Sex Differences in the News: Could Playing 'Boys' Games Help Girls in Science and Math?

[Source: Science Daily]

A new review finds that many men still have better spatial ability than women ̶ this may be explained by individual differences in gender-role identification.

Hemiplegia in the News:  A Breath Of New Life For Children Suffering With Motor Disabilities   

[Source: Medical News Today]

Breathe Arts Health Research, the social enterprise developing creative approaches to tackle healthcare issues, has designed a new therapy to help young people suffering from hemiplegia.

With the help of mentors from Lloyds Banking Group, Breathe is looking to expand its work to benefit children nationally and has signed up British Paralympic athlete, Bethy Woodward as the social enterprise's patron.

Hemiplegia is a condition which severely limits the use of one side of the body, and Breathe designs programs that help children suffering with this disorder to overcome their disability through the use of

Auditory Processing in the Mainstream News:  Autism Linked to Increased Genetic Change in Regions of Genome Instability  

Sense of Self in the News:  Body Representation Differs in Children and Adults  

[Science Daily.com]

Children's sense of havig and owning a body differs from that of adults, indicating that our sense of physical self develops over time, according to a new study published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.

Many of our senses - vision, touch, and body orientation - come together to inform our perception of having and owning a body. Psychological scientist Dorothy Cowie of Goldsmiths, University of London and colleagues hypothesized that there might be age differences in how these processes come together. To test this hypothesis, they relied on a well-known sensory illusion called the "rubber-hand 

The Structure of Language in the News:  Language by Mouth and by Hand 

[Source: Science Daily]

Humans favor speech as the primary means of linguistic communication. Spoken languages are so common many think language and speech are one and the same. But the prevalence of sign languages suggests otherwise. Not only can Deaf communities generate language using manual gestures, but their languages share some of their design and neural mechanisms with spoken languages.

New research by Northeastern University's Prof. Iris Berent further underscores the flexibility of human language and its robustness across both spoken and signed channels of communication.

RTI in the News:  Response to Intervention Policy and Practice Inconsistent Across States    

More than half of the states allow, or require, response to intervention to be used as a method to evaluate if students have specific learning disabilities.

But many states and districts do not have a way of determining if RTI has been successful in reducing the number of children identified as learning disabled. Districts also differ widely in when-or if-they seek parental consent to place children in a response to intervention framework, and how long the children stay once placed there.

Comparative Cognition in the News:  Sense of Rhythm Limited to Animals that Can Mimic Human Speech? Not So Fast Says Ronan the Sea Lion!     

OT Resource of the Week:  Video for Teaching Shoe Tying   

[Source:  Pediatric Occupational Therapy Tips]

by Anne Zachry, OTR/L

Tying shoes is a challenging skill that requires motor planning and dexterity.  A child should be independent with shoe tying by 7 years of age, but many children master this skill much earlier. When teaching shoe tying, it's a good idea to practice with a shoe that is placed just in front of the child, either on the floor or a table (rather than on their foot).  Here is a video of one strategy that I frequently use with 

Book Review of the Week:  'Missing Mommy'  

[Source: New York Times.com]

Review by Pamela Paul

The death of a parent is a subject most people instinctively shy away from. That is, until it hits home; then parents, teachers, therapists and other caregivers are grateful for picture books that grapple with the hardest stuff faced by young children - whether it's the loss of a grandparent or a pet, or in the case of "Missing Mommy," one of the worst experiences of all.

PT Video Resource of the Week:  Rewiring a Damaged Spinal Cord 

Thanks to the Daily Dose blog over at the Dana and Christopher Reeve Foundation for calling our attention to this great article and video from Scientific American

[Source:  Scientific American]

By Luciana Gravotta

When Christopher Reeve became quadriplegic, there was little hope for patients with spinal cord injury. Now researchers are combining what they know about the central nervous system's ability to rewire and regrow with a new understanding of the hidden smarts of the spinal cord to dramatically improve treatments.

Even the most devastating spinal cord injuries usually do not completely sever the link between the brain, spine and the rest of the body. Scientists are now finding ways to make the most of the remaining connections using a variety of technologies. Studies on electrical stimulation and locomotor training (a  

Pinterest Pins of the Week:  Free Receptive Language Worksheets from Ms. Lane's SLP Materials