ADHD in the News: Confirmation of the Neurobiological Origin of Attention-Deficit Disorder

[Source:  Medical News Today]

Feel Good Story of the Week:  Visually Impaired Kids Hunt for "Audible Easter Eggs"  

Editor's Note:  Thanks to Keith Adams, PediaStaff partner for sharing this article.  How wonderful!

[Source:  WJHG.com Panama City]

Most of us take something as simple as hunting Easter eggs for granted.

But not children who are visually impaired.

Founder April Cao says, "too often I think those children sit on the sidelines and don't have the opportunity to participate in something that really is just a family tradition whether it's a backyard barbecue, a community event."

Hung and April Cao are founders of a non profit organization called "Audible Eggs" for the visually impaired.

Traumatic Brain Injury in the News:  Teens More Likely to Attempt Suicide Following Concussion 

[Source:  Medical News Today]

New research from Canada finds that teenagers who have suffered a traumatic brain injury, such as concussion, at some point in their lives are twice as likely to be victims of school bullying or cyberbullying. They are also nearly three times as likely to attempt suicide or be threatened with a weapon at school compared to peers who have never suffered such an injury.

Lead author Gabriela Ilie, an assistant professor at the University of Toronto and a postdoctoral fellow at St. Michael's Hospital, also in Toronto, says not only are adolescents who have suffered traumatic brain injury more likely to be victims of bullying, they are also more likely to:

Autism Screening in the News:  Biomarkers Enable Screening for Autism at 9 Months

New research suggests measurement of two biomarkers can help physicians and diagnosticians identify autism spectrum disorders (ASD) early in the developmental process.

Detection of ASD is often a waiting game as a child is evaluated according to their accomplishments of developmental milestones. Typically, this has meant that most children are diagnosed with ASD around the age of four, although some have been identified as early as two years of age.

Researchers, including a team from Children's National Health System, identified head circumference and head tilting reflex as two reliable biomarkers in the identification of ASD in children that are between nine and 12 months of age.

Memory Research in the News:  Modeling the Cellular Basis of Memory 

[Source:  Psych Central]

Researchers at the Salk Institute have created a new model of memory that explains the cellular mechanisms responsible for retaining select memories a few hours after an event.

This new paradigm enables a more complete picture of how memory works and can inform research into disorders liked Parkinson's, Alzheimer's,post-traumatic stress, and learning disabilities.

"Previous models of memory were based on fast activity patterns," said Terry Sejnowski, Ph.D., holder of Salk's Francis Crick Chair and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator.

Cognition and Language in the News:  'I Spy' Used to Show Spoken Language Helps Direct Children's Eyes

PediaStaff Therapy Placement of the Week:  Therapeutic Day School - Greater Chicago, IL  

Congratulations to Prerna B., on her new full-time, direct hire occupational therapy position through PediaStaff! Prerna will be working at a therapeutic day school in suburban Chicago, Illinois. Compassion is the key in this position, as she will be working with a children with a range of abilities from high functioning to non-verbal/low functioning on the autism spectrum. Prerna will finish out this school year, come back for a summer school session and then have a break before school starts back in the fall.

Interested in working here? We have additional OT positions available at this school! Email the PediaStaff Career Center at [email protected], or you can call at 866-733-4278.

Positions are available on a contract, full-time or part-time direct hire basis.

PediaStaff Professional Development Tip:  Get Yourself "Out There"  

Back in the day (I really do hate that expression!), the only way a less experienced therapy clinician could share his or her thoughts and ideas on therapy technique, research or anything else, was to complete a peer reviewed study for a journal or get chosen for a poster presentation at ASHA.

With the explosion of the internet, there are a myriad of opportunities to share your experiences, either through starting your own blog, writing guest blog articles for any one of the wonderful SLP, OT, School Psych and PT blogs out there, or even blogging through photos of activities that you have created and shared on sites like Instagram.

Read More on our Blog

Book Review:  Dads of Disability  

Editor's Note:  The author of this book, Gary Dietz, is generously offering a discount on his book to all PediaStaff readers.

Book:  Dads of Disability; Collected and Edited by Gary Dietz; Additional Editing by Beth Gallob
Poetry selected by Marly Youmans 

Review by: Jackie Olson  

App of the Week:  App of the Week: Charades Articulation - Brand New & Free for a Week!  

App and Article below by Eric Raj, CCC-SLP

I'm going to let you in on a little secret of mine, I adore the game of charades. It's a timeless game that has the ability to turn any uneventful get-together into an action-packed party! So, that's exactly why the game of charades has found its way into my speech therapy room on more than one occasion (err, hundreds of occasions, to be a bit more truthful!). It can turn any uneventful speech therapy session into an action-packed speech therapy party!

Seasonal Activity of the Week:  Easter Egg Hunt for Children with Autism  

Thanks to the people at Therapics for reaching out to us to share this free activity!   It is great way to teach prepositions whilst helping a child with language challenges participate in the Easter fun.    

It would make a nice carryover activity to send home with your students/clients over the holiday weekend.

[Source:  Therapics]

Another Seasonal Idea of the Week:  Speech and Language Garden