March 22, 2013
Weekly Edition 
Issue 9, Volume 6
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Spring!

Please enjoy our weekly newsletter offering
 
News Items:
 
  • How Can We Stlil Raed Words Wehn Teh Lettres Are Jmbuled Up?
  • Stick Or Carrot - Research Could Aid In Diagnosing Neural Development Disorders
  • Down Syndrome: Screening For Breathing Problems To Stop Unnecessary Suffering
  • How Adolescent's Brains Make The Transition To Mature Thinking Revealed By Sleep Study
  • Atypical Brain Circuits May Cause Slower Gaze Shifting in Infants Who Later Develop Autism
  • DSM-5 Will Add PTSD for Preschoolers
  • CDC Now Estimates That One in Fifty Children Has Autism Diagnosis
  • In Twist, School Practices 'Reverse Inclusion'
  • Human Babies May Be Less Prone To Obesity If Given Solid Foods Later

Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Speedeebee! Review of a Cute Word Game
  • Therapy Activity of the Week:  Sorting Colors with Cardboard Rolls 
  • PT Activity of the Week:  Homemade Hurdles 
  • Resource of the Week: AllSpecialEd's "Social Skills Field Guide"

Articles and Special Features 

  • SLP Corner: Using Gestures to Predict and Promote Language in Children  
  • OT Corner: 12 iPad, Xbox, and Wii Games That Help With Occupational Therapy
  • Pediatric Therapy Corner:  Pediatric Therapy Corner: Book Review - Country Mouse and City Mouse
  • Video Worth Repeating: TED Talk - "How Your Brain Tells You Where You Are"
  • Also Worth Repeating: How (Not) to Break Up With Your Child's Therapist
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Have a great weekend and Take Care!

Heidi Kay and the PediaStaff Team





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Dyslexia Research in the News:  How Can We Stlil Raed Words Wehn Teh Lettres Are Jmbuled Up?

[Source:  Medical News Today]

 

Researchers in the UK have taken an important step towards understanding how the human brain 'decodes' letters on a page to read a word. The work, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), will help psychologists unravel the subtle thinking mechanisms involved in reading, and could provide solutions for helping people who find it difficult to read, for example in conditions such as dyslexia.


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

Developmental Neuroscience in the News: Stick Or Carrot - Research Could Aid In Diagnosing Neural Development Disorders

[Source:  Medical News Today]

 

The stick can work just as well as the carrot in improving our performance, a team of academics at The University of Nottingham has found.

 

A study led by researchers from the University's School of Psychology, published recently in the Journal of Neuroscience, has shown that punishment can act as a performance enhancer in a similar way to monetary reward.

 

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

Down Syndrome in the News:  Down Syndrome: Screening For Breathing Problems To Stop Unnecessary Suffering   

[Source:  Medical News Today]

 

Researchers at the University of Southampton are planning to investigate tests for a breathing disorder that affects babies and children who have Down syndrome while they sleep. They aim to provide the missing evidence so that doctors can introduce affordable and simple routine screening.

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

The Adolescent Brain in the News:  How Adolescent's Brains Make The Transition To Mature Thinking Revealed By Sleep Study  

[Source:  Medical News Today]

 

A new study conducted by monitoring the brain waves of sleeping adolescents has found that remarkable changes occur in the brain as it prunes away neuronal connections and makes the major transition from childhood to adulthood.

 

"We've provided the first long-term, longitudinal description of developmental changes that take place in the brains of youngsters as they sleep," said Irwin Feinberg, professor emeritus of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and director of the UC Davis Sleep Laboratory. "Our outcome confirms that the brain goes through a remarkable amount of reorganization during puberty that is necessary for complex thinking."

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Autism Research in the News:  Atypical Brain Circuits May Cause Slower Gaze Shifting in Infants Who Later Develop Autism  

[Source: Science Daily]

 

Infants at 7 months of age who go on to develop autism are slower to reorient their gaze and attention from one object to another when compared to 7-month-olds who do not develop autism, and this behavioral pattern is in part explained by atypical brain circuits.

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

DSM-5 in the News: DSM-5 Will Add PTSD for Preschoolers   

[Source:  ABC News]

When the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5, is published in May, a small section could alter the lives of millions of children.

 

The manual, a reference bible for psychiatrists around the globe, will include pioneering guidelines to help doctors diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, in children under the age of 6, according to two psychiatrists who worked on the draft.

 

 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Autism in the News:  CDC Now Estimates That One in Fifty Children Has Autism Diagnosis   

[Source:  Reuters]

 

As many as one in 50 U.S. school-age children have a diagnosis of autism, up from one in 86 in 2007, with much of the increase involving milder cases, suggesting the rise is linked to growing awareness and better testing methods, government researchers said on Wednesday.

 

In line with previous estimates, boys in the study were four times more likely to be diagnosed with autism than girls, according to the study, which is based on American parent reports of autism diagnoses in 2011-12 compared with 2007.


 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Special Education Policy News:  In Twist, School Practices 'Reverse Inclusion'    

[Source: Disability Scoop]

A unique approach at one Ohio school has typically developing teens entering the world of special education for an eye-opening experience.

Through a semester-long elective at Kenston High School in Bainbridge, Ohio, high school juniors and seniors work side-by-side in a special education classroom with their peers who have special needs.


 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Pediatric Nutrition in the News:  Human Babies May Be Less Prone To Obesity If Given Solid Foods Later     

[Source:  Medical News Today]

 

Consumption of foods high in carbohydrates immediately after birth programs individuals for lifelong increased weight gain and obesity, a University at Buffalo animal study has found, even if caloric intake is restricted in adulthood for a period of time.

 

The research on laboratory animals was published this month in the American Journal of Physiology: Endocrinology and Metabolism; it was published online in December.

 

 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Game Review of the Week:  Speedeebee! Review of a Cute Word Game  

"Life is more fun if you play games." - Roald Dahl, My Uncle Oswald

 Heidi Kay over at PediaStaff asked me to review a couple of games by Blue Orange Games.  Of course, I said yes-if you look at my therapy room, it looks like the game aisle in a toy store.  I love games, and my kids do too!  Even with the current iPad craze, most of my students will choose a game in a box to play when the time is right.

The game we played this week was entitled Speedeebee!  The ages suggested were 8 to adult, with 2-6 players in 20 minutes.  I played it with five EC 4th graders, adapting it a bit, as I do most of my games.

 

Read the Rest of this Review on our Blog

Therapy Activity of the Week:  Sorting Colors with Cardboard Rolls   

Thank you to NEPA Special Needs Networking for sharing this post so we could share it with you!  This activity originally appeared on Learning 4 Kids.net, a cool Australian learning site.

[Source:  Learning 4 Kids]

Making learning your colours fun with this interactive game using pompoms and cardboard rolls!  Miss 2 has been learning her colours for some time now as we have been focusing on a different colour each week and sharing the activities here in our Colour Series.

Learn About These Great Resources on our Blog

PT Activity of the Week:  Homemade Hurdles   

Special Thanks to Your Therapy Source for this great, inexpensive, DIY therapy activity!

Make your own hurdles of different heights to practice jumping, balance and motor planning  skills.  You will need 4 PVC corner pipes, two 6 inch pipes, one 15 inch pipe and two equal pipes in height (depending upon how tall you want the hurdle).  In total to make the three hurdles and the plus sign pipe it cost me only $8.

 

 Read the Rest of these Instructions and Watch the Video Through a Link on our Blog

Resource of the Week:  AllSpecialEd's "Social Skills Field Guide"   

Here is an outstanding 26 page resource from our friends at AllSpecialED.com.  They took the best of their Social Thinking � discussion with Nancy Clements and combined it with the many great ideas posted by ASE.com members. 

 

Download a Free Copy Through a Link on our Blog

SLP Corner: Using Gestures to Predict and Promote Language in Children

by Becca Jarzynski,  MS, CCC-SLP

 

Most people don't automatically think of gestures as an important part of speech and language development. Quite the opposite, in fact. When most people think of the milestones that make up a child's early communication development, the focus tends to be on spoken language: first sounds, first words, first sentences. It turns out, however, that gestures play a big part in both predicting language and promoting it.

 

Gestures Predict Language Development
An important turning point in young children's early language development occurs when infants become intentional communicators.  This occurs when children begin to communicate messages

 

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

OT Corner: 12 iPad, Xbox, and Wii Games That Help With Occupational Therapy

[Source: Friendship Circle Blog and the Kaufman Children's Center for Speech, Language, Sensory-Motor, and Social Connections]

In occupational therapy, there are many ways to use motivating technology to address specific fine motor, sensory processing and sensory-motor skills.  Here is a parent's guide to apps and game systems that will keep children entertained while also assisting in their development.

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog


Pediatric Therapy Corner: Book Review - Country Mouse and City Mouse

Review by: Jill Perry, MHA, MS, OTR/L

Title:  Country Mouse and City Mouse

Author: Based on an Aesop's Fable. App by McGraw-Hill

Illustrator: Joyce Hesselberth

Age: preschool, elementary school

Description: A mouse that lives in the city visits a mouse friend who lives in the country.  Although they both enjoy the visits, they long for their familiar homes.

 

Goals/Concepts:
* Perspective taking
* Trying new experiences
* Flexibility
* Managing the unexpected
* Being kind even if you don't like someone else's ideas or things

 

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Video Worth Repeating: TED Talk - "How Your Brain Tells You Where You Are"

Thank you to the All Kinds of Minds blog for sharing this TED Talk so we would notice it and then be able to share it with you.

Neil Burgess, is a neuroscientist at the University College in London, who researches, as described on the TED website, "how patterns of electrical activity in brain cells guide us through space."

Also Worth Repeating: How (Not) to Break Up With Your Child's Therapist

[Source: The Anonymous OT]
 
It's not you, it's... my insurance."

Therapy is never meant to be an indefinite situation. Whatever the reason may be, there is always that inevitable moment when a therapist and client must part ways.

 

And yeah, it can get awkward.

 

Here are some of the most common "break up" situations I've run into, complete with the truth of how they usually go down, as well as my wishes for the best case scenarios.

1. Not-So-Mutual Break Up: Parent Stops Therapy

 

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

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