Vocabulary Development in the News: Study Shows Toddlers Learn Words for Nonsolids Better When Getting Messy in a Highchair

Editor's Note:  Thank You Pamela Mandell of Speak Eazy Apps and the #SLPeeps on Facebook and Twitter for sharing this very interesting research!!  

[Source: University of Iowa] 

Researchers at the University of Iowa studied how 16-month-old children learn words for nonsolid objects, from oatmeal to glue. Previous research has shown that toddlers learn more readily about solid objects because they can easily identify them due to their unchanging size and shape. But oozy, gooey, runny stuff? Not so much.

Autism Treatments in the News:  Brain Function in Children with Autism Improved by a Single Spray of Oxytocin  

[Source:  Medical News Today]

A single dose of the hormone oxytocin, delivered via nasal spray, has been shown to enhance brain activity while processing social information in children with autism spectrum disorders, Yale School of Medicine researchers report in a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"This is the first study to evaluate the impact of oxytocin on brain function in children with autism spectrum disorders," said first author Ilanit Gordon, a Yale Child Study Center postdoctoral fellow, whose colleagues on the study included senior author Kevin Pelphrey, the Harris Professor in the Child Study Center, and director of the Center for Translational Developmental Neuroscience at Yale.

Stroke Rehab in the News:  Motor Skills Improved After Stroke by Novel Rehabilitation Device

The Importance of Maternal Bonding in the News:  Brain Changes Seen in Children Whose Bond With Their Mother Was Disrupted Early in Life 

[Source:  Medical News Today]

Children who experience profound neglect have been found to be more prone to a behavior known as "indiscriminate friendliness," characterized by an inappropriate willingness to approach adults, including strangers.

UCLA researchers are now reporting some of the first evidence from human studies suggesting that this behavior is rooted in brain adaptations associated with early-life experiences. The findings appear in the peer-reviewed journal Biological Psychiatry.

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Autism Funding in the News:  Concerns Raised About Overlapping Autism Research 

[Source: Disability Scoop]

Most federally-funded autism research is "potentially duplicative," according to a new government report that finds coordination and oversight lacking.

No less than 12 federal agencies allocated $1.4 billion for autism research, awareness projects, trainings and other related activities between 2008 and 2012. In many cases, however, the efforts of these agencies may have overlapped.

In a report released this week, the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that 84 percent of autism research projects during the four-year period had the potential to be redundant.

Brain Development in the News:  Depression in Pregnant Mothers May Alter the Pattern of Brain Development in Their Babies  

[Source:  Science Daily]

Depression is a serious mental illness that has many negative consequences for sufferers. But depression among pregnant women may also have an impact on their developing babies.Children of depressed parents are at an increased risk of developing depression themselves, a combination of both genetic and environmental factors. 

These children also display alterations in the amygdala, a brain structure important for the regulation of emotion and stress. However, prior work in this area has assessed children years after birth, which means that the timing of these alterations has remained unidentified.

PediaStaff Therapy Placement of the Week:  Connecticut!  

Congratulations to Shelley L, of Connecticut on her part-time school-based speech-language pathology position through PediaStaff!   She will work 12-18 hours per week for the remainder of the 2013-2014 school year supporting 2 SLPs with their caseload at one school site.  Some support is needed in the preschool program, but the rest of the position will be working with children from kindergarten to 2nd grade

Great job, Shelley!

PediaStaff Featured Job of the Week:  Pediatric Outpatient Speech-Language Pathologist - Fredericksburg, VA  

Our client is an outpatient clinic in the Fredericksburg area, and they are looking for a part-time Speech Language Pathologist, with a possibility to build up to full-time hours. The therapist would be working mainly with pediatrics, but  possibly with a few adults as well. They need someone to start as soon as possible. Please call today to learn more about this great opportunity!  

Qualifications: Must hold a Masters degree in Communication Sciences; a current state license (or eligible) if applicable. Some experience working with children on the autism spectrum is preferred.

Therapy Gift Idea of the Week:  Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center  

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Book Review of the Week:  Joshy Finds His Voice  

[Source:  Amazon.com]  

"Joshy Finds His Voice" is the elegantly written story of a boy with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) told from three viewpoints: Joshy's, his mother's and his speech-language therapist's (speech-language pathologist's). It is written by an SLT and is full of insights. It is recommended for any SLP/SLT who works with children and their families, current students in communication sciences and disorders, and prospective students

Speech-Language Activity of the Week:  Blackout Poetry  

by Heidi Kay

Just before the holiday, I was looking at the profile of one of our new Instagram followers and noticed that he was in fact a poet who specialized in a form called "Blackout Poetry,"  where you use a page of text (most commonly from a newspaper) and black out the words to form poems that are both meaningful and also visually appealing.

Anyway, the second I looked at these, I thought that they would make a great activity for middle school and high school speech-language students!  All you need is a box of markers and a couple of 

Seasonal (Interdisciplinary) Activity of the Week:  SOUND-Flakes!  

Editor's Note:   As you know, we are really getting "into" Instagram for its ability to "paint a thousand words" with just a single image.   This morning I was browsing the PediaStaff Instagram feed and saw this gem.  I messaged Amy through her post and asked her if we might feature it as an "activity of the week."   She agreed, and now you have it - SOUND-flakes!

by Amy Tirado, MS CCC-SLP TSSLD

The past couple of weeks, I have been working on phonemic awareness with my middle school students in order to strengthen their decoding and spelling skills.  This week as a review, I had students create snowflakes following some simple directions (a great activity to also help work on OT skills).  Once they created their snowflakes, students were instructed to generate words containing different letter-sound correspondences such as; consonants, consonant blends, consonant digraphs, short/long vowels, r- &