July 2, 2015
Issue 26, Volume 8
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Independence Day!

Please enjoy an abbreviated holiday edition of our weekly newsletter.
 
News Items:
  • Study Suggests 3 Steps to End Fussy Eating
  • Study: 10-Week Reading Intervention Improves Brain Activity in Autism
  • Feel Good Video of the Week: Watch a Dog Comfort his Owner with Autism
  • Special Form of Talk-Therapy Helps Kids in Developing Nations
  • Genes Leave Some Kids Prone to Weakness in Wrist Bones
Hot Jobs 
  • Hot Jobs in Tuscon, AZ -  School Psych and PT!
  • Hot Jobs! School Based SLPs for San Antonio, TX
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Patriotic July 4th Freebies
  • Fine Motor Activity of the Week: Simple Toothpick Activity
  • 20 Road Trip Busy Bag Ideas

Articles and Special Features 

  • SLP Corner: Am I an SLP With a Social Communication Problem?
  • Sensory Corner: Staying Comfortable in the Summer During Often Overstimulating Activities
  • OT Corner: That Dreaded Word 'Motivation!'
  • Literacy Corner: Teaching Syllables Can Mask Meaningful Morphemes
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 

Study Suggests 3 Steps to End Fussy Eating

[Source:  Science Daily]

Parents could banish their children's fussy eating habits by following three simple steps, a new study suggests.
 

Introducing the 'three Rs' - Repetition, Role Modelling and Rewards - at meal times could help parents to get their children to eat, and even like, new vegetables, according to new research from Aston and Loughborough Universities.
 

By repeatedly exposing a child to a certain food ('repetition'), eating it first and show them how tasty it is ('role modelling') and praising them for trying it ('rewards'), a parent can help positively change their child's attitude to the food.
 

The study found that introducing the 'three Rs' dramatically increased children's liking and consumption of vegetables that they previously disliked.

 

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

10-Week Reading Intervention Improves Brain Activity in Autism

[Source:  UAB News]


Ten weeks of intensive reading intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder was enough to strengthen the activity of loosely connected areas of their brains that work together to comprehend reading, University of Alabama at Birmingham researchers have found. At the same time, the reading comprehension of those 13 children, whose average age was 10.9 years, also improved.

 

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

Feel Good Video: Watch a Dog Comfort his Owner with Autism

Editor's Note:   Please watch this powerful video that my daughter sent me last week. She is a dog lover and knows what we do here at PediaStaff.  She thought I would love it, and she was right.  I hope you like it too! 

 

[Source: Buzz Feed]

This powerful video was posted to YouTube by Danielle Jacobs, 24, from Tempe, Arizona. It shows her dog Samson comforting her during a "meltdown", because she wanted people to see what it's like to have Asperger's syndrome, one type of autism spectrum disorder.

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Special Form of Talk-Therapy Helps Kids in Developing Nations

[Source:  Psych Central]
 

New research suggests lay workers with little education can be trained to deliver effective counseling to traumatized children living in developing nations.
 

Investigators discovered a specific type of talk therapy aids orphans and other vulnerable children and is especially effective when used with children who had experienced trauma such as sexual and domestic abuse.

 
 Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Genes Leave Some Kids Prone to Weakness in Wrist Bones

Pediatric researchers have discovered gene locations affecting bone strength in wrist bones, the most common site for fractures in children. Children who have those genetic variants may be at higher-than-average risk of wrist fractures, and could especially benefit from activities and diets that promote bone strength.

 

"Other genetic studies have analyzed bone strength in adults and over the whole skeleton, but this study focused on genetic influences specific to childhood, which is when future bone density is established," said co-study leader Struan F.A. Grant, Ph.D., a genomics expert at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). "Furthermore, this research was the first genome-wide study in children to examine bone strength of the wrist, a particularly vulnerable site for fractures."

 

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog

Hot Jobs in Tuscon, AZ!: School Psych and PT!

We have some wonderful opportunities 2015-2016 school year about half an hour north of Tucson. There are four school psych openings and a part-time PT position.

Hot Jobs! School Based SLPs for San Antonio, TX  

Speech-Language Pathologists needed in the San Antonio Area for the 2015-16 School Year!!!

Are you looking for a school-based job in San Antonio?  If so...this could be your lucky day!   My client is interviewing now for school job opportunities for the new school year.  Jobs will begin @ August 19, 2015 and last until June 3, 2016.

 

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
OT Activities of the Week:  Patriotic OT Activities
[Source:  Your Therapy Source]

Here are three FREE printables for July 4th or any patriotic day.
  • Practice reaction time and visual skills with the Red White and Blue Game
  • Practice visual discrimination, visual motor and figure ground skills with the July 4th Hunt and Find Activity
  • Practice Scissors and Lacing to make a Flag Mobile
Activity  of the the Week: Simple Toothpick Activity

[Source:  Hands on As We Grow]
 

Save your spice jars for this simple toothpick activity to work on fine motor skills!

I always have large containers like this. But always thought it was something we had, and it wasn't something that you would normally find in your house. I get them from the bakery as large sprinkle containers (affiliate link, so you can see what I mean).

 

And then, the other day, I used up the last of my taco seasoning (affiliate link again so you can see). I buy it in the nice big container and realized that my mom always buys her spices in big containers too! So others must have these handy containers with lids on them that have little holes to poke things through, right?

 

Summer Therapy Ideas: 20 Road Trip Busy Bags  

[Source:  Hands on As We Grow]
 

First of all, what do I consider a 'busy bag'?
 

A busy bag to me is something that can be contained and stored away, but brought out to play with and put back (reusable). It doesn't necessarily have to be a 'bag'.
 

Secondly, what makes these best for road trips?
 

These busy bag ideas are great for road trips because they don't have a million little pieces that the kids are going to constantly be dropping and not being able to continue on with their play until you have a chance to find the lost piece.

 

 Check out All These Great Car Busy Bags Through a Link in our BlogĂ‚ 

SLP Corner: Am I an SLP With a Social Communication Problem?

[Source:  The ASHA Leader Blog (formerly ASHAsphere)]
 

by Ken Anderson
 

Have you ever pondered your social relevance, like an iPhone 5 right after the iPhone 6 comes out? Sure, you still look pretty good and have barely been used, so why is everyone already lining up to trade you in for a newer model? As a 28-year-old SLP working with junior high kids, I think about this a lot. I'm not that old and, therefore, relatively "cool" and in tune with what kids like ... right?


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


Sensory Corner: Staying Comfortable in the Summer 

[Source:  The Child Mind Institute]
 

By Rae Jacobson
 

For many kids, summer vacation holds the promise of months of school-free fun. But for children with sensory processing issues, summer can be a challenging time.
 

From the sand on the beach to the fireworks on the Fourth of July, the season is full of exciting but potentially difficult experiences. An unfamiliar playground, a visit to an amusement park, a messy ice cream cone: all involve sensory surprises that can be overwhelming or upsetting if a child is unusually sensitive to light, noise, and tactile sensations. But with some preparation and planning parents can help kids with sensory issues get the most out of summertime.


Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog


OT Corner: That Dreaded Word 'Motivation!'

by Eleanor Cawley, M.S. OTR/L

 

Lately, I have been seeing a rash of IEPs in a number of school districts with the phrase, "the student lacks the motivation to...." Every time I see this phrase in an IEP it really blows my mind! As an occupational therapist, I know that there are many factors to becoming motivated to complete any task.  Business Dictionary.com described motivation and it just happened to include a statement about students and studying which really hit home.

 

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

Literacy Corner: Teaching Syllables Can Mask Meaningful Morphemes

[Source:  Edutopia]
 

Syllable division can mask morphological boundaries and thus hide the meaningful structures of words. Now there's a statement to think about. How many times have you seen the word every misspelled as "evry"? What did you do to remedy the situation? I bet you over-pronounced the word to help the student perceive all of the written syllables - that's what most teachers do, myself included.

 

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

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