April 8th, 2016
Issue 14, Volume 9
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday!  

AOTA is in full swing and we are happy to be in the Windy City!  Come stop by our booth #4644 to say "Hi," register with us and pick up your exclusive PediaStaff OT Thumball while supplies last!
 
News Items 
  • Bone Density Lower with Use of ADHD Stimulant Medications
  • New Study Adds Key Piece to Autism Puzzle  
  • New Syndrome Named, Causes a Rare Intellectual Disability
  • Babies of Bilingual Parents Have High Functioning Brains
  • Neuroscientists Working to Test Brain Training Claims  
  • Rhythm of Oscillations in Cerebral Cortex, Key to Understanding Down Syndrome
PediaStaff News and Hot Jobs 
  • Going to AOTA in Chicago?  Come See Us for an OT Thumball!
  • Placement of the Week: Part-Time PTA for San Antonio, TX
  • School-Based Speech-Language Pathologist - Vancouver, WA
  • School-Based Speech-Language Pathologist - Portland, OR
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Printable World Lego Mosaic Patterns for Earth Day 
  • On the Lighter Side of Speech-Language Pathology
  • Great Reads For Earth Day
  • OT Activity of the Week: Roller Ring Stack
Articles and Special Features 
  • School Tx Corner: Surrogate Parents and Unaccompanied Homeless Youth Under IDEA
  • OT Corner: 15 Pre-Handwriting Factors Leading to Successful Handwriting in Children
  • SLP Corner: Working Speech and Language Targets into Daily Routines
  • Pediatric Therapy Corner: George Syndrome: Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
  • School Nursing Corner: School-Sponsored Trips, Role of the School Nurse
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
8

The Career Center

The links to the right are "live" and reflect the most recent SLP, OT, PT and related assistant jobs, and ALL our Bilingual and School Psychology Jobs. 
Girl
To further narrow your search by state,
setting, bilingual, or term, use the
check boxes drop down menus.

If a particular search is returning
no hits it is possible that we do
not currently have new openings for
you with that selection criteria.

To see ALL our openings
click
HERE and further narrow your search.
Recent Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs 

Bone Density Lower with Use of ADHD Stimulant Medications
[Source:  Science Daily]

Stimulants, such as methylphenidate (Ritalin and other brands) and amphetamine, are frequently a treatment of ADHD, a condition that affects more than 6 million children in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Past research studies have found that stimulants may slow children's rate of growth in height, but the effect of these medicines on bone health is unclear, according to the study's lead investigator Alexis Feuer, MD, an assistant professor of pediatrics and a pediatric endocrinologist at Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City.

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
New Syndrome Named, Causes a Rare Intellectual Disability
[Source: Science Daily]

Pediatric researchers, using high-speed DNA sequencing tools, have identified a new syndrome that causes intellectual disability (ID). Drawing on knowledge of the causative gene mutation, the scientists' cell studies suggest that an amino acid supplement may offer a targeted treatment for children with this condition.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Babies of Bilingual Parents Have High Functioning Brains
[Source:  Psych Central]
 
Over the past decade, research has demonstrated the cerebral benefit of bilingualism among adults. Studies have shown that being bilingual is associated with more brain activity in higher level brain regions accompanying executive functions.

New research now shows that this bilingualism-related difference in brain activity is evident as early as 11 months of age, just as babies are on the verge of producing their first words.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
New Study Adds Key Piece to Autism Puzzle
[Source:  Medical News Today]

Where do your eyes focus during a conversation? An innovative study by University of Vermont researchers reveals that for children with autism spectrum disorder, the answer depends on how emotional the conversation is.
 
The study, published in Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, shows that children with the developmental disability fixate longer on a speaker's mouth rather than the eyes when the conversation turns emotional. It's the first study of its kind to use eye tracker technology to monitor eye movement during an interactive conversation, and the results could affect the way speech therapists treat the estimated 1 in 68 children who struggle with the social, communication and behavioral challenges caused by autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
 
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog 
Neuroscientists Working to Test Brain Training Claims
[Source:  Science Daily]
 
The draw is huge: Play video games and get smarter. For the past decade, various groups have claimed that their programs do everything from staving off neurodegenerative disease to enhancing education and improving daily functioning. Absent from many of these claims has been neuroscientific evidence. Cognitive neuroscientists are now rigorously testing the potential benefits of such 'brain training' tools. New work is showing promising results.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Rhythm of Oscillations in Cerebral Cortex, Key to Understanding Down Syndrome
[Source:  Medical News Today]
 
Cerebral activity is governed by a fine balance between neuronal excitation and inhibition. Specifically, neurons are activated by excitation mechanisms tightly regulated by inhibition processes. For certain functions, the neuronal network needs to be synchronized. This causes high-frequency oscillations that make behavior and information-processing possible. 

This synchronization depends on the excitation/inhibition balance that is affected in a significant number of disorders that involve cognitive dysfunction.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
PediaStaff News:  Going to AOTA?  Come See Us for an OT Thumball
This is a great week for PediaStaff!   We are traveling to Chicago this week to participate in the AOTA Conference & Expo and meeting with some of the folks that make up our PediaStaff Team.
 
We can't wait to see everyone!
 
Please stop by our booth #4644 to say "Hello,"  and talk to us about your career plans.

Come by early, and snag one of our limited edition PediaStaff OT Thumballs while supplies last!


Take a Look at our Limited Edition OT Thumball on our Blog
Placement of the Week:  Part-Time PTA for San Antonio, TX  
Did you know that PediaStaff places both part-time and PRN?  Yep!|
 
Congratulations to Heather N., on her part-time position with one of our best clients in San Antonio, TX.  
Heather will be working in the natural setting, providing home based therapy and early intervention services.  
 
Great job, Heather!
The Portland/Vancouver metro area is one of the most desirable to live in and this school district, located just north of the WA/OR border, has a great reputation for providing a supportive work environment for contractors (and a strong CF experience if you're a new grad).  Plus, as a contractor you'll earn an excellent rate of pay.

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
[Source:  Childhood 101.com]
 
Our Lego mosaics are back and this one is a bumper! We set ourselves the challenge of creating a Lego world map and I think we did a pretty great job.

Download These Great Lego Patterns Through a Link on our Blog
On the Lighter Side:  of Speech-Language Pathology  
Thank You, to Beaufiful Speech Life for the laugh!  

Books, Books, Books:  Great Reads For Earth Day  
[Source:  Fantastic First Grade Froggies]
 
Earth Day is coming up and because I love the outdoors so much, I feel that it is important to teach our little ones the importance of taking care of the Earth.  We begin our year with a "Green Team" unit and refer back to it often.  Here our some books I like to share with my kids throughout the year.
 
Get These Great Read Ideas Through a Link on our Blog 
OT Activity of the Week: Roller Ring Stack
[Source:  The Recycling OT]
 
This is an easy way to make a sensory-based fine motor activity. Many of my clients love the sensation of rubbing their hands over the roller as well as the deep pressure sensory input when I roll it over their hands. I attached a roller from the dollar store inside a plastic tube and wedged the tube inside a detergent bottle. I  made the rectangular pieces a bit small so that they have to motor plan to tilt each one before inserting over the roller. the young man in the video enjoys giving it some rolls while  performing repetitions.
 
 Get These Great Read Ideas Through a Link on our Blog 
School Tx Corner:  Surrogate Parents & Homeless Youth Under IDEA
[Source:  National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth via the Oregon DOE]

Each year, between 1.5 and 1.6 million youth run away from home or are forced out of their homes by their parents. While many of these youth return home quickly, others remain separated from their families and live in homeless situations. 

In the 2013-2014 school year, public school districts identified 88,966 "unaccompanied homeless youth," defined as students living in homeless situations outside the physical custody of a parent or guardian.


OT Corner:  15 Factors Leading to Successful Handwriting in Children
[Source:  World Academy of Science, Engineering and Technology via Your Therapy Source]
A recent 33 question survey on the pre-handwriting factors needed for successful handwriting was completed in 2015 by 535 occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants (from the USA).   The responses from the OT/COTAs indicated the following:
  1.  95% answered that the ability of a child to copy vertical lines, horizontal lines, circles, squares and triangles was a good predictor of handwriting success.
  2.  98% felt the the ability to imitate and copy an oblique cross (indicates crossing midline) was important for handwriting success.

SLP Corner:  Working Speech & Language Targets into Daily Routines
Editor's Note:   This blogger has written a number of post in this series. The idea is to show how a child can work on speech and language targets during everyday activities. You can read her posts on trips to the park, trips to the beach, meal times and bath times.  In this post, she talks about laundry!

[Source:  Speech Blog UK]

Now when I talk about cleaning and laundry,  I don't mean enforced child labor or letting your 18 month old loose with a carving knife!  Make sure you pick jobs that are appropriate for your child to complete.  What I am trying to highlight is that even if you complete the task, you can encourage your child to watch and use the opportunity to target particular skills at the same time.  Plus hopefully reinforce some useful life skills! For this post I'm going to concentrate on doing the laundry but you can apply many of the same ideas for other household cleaning.

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Pediatric Therapy Corner: What is DiGeorge Syndrome
[Source:  Medical News Today]

by Lori Smitth, BSN, MSN, CRNP

DiGeorge syndrome, otherwise referred to as 22q11.2 deletion syndrome, is a chromosomal disorder that typically affects the 22nd chromosome at the q11.2 location, with as many as 90% of cases exhibiting this deletion feature. 1- 3

This condition has also been known as velocardiofacial syndrome, conotruncal syndrome, Shprintzen syndrome and CATCH22, as well as many others. 1-3

Experts estimate that DiGeorge syndrome affects 1 in 4,000 people. However, due to variability in presenting features, many people may be underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed. 2,3

School Nursing Corner: School-Sponsored Trips, Role of the School Nurse
[Source:  National Association of School Nurses]

SUMMARY
It is the position of the National Association of School Nurses, that the registered professional school nurse (hereinafter referred to as school nurse) is in a unique position to support students so that their individual healthcare needs are met both at school and on school-sponsored trips.  The school nurse has the nursing background to appropriately assess the proposed school-sponsored trip to determine the accommodations needed to allow all students to safely participate in activities.  All students, including students with special healthcare needs, have the right to participate in school-sponsored trips (also referred to as field trips).  School nurses must serve a role in the planning and 

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

Did You Get This From a Friend?

 

Sign Up For Your Copy of This Newsletter!

Would you like pediatric and school-based therapy tips, resources, articles, and news delivered to your computer once a week? Sign up here for our newsletter!

Sign up HERE
Quick Links to PediaStaff
If you would like to opt out of receiving this newsletter, there is a link located in the footer below. However, please note that once you've opted out, we will be unable to send you any future correspondence via newsletter.
Please Note:  The views and advice expressed in articles, videos and other pieces published in this newsletter are not necessarily the views and advice of PediaStaff or its employees but rather that of the author.  PediaStaff is not endorsing or implying agreement with the views or advice contained therein, rather presenting them for the independent analysis and information of its readers.