a stimulant and an antipsychotic drug to children with physical aggression and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), along with teaching parents to use behavior management techniques, reduces aggressive and serious behavioral problems in the children, according to a study conducted by researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. 

 

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog

Autism Research in the News:  Hospital-Diagnosed Maternal Infections Linked to Increased Autism Risk, Study Suggests  

[Source:  Science Daily]

 

Hospital-diagnosed maternal bacterial infections during pregnancy were associated with an increased risk of autism spectrum disorders in children, according to a Kaiser Permanente study published Dec. 23 in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

 

The research contributes new evidence to a body of scientific literature on the role of infection in autism risk and points to areas for further examination.

 

The study included 407 children with autism and 2,075 matched children who did not have autism. The study included infants born between January 1995 and June 1999 who remained members of the Kaiser Permanente health plan for at least two years following birth.

 

 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Auditory Processing in the Mainstream News:  New Technique Enables Patient With 'Word Blindness' to Read Again 

[Source: Science Daily]

 

In the journal Neurology, researchers report a novel technique that enables a patient with "word blindness" to read again.

 

Word blindness is a rare neurological condition. (The medical term is "alexia without agraphia.") Although a patient can write and understand the spoken word, the patient is unable to read.

The article is written by Jason Cuomo, Murray Flaster, MD, PhD and Jose Biller, MD, of Loyola University Medical Center.

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Balance and Gross Motor Fitness in the News:  General Mills Begins Selling Cheerios Without Genetically Modified Ingredients 

[Source:  Reuters.com]

 

General Mills Inc said it has stopped using genetically modified ingredients in the popular breakfast cereal Cheerios as the U.S. branded foods manufacturer hopes the move will firm up customer loyalty in the face of growing opposition to such additives.

 

Many activists and critics have cited studies showing that genetically modified (GM) crops are not safe for people and animals who consume them.

 

Some activist groups opposing GM food also say the crops create environmental problems by encouraging more use of certain agro chemicals, and consumers should have the right to 

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

PediaStaff Therapy Placement of the Week:  Oklahoma!  

 

Congratulations to Rachel B., on her contract pediatric outpatient Physical Therapy position with PediaStaff's pediatric outpatient client in Oklahoma! Rachel will be working with an multidisciplinary team of professionals  in a birth to 21 population with most of the kids falling into the 2 year to 18 year old range and the heaviest concentration from 3 - 10 years old.   At the clinic,  she will see primarily Autism spectrum, ADHD, and Sensory processing kids and at the home health and Head Start sites, the kids are more diverse DD, spectrum kids, Down Syndrome, and Cerebral Palsy.

Her schedule will have some variety....working 2 days per week on her own caseload with another 2 days per week doing evaluations and supervisory duties for 2 PTAs that will work with her in providing Physical Therapy Services.

App of the Week:  Remind 101  

[Source:  Smart Apps for Special Needs]

 

Teachers sharing their phone numbers with parents is always a hot topic at the beginning of the school year and a worry for many teachers.  Not to mention, those middle school and high school students that are attached to their phone but would never want their teacher to have their phone number. Remind101 is a free app that allows teachers to text their students or parents in a one way message for reminders on homework or events.  Phone numbers are not seen by anybody using it. If a parent cannot or does 

 

Learn More About this App on Our Blog

Instagram Activities of the Week:  Sparkly Ball and Q-Tip Fireworks for New Year's  

Q-Tip Fireworks! [Source: BusyBeeKidsCrafts.com] - Cut your Q Tips in various sizes. You can actually break them off pretty easily with your hands. Put some water in a small container and add food coloring (6-8 drops is good). Dip your swabs in to the colored water and place on a paper plate. Leave swabs out

 

Learn More About Both of These Activities on our Blog

SLP Resources of the Week:  30+ Free Wintery Resources for Speech and Language Therapy  

Editor's Note:  Diana over at the Budget SLP seriously outdid herself with this compilation of New Year's and Winter Themed Activities for Speech and Language!  Please go straight to this link for a motherlode of great resources!

 

Access These Great Ideas Through a Link on our Blog

Free Speech-Language Resource Worth Waiting For! :  46 Page High Frequency Word List Sorted by Phoneme  

Editor's Note:  There are freebies and there are GREAT FREE RESOURCES that shouldn't be missed. The following goes in the latter category.  Thanks so much to Kim Lewis at Activity Tailor!

[Source:  Activity Tailor via Speechie Freebies]

 

It's finally complete!  I've taken the 1000 most commonly used words in English and sorted them by target phoneme and position so I can be sure I'm using words in treatment that will have the greatest impact on my kiddos' conversation.

 

The words are listed in order of frequency of use rank (rather than alphabetical).  Words appearing in  

 

Read More About / Download this Resource Through a Link our Blog

SLP Corner: The Brain of a Speech Language Pathologist

[Source: Cheerful Speech Chatter]

 

Years ago, I created a "Brain of a Resource Teacher" for a friend of mine to remind her how awesome she was at her very demanding job.  I decided to tweak what I had done for SLPs to help us celebrate how talented, creative, and important we are!  Enjoy!

 

Read this Fun Infographic on our Blog

OT Corner: Teaching Kids with Special Needs How To Dress Appropriately for the Weather

by Dr. Anne Zachry OTR/L

Picking out the appropriate clothing for a child can be a challenge, especially for those who have  can difficulty understanding cold vs. hot and rainy vs. sunny. A student that I see for therapy uses this nifty worksheet, and it has proven to be very effective. If you're child is struggling when picking out appropriate clothes for the weather, try having him fill out this worksheet every evening before bed and pick out his clothes for the next day. For younger children, add some fun by including a 

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog


Pediatric Therapy Corner: 2014 Vision Boards - Creative Goal Setting with Kids

[Source: Special-ism.com] The kids are back to school soon and a new year is upon us. What to do now that the presents are all opened?  How about making a vision board with your kids? A vision board is a collage of pictures, words, affirmations, goals and anything you would like to achieve or receive.

 

Better than the Breakable Resolution 
We hear a lot about New Year resolutions...and much about people not keeping them. What we have found fun to do is to create vision boards, or sometimes we call them dream boards. These creative projects are more useful than resolutions, simply because they tap into 

 

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog

Worth Repeating: Sensory Ideas for After the Holidays

Editor's Note: Great article to send home during or after school break!  

[Source: Special-ism.com]

 

Whatever holidays you celebrate at this time of year are probably over now. It is likely that the quantity of toys and/or stuff in your home has increased. The children have been out of school for a while now and the different structure or lack of routine may be presenting challenges. And it is time to prepare and plan to make the New Year the best year for your child.  

 

1. Reduce the Volume.  This is a great time to clean out and reduce the number of toys your child has. Too many toys often overwhelm children, which typically results in limiting their play. Ideally, your child should only have 10-15 toys available at any given time. (Blocks count as one toy.) Give away those that your child has outgrown and pack away the rest. Rotate toys every 1-2 months.

Also Worth Repeating: Special Educator Interest in Common Core Heated Up in 2013

[Source:  Education Week]
 

2013 was a tough time to eke out any news on special education at the federal level. Sure, there were the effects of the sequester cuts (and the prospect that those cuts may soon be alleviated), but Washington was not where special educators were looking in the past 12 months.

Instead, they were intensely interested in any news relating to the Common Core State Standards, judging by a look at the most-read blog entries for On Special Educaton Blog in 

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog

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