March 9, 2018
Issue 10, Volume 11
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday

Please enjoy our weekly newsletter.
 
News Items:
  • Breathing in Children with Cerebral Palsy
  • New Study: Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism Overstated
  • Ed Department Set To Abandon IDEA Site That Crashed
  • Study Suggests That the Brain Can Be Trained to Avoid Dyslexia
  • Ed Department Officially Proposes Delay of Special Ed Bias Rule
  • United Airlines To Train Employees On Intellectual Disabilities
PediaStaff News and Hot Jobs 
  • Hot, New Job: Pediatric Physical Therapist - Idaho Falls, ID
  • Hot, New Job: Sensory Integration Pediatric Occupational Therapist - Culver City, CA
  • Hot, New Job: School-Based Speech Language Pathologist - San Antonio, TX
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Easy, Low Prep Idea for Mixed Articulation Groups
  • St. Patrick's Day Feelings Freebie
  • Teaching Prepositions with Themes
  • Basketball Themed Gross Motor Ideas
Articles and Special Features 
  • ABA Corner: Behavior Therapy Services In Limbo For Military Families
  • OT/PT Corner: Gross Motor Movement Break - Roll-an-Animal Walk
  • School Psych Corner: Tips For Helping Young Children with Perfectionism
  • SLP Corner: Helping Students Who Are Orally Defensive in Speech Therapy  
  • Pediatric Therapy Corner: Teachers' Guide to Selective Mutism
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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Recent Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs 

Breathing in Children with Cerebral Palsy
[Source: Your Therapy Source]

Developmental Neurorehabilitation published research comparing breathing in children with cerebral palsy to neurotypical peers.  The participants in the study included 20 children with cerebral palsy (GMFCS levels I-III) and 20 neurotypical children ages 7-11 years old.  To determine the immediate effect of breathing rate on heart rate (HR) and heart rate variability (HRV), HR was monitored at rest and during paced breathing with biofeedback.  Spirometry was used to evaluate respiration.

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
New Study: Cognitive Benefits of Bilingualism Overstated
[Source:  Psych Central]

Finnish investigators have found that prior research suggesting acquisition and active use of two languages enhances executive function is overly optimistic.

In the meta-analysis, researchers discovered that bilingualism is very useful in communication between people, but it does not seem to increase the cognitive skills related to executive functions.
"The benefits of bilingualism in executive functions have been in focus of active research in recent years, and the topic has received a great deal of attention not only in the scientific community but also in international media," said Academy Research Fellow Dr. Minna Lehtonen and her research group at Department of Psychology at Åbo Akademi University.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Ed Department Set To Abandon IDEA Site That Crashed
[Source:  Disability Scoop]

A year after taking heat when a key special education website went down, the U.S. Department of Education is preparing to deprecate the site in favor of an updated approach.

The Education Department said that visitors to the legacy site,  idea.ed.gov, will be automatically redirected to a newer incarnation,  sites.ed.gov/idea, beginning April 30.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Study Suggests That the Brain Can Be Trained to Avoid Dyslexia
[Source: Science Daily]

The ability of the brain to synchronize with the tone and intonation of speech influences how language is processed. Study results could help design more effective activities to train the brain in order to avoid future disorders such as dyslexia. Over the years, several neuro-scientific studies have shown that the auditory regions of the brain synchronize with external auditory stimuli. That is to say, the brain is able to naturally adjust the frequency of its brain waves with the oscillations or the rhythm of what it listens at each moment.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Ed Department Officially Proposes Delay of Special Ed Bias Rule
[Source: Education Week]

As expected, the U.S. Department of Education is seeking to delay by two years a rule that would require states to use a standard method in monitoring how school districts identify and serve minority students with disabilities.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
United Airlines To Train Employees On Intellectual Disabilities
[Source:  Disability Scoop]

A major U.S. airline is taking steps to improve travel for people with intellectual disabilities while also eyeing other ways to beef up inclusion.

Chicago-based United Airlines said this week that it will train all of its workers to better understand the needs of people with disabilities.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
ou visit places like this on vacation - why not live here?  We are searching for a Physical Therapist to work in early intervention and an outpatient clinic setting in the beautiful Idaho Falls area. You will have the opportunity to work with other therapists and to gain experience working in a variety of pediatric settings.

Idaho Falls is a unique city; a vibrant community renown for world-class outdoor recreation and is located close to Jackson, WY, Grand Teton, and Yellowstone National Parks. Recreational opportunities are endless with world class biking, river sports, skiing, and snowboarding. Local lakes, mountains, and National Parks offer destinations for hiking and camping.  A thriving local restaurant scene, regional shopping, arts and music venues 

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog 
Do you have extra hours in your schedule to make a difference in the life of a child? If being a part of a well-respected private practice, providing quality services to children with special needs is a part of your career goal, this position may be for you.  

PediaStaff is seeking a Pediatric Occupational Therapist to join this group of interdisciplinary therapists at a private practice in Culver City, California. This is an afternoon position, but can certainly be more if your schedule allows it.   This more than a "job" for you, the Occupational Therapist.  It's more about integrating with families, with other clinicians and making a difference in the lives of children.

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
Just in....we are ready to begin interviewing SLPs to complete the 2018-19 School Year in the San Antonio area!  Yes...that's right...we have been given the green-light by our client to begin screening and referring Speech-Language Pathologists (to include CFs) for positions that will begin in August 2018.  As you probably know...San Antonio is one of the most sought-after locations in the nation.  Why?  Warm weather almost all the year, abundant outdoor activities, shopping and restaurants galore, professional and college 

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
Easy, Low Prep Idea for Mixed Articulation Groups
[Source:  Natalie Snyders, Speech-Language Pathologist]

Do you ever get bored with the same old flashcard (and maybe a game) drill with your mixed articulation groups, especially for your older elementary students?  It's so hard to plan for students working on different sounds or levels, so you have given up being creative?

I've got a new therapy idea for you!  And BONUS - it's about as low prep as you can get.

First, you'll want to grab a piece of paper.  Divide the paper into the same number of sections as you have students in your group.  Then, write at least 10 words in each section that have each student's targets in them.  When your students come in, you can quickly have them take turns to practice all of their words - so if you have them say each word quickly 5 times, you easily have 50 productions each right there!

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog
St. Patrick's Day Feelings Freebie
[Source:  The Speech Room News]

Happy Friday! If you're buzzing over from the Speechie Freebies site, welcome! I can't wait to see all the good things that come from this collaboration. We 10 SLP's have been so excited to share it with you! And we're especially thankful for Jessica for organizing a space for us to collaborate!  Today I'm sharing a St. Patrick's day feelings freebie.   These sweet shamrocks have 10 different faces expressing emotions!

Read the Rest of this Post and Download the Freebie Through a Link on our Blog
Teaching Prepositions with Themes
[Source: Crazy Speech World]

Teaching prepositions is one of those things that allows your creativity to soar...this is mainly because in order to get the most out of it, you need to use your body and some STUFF.  This makes it a wonderful way to incorporate theme based learning!  Since we are right around the corner from St. Patrick's Day, I thought I would share how I am getting the most out of this holiday with some preposition practice.

Read the Rest of this Article on our Blog
Basketball Themed Gross Motor Ideas  
[Source:  Pink Oatmeal]

In March, it's tournament time.  If you live in the same type of home that I do, there is no doubt you are aware of this.  Our television is flipping from one tournament game to another and even high school basketball tournaments.  Every once in a while I'll even get in on a bracket.  The good news is that basketball is easy to apply to gross motor games and can easily be incorporated into gross motor planning this time of the year.  Check out some of these great Basketball Themed Gross Motor Ideas.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog
ABA Corner:  Behavior Therapy Services In Limbo For Military Families
[Source:  Stars and Stripes via Disability Scoop]

The letters, as if coordinated, began going out the third week in January.
First Anchorage, Alaska, then Jacksonville, Fla. Soon military families in Texas and Alabama hubs received notices too.

Despite months of preparation, the 2018 overhaul of the military health insurance company Tricare was not going smoothly, the letters from service providers explained. Tricare's new management companies were not reimbursing providers and not responding adequately to phone calls, emails or online submissions.


OT/PT Corner: Gross Motor Movement Break - Roll-an-Animal Walk
[Source:  OT Mom Says]

Several months ago, I created a Trolls inspired movement game that has continued to be a big hit in my house.  With the success of this game in mind, I decided to create another gross motor break game, and the Roll- an- Animal Walk game cube was born!

Animal walks are a great activity for kids, as the movements have many benefits. Weight-bearing on extended limps provides for strengthening and proprioceptive input. For more about the benefits and importance of upper extremity weight bearing, check out this other post.


School Psych Corner:   Tips For Helping Young Children with Perfectionism
[Source:  A Dose of Awesomeness]

Written by Dr Kaylene Henderson (First featured on the Storypark blog)
There's a perception in our society that perfectionism is a good thing, akin to 'being perfect'; That it's something to strive for or to drop into conversation in job interviews... Yet the reality is quite different. Perfectionism leads people to place unreasonably and often unrealistically high expectations on themselves, which, when inevitably unmet, leads to frustration and self-blame.

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

SLP Corner:  Helping Students Who Are Orally Defensive in Speech Therapy
[Source: Doyle Speech Works]

I was working with a group of students last week and I wanted to help them grasp proper tongue placement for /s/. I pulled out the mirrors, tongue depressors, and toothettes when all of a sudden one second grader flipped out. With his hand covering his mouth he pushed himself away from the table and expressed with terror in his voice, "I don't like things in my mouth!" Okay," I responded, "no worries we don't have to use these." He remained
Pediatric Therapy Corner: Teachers' Guide to Selective Mutism
[Source: Child Mind Institute]

Selective Mutism (SM) is an anxiety disorder that affects children in school, where they find themselves unable to speak, though they speak comfortably at home. In this guide we explain what selective mutism looks like in the classroom, and advise teachers on how to approach parents if you are concerned a student might have the disorder. We also offer tips for encouraging kids with SM to participate and verbalize, strategies for handling testing and advice on what to do if you learn you will be getting a student who has

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

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