May 20, 2016
Issue 21, Volume 9
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday!

Please enjoy our latest newsletter!  Hope you are enjoying your spring!  It's still lovely here!
 
News Items:
  • ABC Picks Up Comedy Focusing On Special Needs
  • Mom's Voice Activates Many Regions in Children's Brains
  • Early Walking in Toddlers Linked to Stronger Bones
  • Learning Challenges Increase with Severity of Sleep Apnea
  • "Late Onset ADHD" Diagnosis on the Rise
  • Colors of Autism Spectrum Described by Researchers
PediaStaff News and Hot Jobs 
  • Placement of the Week - SLP for Wasilla, AK
  • Hot Job - School Occupational Therapist - Cleveland, OH area
  • Contract School OT Needed - Phoenix, AZ
  • Hot Contract for Next Year - SLP for Lake Havasu, AZ 
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • 5 Free Brain Break Printables for the Classroom
  • Get Moving with Giant Animal Memory Game
  • Fine and Visual Motor Ice Cream Activities
  • Articulation Freebie: No Prep, Roll-A-Bingo R
Articles and Special Features 
  • School Psych Corner: Helping Children Coping with a Family Member with Young Onset Dementia
  • SLP Corner: 4 Ideas to Augment Your Voice Treatment
  • OT Corner: Old-Timey Fun = Therapy
  • Literacy Corner: 8 Trusted App Sources Can Rev Up Accessible Summer Learning for Students with Disabilities
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. 
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To further narrow your search by state,
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Recent Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs 

ABC Picks Up Comedy Focusing On Special Needs
[Source:  Disability Scoop]
 
A major television network is set to air a comedy about a family with a child who has special needs.
ABC has picked up the 30-minute series "Speechless," the network has confirmed to Disability Scoop.
The show stars actress Minnie Driver as Maya DiMeo, a mother "who will do anything" for her husband and kids including her eldest son JJ, who has special needs.

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
Mom's Voice Activates Many Regions in Children's Brains
[Source:  Medical X-Press]
 
Children's brains are far more engaged by their mother's voice than by voices of women they do not know, a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine has found.
Brain regions that respond more strongly to the mother's voice extend beyond auditory areas to include those involved in emotion and reward processing, social functions, detection of what is personally relevant and face recognition.

The study, which is the first to evaluate brain scans of children listening to their mothers' voices, will be published May 16 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The strength of connections between the brain regions activated by the voice of a child's own mother predicted that child's social communication abilities, the study also found.

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
Early Walking in Toddlers Linked to Stronger Bones
[Source: Science Daily]
 
A study, published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, has demonstrated an association between children's abilities in common movements like jumping, running and walking at 18 months and stronger bones as an adolescent.
 
It is thought that these movements in toddlers place a stress on the bones, causing them to react by becoming wider and thicker, thereby making them stronger than those in children who may not be moving as much.

Learning Challenges Increase with Severity of Sleep Apnea
[Source:  Science Daily]
 
Sleep assessments in young children showed that, in the context of habitual snoring and enlarged tonsils and adenoids, moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea increased the likelihood and magnitude of cognitive deficits. These deficits include, but are not limited to, problems with attention, memory and language. The research results were presented at the ATS 2016 International Conference.
 
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog 
"Late Onset ADHD" Diagnosis on the Rise
[Source:  Medical News Today]
 
Among a group of young adults with  ADHD at age 18, many of them did not meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD at any assessment in childhood, according to a study by Louise Arseneault, Ph.D., of King's College London, and colleagues.
 
Among the 166 individuals with adult ADHD, 67.5 percent (112) did not meet the criteria for ADHD at any assessment in childhood. Analyses by the authors indicate that individuals with "late-onset" ADHD showed fewer externalizing problems and had higher IQ in childhood than those participants with persistent ADHD.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Colors of Autism Spectrum Described by Researchers
[McMasters University News]
 
Children with autism have a wide range of ability to talk with other people, but it has been difficult to group children by their specific skills.
 
Now researchers at the CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research at McMaster University have developed an autism classification system that defines levels of social communications ability among those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
 
This new system will allow the child's care team to understand and work to improve the child's communication with others in everyday life.
 
"This is not a test, but more like describing the colours of a rainbow," said Briano Di Rezze, a scientist with CanChild and the lead author for the paper published today by the international journal Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Placement of the Week:  Pediatric Outpatient SLP - Wasilla, AK
Congratulations to Kayla H., on her new position at PediaStaff's client in Wasilla, Alaska.
Kayla will be working with clients on reading, writing, spelling, phonological awareness, and language processing.

Employer benefits include  payment of 75% of the employees health insurance. In addition, As a full- time employee, she can take part in the Simple retirement plan where there is a 3% company match.   One CEU trip per year out of state is also paid.

We are so excited for you, Kayla!  Great job, with great benes!
We have a wonderful position with a school district east of Cleveland, Ohio that is looking for an Occupational Therapist to work 30-40 hours per week, depending on therapist preference. The therapist would service students from elementary school to middle school with a broad range of disabilities for the 2016-2017 school year. We are ready to start interviewing now! We have had a therapist extend her contract three years in a row, but she is retiring after this year.

Learn More / Apply for this Job Through a Link on Our Blog
We have a fantastic school position for an Occupational Therapist to work in the Phoenix area for the 2016-2017 school year. This is a full-time position for 37.5 hours per week
 
*  Therapist will work with children from Pre-K through 8th grade at multiple school sites
*  The OT will be providing direct treatment to children as well as evaluations
*  Therapist will work with a wide variety of diagnoses, however, we need someone who is open to working with very involved classrooms, as that will be part of the caseload
*  Therapist will report to the Director of Special Education
 
Learn More / Apply for this Job Through a Link on Our Blog 
We have a fabulous school opportunity for a Speech-Language Pathologist in the beautiful Lake Havasu area for the 2016-2017 school year. The area has stunning lake beaches with clear water that has swimmers in it almost year round. This is a must for the outdoor lover!
 
*  Candidate will provide direct treatment and consults to a caseload of around 70, with 50 direct service students and 20 consults
*  Therapist will work with elementary-aged students with a broad range of disabilities
*  Therapist will report directly to the Director of Special Education

 Learn More / Apply for this Job Through a Link on Our Blog 
Freebies of the Week:   5 Brain Break Printables
[Source:  Your Therapy Source]
 
Here are 5 FREE brain break printables from Your Therapy Source that you can print right away to get your students moving during the school day:

Download Them Through a Link on Our Blog
Another Great Freebie:   Get Moving w/ Giant Animal Memory Game
[Source:  Growing Play]

Check out this fun, giant game of memory that you can print and play!  Get kids moving and thinking with this activity.  You can print the pages in color or black and white (color before you play).

Download this Free Game Through a Link on our Blog
OT Activities of the Week: Fine & Visual Motor Ice Cream Activities
[Source:  Your Therapy Source]
 
The weather is finally warming up which makes ice cream my new favorite dessert (actually I eat ice cream all year long but I love it even more during the summer time).  Here is a brand new Ice Cream packet that includes fine motor, gross motor, visual perceptual and handwriting practice with an ice cream theme.

Articulation Freebie: No Prep, Roll-A-Bingo R 
[Source:  Your Therapy Source]
 
[Source:  GoldCountrySLP via Speechie Freebies]
 
Hi, I'm Tracy from GoldCountrySLP. Do you need something quick and easy to use during the last few weeks of school? Click below and head over to my blog for a FREEBIE - featuring our favorite sound. Yep, you guessed it! RRRRRR!

School Psych Corner: Helping Kids Cope w/ Loved One w/Young Onset Dementia
[Source:  Medical X-Press]
 
A pioneering study led by researchers from the University of Sheffield is helping to give a voice to children and young adults who are living with a parent with dementia.
There are estimated to be at least 42,325 people in the UK under 65 living with a variant of young onset dementia.

Many of those affected by the disease are parents of children and young people who are left feeling isolated and afraid as they try to cope with the loss of their mother or father.
For the first time, researchers from the University of Sheffield's School of Education have examined the perceptions and experiences of children and young people who have a parent with dementia by giving them the opportunity to tell their stories.

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog
 

SLP Corner: 4 Ideas to Augment Your Voice Treatment
[Source:  ASHA Leader Blog]
 
You are the queen or king of the laminator. Your treatment materials fill the school speech room bookcase and the boards sag from the weight. Among these are likely voice resources, such as Source for Voice Disorders, to consult when working with students with voice disorders.
 
Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
 

OT Corner: Old-Timey Fun = Therapy
[Source:  Go-To-For-OT Blog]

In over three decades of being a mother and occupational therapist, I have seen such a drastic shift in the amount and type of play that children in our country participate in today. With the summer school break not too far away, I wanted to share some insights and resources regarding the importance of play, and in particular, older time-honored classic games and activities you can share with your children to help improve their overall fine and gross motor skills, upper body strength and coordination, handwriting skills, memory skills, and social interaction abilities.  

Parents are always asking me for activities to do at home with their children who receive occupational therapy and are excited to hear about some of these tried-and-true activities that can help their child developmentally.

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

LIteracy Corner:   8 Trusted App Sources For Accessible Summer Learning
[Source:  Reading Rockets]
 
All children stand to lose ground over the summer, especially students who are disadvantaged and those with disabilities. The apps that follow are chosen by experienced, discerning evaluators. Because they have passed muster they could be a summer best bet to:

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