January 29, 2016
Issue 4, Volume 9
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday!

please enjoy our weekly newsletter offering.
 
News Items:
  • New Drug Target Could Lead to Novel Treatment for Severe Autism 
  • Intriguing Gender Differences Found in Autistic Friendships
  • Study:  No Increased Risk of Autism, ADHD with Prenatal Antidepressant Exposure
  • Are Toddlers Ready for Reading Lessons?
  • Youths with Gender Dysphoria Have Higher Rates of Aspergers Syndrome
  • New Understanding of Brain Memories
Hot Jobs 
  • Placement of the Week: SLPA for Houston
  • School Psychologists Needed Throughout Western WA
  • New Grad OTs Needed in Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Snowy Synonym Screener & Worksheet Sampler Freebie 
  • Find and Color the Winter Cats
  • Hot Glue and Watercolor Hearts
Articles and Special Features 
  • PT Corner: Looking at the Differences between Exercise and Function in Treatment
  • OT Corner: Obesity, the Sensory/Emotional System and Learning
  • SLP Corner: Stuttering Therapy - The Focus of Increased Communication
  • Peds Tx Corner:  Tips to Help Develop Time Awareness for Individuals with ADHD
  • School Nurse Corner: 10 Things You Need to Know About the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans
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





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Recent Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs 

New Drug Target Could Lead to Novel Treatment for Severe Autism
[Source: Medical News Today]
 
Penn State University scientists have discovered a novel drug target and have rescued functional deficits in human nerve cells derived from patients with Rett Syndrome, a severe form of autism-spectrum disorder. The research, led by Gong Chen, professor of biology and the Verne M. Willaman Chair in Life Sciences at Penn State, could lead to a new treatment for Rett Syndrome and other forms of autism-spectrum disorders. A paper describing the research will be published in the online Early Edition of the journal

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Intriguing Gender Differences Found in Autistic Friendships
[Source: Medical News Today

Could gender differences in the symptoms of autism mask their prevalence in girls? A recent study into autistic friendships highlights some striking asymmetries.

According to a new study, the way in which autistic boys and girls enter friendships can be quite different.
 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimate that around 1 in 68 American children have been identified with an autism spectrum disorder.
 
Autism appears to be far more prevalent in males than females; almost five times 

 Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
No Increased Risk of Autism, ADHD with Prenatal Antidepressant Exposure 
Editor's Note: This seems exactly the opposite of another study we featured a few weeks ago.  Go figure.
 
An analysis of medical records data from three Massachusetts health care systems finds no evidence that prenatal exposure to antidepressants increases the risk for autism and related disorders or for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In their report being published online in Translational Psychiatry, the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)-based research team finds evidence that any increased incidence of autism or ADHD found in previous studies was probably associated with the severity of the mother's depression - a known risk factor for several neuropsychiatric disorders - and 
 
Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
Are Toddlers Ready For Reading Lessons?  
Even before they can read, children as young as 3 years of age are beginning to understand how a written word is different than a simple drawing -- a nuance that could provide an important early indicator for children who may need extra help with reading lessons, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

"Our results show that children have some knowledge about the fundamental properties of writing from a surprisingly early age," said study co-author Rebecca Treiman, PhD, the Burke & Elizabeth High Baker Professor of Child Developmental Psychology in Arts & Sciences.

"Based on the results, it may be possible to determine at an early age which children are progressing well in the learning of emergent literacy skills and which children may need extra attention," Treiman said.

Forthcoming in the journal Child Development, the study is based on two experiments with 114 children ages 3-to-5 years who had not yet received any formal instruction in reading or writing.

 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Youths with Gender Dysphoria Have Higher Rates of Aspergers
[Source: Medical News Today]
 
A new study provides clinical data to support growing evidence that autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is more prevalent in children and adolescents with gender dysphoria than in the general population. Among youths seen at a pediatric gender clinic who were screened for ASD, 23% possibly or likely had Asperger syndrome, according to the study published in LGBT Health, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free to download on the LGBT Health website until February 13, 2016.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
New Understanding of Brain Memories
[Source: Psych Central]
 
Researchers have discovered a mechanism that may explain how the brain compresses memories. This capability allows us to recall nearly all of what happened over several hours or even a day, in a fraction of the time.
 
Experts believe understanding this previously unknown function in the brain can aid research into schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorders, Alzheimer's disease, and other disorders.

 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
PediaStaff Therapy Placement of the Week:  SLPA for Houston
Congratulations to Estavan F., on his new SLPA position with PediaStaff's client in the Greater Houston Area!  He will be working  in a pediatric outpatient facility as well as with some schools in the area.   The clinic treats children of all ages with a variety of diagnoses and a focus on developmental delays and children with autism.    
 
Congrats!
Western Washington state from Seattle to Vancouver offers a wonderful combination of vibrant cities, charming small towns, and world-class outdoor recreation venues.  We have current openings in the counties of King, Pierce, Lewis, Thurston, Mason, and Clark!

Pay rates are excellent, and benefits are available.  New graduates are welcome.  Many of these jobs will renew for SY16/17 if desired!

Learn About / Apply for These Jobs on our Blog
Pediatric Occupational Therapy Jobs available across the state of Arkansas and Eastern Oklahoma.  These outpatient pediatric clinics jobs offer strong mentorship, the ability to have direct treatment time, testing materials and wonderful equipment and foremost the opportunity to practice your profession the way you would like to!  Most offer flexible hours with very competitive pay...some even offering the ability for you to determine how much you make!  ALL are in low to moderate cost of living areas...so you have more disposable income.

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
[Source:  Speechie Freebies]

Hello friends! This is Shanda and Manda from Twin Speech, Language & Literacy LLC. We are happy to be back at Speechie Freebies this month to let you know about a brand new freebie document that we created that targets synonyms.

Download this Freebie Through a Link on our Blog 
Activity of the Week:  Color the Winter Cats  
Here is a freebie from the Winter Visual Perception Puzzles Packet by Your Therapy Source.  So so cute! 

Download it Through a LInk on our Blog
OT Activity of the Week:  Hot Glue and Watercolor Hearts
Editor's Note:  A low temp glue gun is great hand strengthening therapy!
 
[Source:  No Time for Flashcards]
 
Although we cut our paper into hearts to make this simple open ended art project into a Valentine's Day themed art project there is no reason you can't just do it on paper. Or cut it into any shape you want! Being a big kid is a big deal at our house right now, showing my daughter I trust her with more and more responsibilities from cleaning her own room to helping with the cooking also extends to creative time. I have allowed her to use the low temp glue gun before but it wasn't working well today, she said he could handle the full temp one and I trusted her. She did great and LOVED this art project.

Learn More About this Activty Through a Link on our our Blog
PT Corner:   Looking at the Differences between Exercise and Function in Treatment
by Natan Gendelman, PT
 
As we've mentioned before, cerebral palsy is a complex disorder that comes to affect not only a child's muscles, but his entire body and its ability to function. I often emphasize how the trunk is the king of the body, and that is because the tone of the limbs will be influenced by the trunk. When we're dealing with a child that has cerebral palsy, his trunk may become stiff (hyper tone), which then moves on to affect other areas such as his arms and legs. Therefore, the condition of the trunk has to be addressed first, and the extremities (such as the arms and legs) second.


OT Corner:  Obesity, the Sensory/Emotional System and Learning
By: Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L
 
"Childhood obesity can have complications for the physical, social and emotional well-being of your child" The Mayo Clinic Staff Paper
 
And I should know...a reformed "chubster" who remembers being told that I was so fat I made "the carpool car go down when I got in". NOT fun and 50+ years later, it stays with me. It did motivate me to lose 30 pounds in one summer, and when I went back to school in the fall, many kids did not know me.


SLP Corner:   Stuttering Tx - The Focus of Increased Communication
By: Anne Coady M.S. CCC-SLP

Today there are many stuttering therapy options, and research is being completed on numerous ways to approach stuttering therapy. It is important to rely on expert and evidence based practices when deciding on the course of treatment for a client who stutters. As a speech-language pathologist (SLP) who has a stutter, I have found that it is pertinent to remember that the most important goal of therapy is to increase communication rather than increase speech fluency. If eliminating stuttering is not an option, then ultimately we want our clients to be able to communicate in a variety of environments with a variety of communication partners. Stuttering therapy often includes stuttering modification, fluency shaping, positive communication attitudes, and education  about stuttering. The balance of these strategies depends on the individual needs of a child and the child's age.

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Peds Tx Corner: Tips on Time Awareness for Individuals w/ADHD
[Source:  Special-ism]
 
Getting a handle on time can be a tough challenge for someone with ADHD and other special needs. Even with medication, children and adults with ADHD have a difficulty sensing time in the standard way. This is part of our executive function portion of the brain that also regulates how we process incoming information and helps us prioritize what information to respond to in what order.
 
Linear and Non-Linear Thinkers
Individuals with ADHD tend to be non-linear thinkers. It is often seen and described as being able to see information in multiple perspectives at once.
 
One of the reasons some ADHDrs have such a hard time beginning some tasks, is that they are unable to break their ideas down into a linear task line.  Although their executive functioning processing allows for a lot of information to be introduced into awareness at the same time, this  makes it difficult to prioritize and narrow down that information into tasks.  As adults, many ADHDrs are seen as the "idea person" and are most successful 
School Nurse Corner:  Things You Need to Know About the Dietary Guidelines 
[Source:  Health.gov]
 
The Dietary Guidelines provides a clear path to help Americans eat healthfully, informed by a critical, and transparent review of the scientific evidence on nutrition.
  1. A lifetime of healthy eating helps to prevent chronic diseases like obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and Type 2 diabetes.
  2. Healthy eating is one of the most powerful tools we have to reduce the onset of disease. The Dietary Guidelines recommendations can help you make informed choices about eating for you and your family.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog

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