May 29, 2015
Issue 20, Volume 8
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday!

Well, the unofficial start of summer is here!   Some of you have even finished school already! Where did the year go?  

Please enjoy our holiday-week shortened newsletter!
 
News Items:
  • Blind Human Echolocators Use Visual Areas of the Brain
  • Communication Made Easier for Children with Cerebral Palsy
  • Delayed UC Clamping Associated with Improved Fine Motor, Social Scores at Four
  • Babies Can Think Before They Can Speak
  • Pets Reduce Stress In Kids With Autism, Study Finds
Hot Jobs 
  • PediaStaff Placement of the Week:  Extended School Year PT, Chicagoland
  • Pediatric Outpatient Physical Therapist/PT Job - Fargo, ND
  • Bilingual Pediatric Home Health SLP - San Antonio, TX
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • "Tee-rrific" Father's Day Writing Prompt "Craftivity."
  • Summer Sunglasses Craftivity - Handwriting and Scissor Skills
  • Activity of the Week: Lego Picture Puzzles

Articles and Special Features 

  • Career Corner: Study Tools for the OT Practitioner
  • Parents' Corner: Dear Teachers of The Little Ones with Special Needs
  • SLP Corner: The Posterior Tongue Tie and Feeding Challenges 
Feel free to contact us with any questions about our openings or items in these pages. Have you discovered our RSS feed? Click on the orange button below to subscribe to all our openings and have them delivered to your Feed Reader!  Don't have an RSS Feed Reader set up? Sign up at Blogtrottr and have our blog posts delivered right to your email.

Have a great weekend and Take Care!

Heidi Kay and the PediaStaff Team





The Career Center

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Recent Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs 

Blind Human Echolocators Use Visual Areas of the Brain

[Source:  Science Daily]

Certain blind individuals have the ability to use echoes from tongue or finger clicks to recognize objects in the distance, and some use echolocation as a replacement for vision. Research done by Dr. Mel Goodale, from the University of Western Ontario, in Canada, and colleagues around the world, is showing that echolocation in blind individuals is a full form of sensory substitution, and that blind echolocation experts recruit regions of the brain normally associated with visual perception when making echo-based assessments of objects. Dr. Goodale's latest results were presented at the 9th Annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting in Vancouver British Columbia.

 

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

Communication Made Easier for Children with Cerebral Palsy

[Source:  Science Daily]

 

Cerebral palsy affects 1.5 per 1,000 people in Spain, being the first cause of childhood disability. People with Dyskinetic Cerebral Palsy (DCP), 15% of the cases, despite having their intelligence preserved, cannot speak or express themselves because they have no motor control. This means a serious difficulty to establish relations with their environment which hampers the cognitive and emotional development of this group. "Since they cannot express themselves, these children do not connect with other people and end up not developing their intelligence" said Juanma Belda, IBV researcher.

 

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

Delayed UC Clamping Assoc. w/Improved Fine Motor, Social Scores

[Medical News Today]

 
Delayed clamping of the umbilical cord to help prevent iron deficiency in infancy was associated with improved scores in fine-motor and social skills in children at age 4, particularly in boys, although it was not associated with any effect on overall IQ or behavior compared with children whose cords were clamped seconds after delivery, according to an article published online by JAMA Pediatrics.

 
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Babies Can Think Before They Can Speak

[Source: Science Daily] 


Two pennies can be considered the same - both are pennies, just as two elephants can be considered the same, as both are elephants. Despite the vast difference between pennies and elephants, we easily notice the common relation of sameness that holds for both pairs.

 

Analogical ability - the ability to see common relations between objects, events or ideas - is a key skill that underlies human intelligence and differentiates humans from other apes.

 

While there is considerable evidence that preschoolers can learn abstract relations, it remains an open question whether infants can as well. In a new Northwestern University study, researchers found that infants are capable of learning the abstract relations of same and different after only a few examples.

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Pets Reduce Stress In Kids With Autism, Study Finds

Editor's Note:  We knew this but its great to see the evidence!
 

[Source: Disability Scoop]
 

Animals may offer more than comfort for kids with autism, according to new research finding that pets can bring about physiological changes in those with the developmental disorder.|
 

Children on the spectrum displayed a sharp drop in anxiety and social stress when playing with animals as compared to engaging in other activities whether independently or with their peers, the study found.

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Placement of the Week:  Extended School Year PT, Chicagoland  

Congratulations to Esther, L., on her Extended School Year placement at one of PediaStaff's school district clients in Chicagoland!

 

Esther will be helping students need that extra physical therapy time during the summer.    Thank You, Esther!!

Featured Job of the Week:  Pediatric Outpatient PT - Fargo, ND 

Come and join an established pediatric outpatient clinic looking to expand it's physical therapy staff.  This provider of outpatient pediatric therapy services is seeking PHYSICAL THERAPISTS  for their Fargo, ND location for full time, part time and per diem positions as well as temporary for the summer.  Experience in pediatrics preferred.  Salary is dependent upon qualifications and experience. Comprehensive benefit package included. Relocation allowance and/or signing bonus may be available to qualified candidates.

 

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog

Job of the Week:  Bilingual Peds Home Health SLP - San Antonio, TX

Looking to pick up a few extra hours or start off with a few kids and build a caseload?  Our client is seeking a Speech Language Pathologist interested in working PRN in your area of San Antonio.  You'll start with a few kiddos and can build as much as you'd like.  Once the word gets out that they are accepting referrals, it won't be long before more hours are needed from therapists and the position could potentially become full time in the future.  This pediatric home health position offers plenty of flexibility and great pay.  Therapists that have the ability to work during the AFTER school hours are in the highest demand  
 

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog

SLP Activity of the Week:  "Tee-rrific" Father's Day Writing Prompt  

[Source:  Classroom Freebies]

This is a cute, quick and easy card to make for Father's Day.

Younger students can simply make the golf craft, while older students can complete the writing prompt explaining why their dad is "tee-rrific."

 

Download this Activity Through a Link on our Blog

Summertime Activity of the Week: Handwriting and Scissor Skills  

Download this free summer sunglasses activity to create a cute craft while practicing handwriting and scissor skills.  There are step by step directions as well.  

 

Read More and Download Through a Link on our Blog

Activity of the Week: Lego Picture Puzzles  

[Source:  I Can Teach My Child]
 

We have had so much fun with these LEGO picture puzzles!  The boys and I just laughed and laughed at the combinations they created.  And the LEGO "puzzles" took only a few minutes to make once I had the pictures developed!
 

Here's what you'll need:  LEGO Duplos, Double-sided tape, an Xacto knife, and photos of your kids, family members, or friends!
 

This would work best if you take the pictures in the same location and you have the camera the same distance away from the child.  Also, when you trim the photos to fit on the Duplos, make sure the child is centered.  I didn't do a perfect job of this, so they aren't as cool as they could be...but we still have had fun with them!

 

Learn More Through a Link on our Blog

Career Corner: Study Tools for the OT Practitioner

[Source:  OTs with Apps]
 

Preparing for the NBCOT Certification Exam? With June just around the corner, it is time to prepare for the OT exam.  There are a myriad of tools available to study for the OT certification examination. Online resources, exam study books and apps to help prepare. Online tools are not only for studying for the NBCOT Exam but also for many other OT related specialty areas. Study resources can be helpful if you want to update your skills (wonder what the content is in the OT curriculum these days???) or studying for a specialty certification for the practicing therapist.  


Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog


Parents' Corner: Dear Teachers of The Little Ones w/Special Needs

[Source:  From the Bowels of Motherhood via Autism Speaks]

by Mandy Farmer
 

I don't know your background.  I don't know why you chose this profession.  I don't know where your inner strength comes from or what keeps you going.  I don't know if you will keep doing this or if you will move on to other jobs.  I don't know how much of your day you take home with you at night.
 

But this is what I do know:


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


SLP Corner: The Posterior Tongue Tie and Feeding Challenges

[Source:  ASHAsphere]

 

by Melanie Potock

 

In a March 2015 post titled Just Flip the Lip, we explored how the band of tissue or "frenum" that attaches the upper lip to gum tissue can affect feeding development if the frenum is too restrictive. Today, we'll focus on the lingual frenal attachment that is the easiest to miss: The posterior tongue tie (sometimes referred to as a submucosal tongue tie), a form of ankyloglossia.

 

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

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