April 21, 2017
Issue 11, Volume 10
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday

 Please enjoy our weekly newsletter!
 
News Items:
  • Stroke Rates Appear to be Rising Steadily in Young Adults
  • Parent-Mediated Therapy May Help Babies at Risk of Autism
  • Crooked Bite May Indicate Early Life Stress
  • Cocoon-Like Bed Aims To Keep Kids With Special Needs Safe
  • Judge Finds 'No Basis' For ADA Claims Against Disney
  • Study Suggests Phonics is the Best Way to Teach Reading
PediaStaff News and Hot Jobs 
  • Public School Nurse - RN - Richmond, CA 
  • Part-Time Pediatric PT - Naperville, IL
  • Contract Pediatric Outpatient PT - Skokie, IL
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Why We Do What We Do:  Alternative Baseball, Inc.
  • Simple Montessori Sensorial Lesson Using a Fabric Basket
  • Resource: The PediaStaff Career Guide
  • Losing a Game Social Scripts Free Printable
Articles and Special Features 
  • School Psych Corner: A School Psych Weighs in on 13 Reasons Why
  • Special Ed Corner: Eight Steps to Rewrite the Special Education Script
  • SLP Corner: How I Improved My Cultural Competence as a New SLP
  • OT Corner: It's All About That Base
  • Sensory Corner: Sensory Room Video as Featured on Edutopia
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 

Stroke Rates Appear to be Rising Steadily in Young Adults
[Source: Washington Post]
 
The rate of stroke among young people has apparently been rising steadily since 1995, according to as a study published this week. Hospitalization rates for stroke increased for women between the ages of 18 and 44, and nearly doubled for men in that age range from 1995 through 2012.
 
Using more-detailed data for 2003 through 2012, the researchers found that rates of hospitalizations for acute ischemic stroke increased by nearly 42 percent for men 35 to 44, while rates for women of the same age group increased by 30 percent over the same time, the study published in the JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
Parent-Mediated Therapy May Help Babies at Risk of Autism
[Source: Medical News Today]

The earliest autism intervention study in the world that uses video to provide feedback to parents of babies at family risk of autism, has indicated a reduction in the severity of emerging signs of autism. This study, published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, is the first of its kind to work with babies in their first year of life who have a sibling with autism and are therefore at higher risk of developing the condition.

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
Crooked Bite May Indicate Early Life Stress
[Source: Psych Central]
 
Research has long established that the first 1,000 days after conception (about 280 days until birth and then up to 24 months of age) significantly influence a person's overall life expectancy and risk for chronic diseases.
 
In general, low birth weight has been the primary indicator of early life stress, but this can only measure stress or maternal nutrition up until birth and still falls quite short of a measurement useful for the first 1,000 days.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Cocoon-Like Bed Aims To Keep Kids With Special Needs Safe
[Source:  Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via Disability Scoop]
 
Rose Morris just wanted a safe place for her son Abram to sleep; she ended up building a specialty bed business that's just earned national recognition from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
 
The idea for her enterprise, Abram's Bed, LLC, came nearly a decade ago, one afternoon after her two youngest had gone down for naps. She describes it as "divine" inspiration.
 
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Judge Finds 'No Basis' For ADA Claims Against Disney
[Source:  Disability Scoop]
 
A second federal judge has rejected claims from families who sued Disney over changes to disability access at its theme parks, but a lawyer representing the kids and their parents isn't backing down.
In a ruling this month, U.S. District Judge Manuel Real in California tossed out claims brought by families of children with disabilities who alleged that Disney's 2013 policy changes violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Study Suggests Phonics is the Best Way to Teach Reading
[Source:  Science Daily]
 
There has been intense debate concerning how children should be taught to read. Researchers from Royal Holloway, University of London and the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit tested whether learning to read by sounding out words is more effective than focusing on whole-word meanings.

In order to assess the effectiveness of using phonics the researchers trained adults to read in a new language, printed in unfamiliar symbols, and then measured their learning with reading tests and brain scans.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
The Public School Nurse Profession is rewarding, but it requires commitment.  If you have a heart for critically ill and medically fragile children in the public school sector, providing the environment for success in education, this position may be for you. We are looking for the nurses who want to make public school nursing their career and the North Bay Area of Northern California is calling you!

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog 
Hot Job: Part-Time Pediatric PT - Naperville, IL
Part time Pediatric Physical Therapist needed to work afternoon-evening hours in a clinic in the Naperville, IL area
 
*  Therapist should be able to work from 4:00-7:00 one or two days per week
*  This position could become full time as the caseload expands if desired or can remain part time
*  Wonderful working environment
*  Experienced PT's, OT's and SLP's to work with as a team
*  Must have some pediatric experience
*  Will entertain a new grad because there are experienced PT's for mentoring

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
Pediatric Outpatient Physical Therapist needed to work full time as a contractor for a short term in the Skokie area!  More details to come!

*  Position starts as soon as possible
*  Hours vary at this point but must include some after school hours Monday-Thursday
*  Caseload ranges from 0-18 with the majority 0-14 year olds
*  Clinic offers a full range of pediatric therapy services
*  Friendly, family oriented clinic

*  Patients have varying degrees of disorders from mild learning disorders to Autism spectrum disorders
Qualifications: Must hold a Bachelor's Degree (or higher) in Physical Therapy and a current state license (or be eligible for same).
 
Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog 
Why We Do What We Do: Alternative Baseball, Inc.
Editor's Note:  We just learned about Alternative Baseball Organization, Inc, a couple of weeks ago, when Taylor Duncan, the group's founder (a young man on the autism spectrum himself), contacted me.   Please take a moment to realize that special education professionals and therapists likely made this man who he is today.   Take time out of your day to pat yourself on the back.   You inspire these kids to excel and be more than a sum of their parts and their labels!  

[Source:  Alternative Baseball]
 
Alternative Baseball Organization, Inc. is a developmental baseball program for teens and adults with autism and special needs. Alternative Baseball was founded by Taylor Duncan (young man on the 

Learn More About Alternative Baseball Through Links on our Blog
Simple Montessori Sensorial Lesson Using a Fabric Basket
[Source:  Carrots Are Orange]
 
It's very easy to create a fabric matching basket to use with a Montessori sensorial lesson. It's a great sensorial and language work for your preschooler. The basket includes same size pairs of fabrics. In our case, the basket is a derivative of the traditional Montessori fabric basket. I included different fabric designs, but traditional Montessori is same color, same size, and different textured pairs.

Learn More Through a Link our Blog
Resource: The PediaStaff Career Guide  
Hi there! I wanted to direct you to a resource we have at PediaStaff for New Graduates, Students and Experienced Therapists and Clinicians alike.
 
We get great feedback about this little guidebook we put together for job seekers. It contains a time-line for job search planning, resume writing tips, interviewing tips, a sample resume, some of our frequently asked questions, and more. Please feel free to share it with your friends!

Download this Great Resource From our Blog
Losing a Game Social Scripts Free Printable
[Source:  And Next Comes L]
 
I have been convinced for a long time that Snakes and Ladders is the devil. Every single time we play, there's a meltdown and J quits the game, making sure that all players are wiped off the board so that no one else can win. So yes, losing a game is an area that he still struggles with and likely one that he will struggle with for a few more years.

Access This Freebie Through a Link on our Blog
School Psych Corner:  A School Psych Weighs in on 13 Reasons Why
[Source:  Huffington Post]
 
by Andrew Livanis, President of the New York Association of School Psychologists
Because the series shines a spotlight on the mental health issues that our children face on a daily basis. According to the New York Association of School Psychologists:
*20% of children are diagnosed with a mental health disorder severe enough to interfere with their daily life functioning.

*75%-80% of those children do not receive the appropriate mental health services to address these problems.
* Mental health problems impact a child's ability to function in school, including academic achievement, performance on standardized testing, and social interactions with others.

Special Ed Corner: 8 Steps to Rewrite the Special Education Script
[Source: Education Week]

The U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District means that one Colorado family whose child is on the autism spectrum will finally receive the private school tuition support that their son needs to succeed academically. Bravo for them. Enlightened human beings and experienced educators know that standing in the path of an impassioned mother or father whose child struggles with a learning challenge is suicidal. I am in awe of the courage that these family members displayed, and the love that so clearly drives their passion for their son's success and well-being.


SLP Corner: How I Improved My Cultural Competence as a New SLP
[Source:  The ASHA Leader Blog]

I often experienced uncertainty and occasionally confusion during my first year practicing speech-language pathology. I worked in an urban area with a wide array of children, encompassing many different races, languages and cultures.

I wondered about many unfamiliar situations and asked myself-and more experienced SLPs-many questions: When treating a child who is bilingual, do I treat everything, when I don't know the rules of their native language? When a parent didn't complete home practice, was it their fault or mine?

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

OT Corner: It's All About That Base
[Source:  Dragonfly Kids OT]
 
Our proprioceptive sense and heavy work!
 
My daughter is a cheerleader and she is a base.  She is responsible with 4 other teammates to lift their flyer in the air.  That requires a lot of strength! At practice, they do it over and over again to get it perfected.  As an Occupational Therapist, I am often recommending "heavy work".  Heavy work is any activity that involves using your muscles working against gravity or resistance.

Sensory Corner: Viral Sensory Room Video as Featured on Edutopia
[Source:  Edutopia]

Here is a video, part of Edutopia's Schools that Work series.   More information about this school, Hanover Elementary will be published in late April 2017, along with our case study on Meriden Public Schools, in Meriden, CT
 
Watch this Video Through a Link on our Blog 

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