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May 1, 2020
Issue 17, Volume 13
It's All About the Choices!
Greetings and Happy Friday
Please enjoy our weekly newsletter coming to you from quarantine! We have retooled it in order to provide all the home-based activities, and COVID-19 related information you need to stay on top of things in this strange time.
News Items:
- Special Education Families Struggle with COVID-19 School Closures
- Good Morning America Features COVID-19 Era OT/PT Challenges
- Sesame Street Explains COVID-19 in CNN Town Hall
- No COVID-19 Era IDEA Waivers Per The U.S. Department of Education
- Special Needs Students Donate Face Shields Made From Their School's 3D Printers
- Children's Grief in Quarantine May Look Like Anger: Here's How Parents Can Respond
- In Other News and Research
PediaStaff News and Hot Jobs -- WE ARE HIRING NOW!
PediaStaff is interviewing now!. For 14 years, our trusted clients have looked to PediaStaff to help them serve special needs children. When schools, clinics and EI providers reopen, they will rely on us more than ever to get services kick-started.
With that in mind, please consider the following (anticipated) opening we are currently looking to fill with a quality therapist like you:
- Hot, New Job! Pediatric Home Health OT - Fair Park-Garland, TX
- Hot, New Job! School Psychologist - Auburn, WA
- Hot, New Job! Pediatric SLP - Kankakee, IL
Stay-at-Home Therapy Activities and Resources
- Physical or Occupational Therapy Self Regulation Activities
- Picture Books for Kids in Quarantine
- A Visual Support for Expected Social Teleconference Behaviors
- Printable FREE Spring Postcards for Kids at Home
- Issue 6: Teaching & Therapy Resources for Homebound Families
Articles for School-Based/Pediatric Clinicians and Special Educators
- Special Educator/Therapist Corner: How to Handle IEPs During the Coronavirus Crisis? Some Expert Advice
- Sensory Corner: DIY Ways to Meet a Child's Sensory Needs at Home
- SEL Corner: Social-Emotional Learning Should Be Priority During COVID-19 Crisis
- Health Care Corner: School-Based Health Care Providers COVID-19 Listening and Learning Sessions
- SLP Corner: Thoughts from a Speech Pathologist: Teletherapy
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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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.
To further narrow your search by state,
setting, bilingual, or term, use the
check boxes drop down menus.
If a particular search is returning
no hits it is possible that we do
not currently have new openings for
you with that selection criteria.
To see ALL our openings
click HERE and further narrow your search.
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Special Education Families Struggle with COVID-19 School Closures
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[Source: USA Today]
Just weeks ago, special education students across America had one-on-one aides, physical and speech therapy and counseling in school. Then came the
coronavirus outbreak, and schools closed.
While many of America's children are working through take-home packets or taking classes online, some families of special education students are still
struggling to line up learning for their children.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Good Morning America Features COVID-19 Era OT/PT Challenges
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[Source: Good Morning America
Parents and children with special needs are facing challenges during the coronavirus, but one family is taking a unique approach.
Watch This Story Through a Link our Blog |
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Sesame Street Explains COVID-19 in CNN Town Hall
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Kids have a lot of questions right now. Why can't they see their friends? How is this virus different than the cold? Why is school out? Well, Sesame Street, once again, has our backs. They organized a town hall with CNN, so that muppets and medical experts alike will be answering all sorts of questions related to our current crisis. It aired last Saturday, but its streaming on YouTube now.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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No COVID-19 Era IDEA Waivers Per Betsy DeVos and the U.S. DOE
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[Source: Chalkbeat]
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos won't recommend giving school districts the option to bypass major parts of federal special education law, the department announced Monday.
The move will be celebrated by disability rights advocates, who had feared that giving districts any wiggle room could pave the way for a more permanent undoing of civil rights for the country's nearly 7 million students with disabilities.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Special Needs Students Donate Face Shields Made From Their School's 3D Printers
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[Source: NJ.com]
The beeps and whistles stopped long enough for Amelia McGowan to realize exactly what was going wrong.
A paper jam ... or in this case a filament jam.
For nine hours a day, there's a 3D printer spitting out line after line in an effort to produce face shields for health care workers. It's McGowan's job to make sure the printer runs smoothly, but in the middle of this jam, production has slowed to a halt.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Children's Grief in Quarantine May Look Like Anger
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[Source: Medical Express]
COVID-19 has taken the world by storm and profoundly changed the lives of children and families. Children aren't going to school and many businesses have temporarily shut down. Many parents are working from home and essential front-line workers like doctors and nurses are working longer hours with increased risk and stress.
This is a scary and uncertain time for all of us, but especially for children. Through media and conversations at home, children are likely hearing about COVID-19 frequently. They are also witnessing the obvious changes the virus has had on their lives and daily routine.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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In Other News and Research
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Editor's Note: Due to our current focus on Home Education/Therapy and COVID-19, please enjoy this summary page with links to other interesting research that we wanted to share!
Access this Summary and the Related for Articles Through Link our Blog |
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Are you a Registered Occupational Therapist looking to work with a pediatric population? We are in need of an OTR to work part-time with a thriving pediatric home health care company in the Fair Park, White Rock Lake, Richardson-Garland areas of Texas. If you are seeking a great new Occupational Therapist position with a supervising role as well, please apply today!
Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog |
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We have two wonderful full-time and part-time job opportunities in the Auburn area for a School Psychologist. One position is 37.5 hours per week and the other is 22 hours per week for the 2020-2021 school year. The job is located south of Seattle and north of Tacoma in Auburn, Washington. It's a nice place to live, but you could also easily commute from southern Seattle or from the Tacoma area.
Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog |
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Full-time Pediatric School Speech-Language Pathologist needed in the area of Kankakee, IL
We are seeking a Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist that enjoys working with ages K-8
- As a Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist, you will evaluate and utilize appropriate standardized tests for accurate diagnosis of speech and communication disorders
- Develop new and modify existing clinic and/or IEP goals
- Establish treatment goals and implement age-appropriate plans of care via active IEPs
- Ability to work well in both 1:1 and co-treatment scenarios with the kiddos as their IFSPs and clinic cases dictate!
Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog |
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Physical or Occupational Therapy Self Regulation Activities
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[Source: Your Therapy Source]
If you work with young children, then you will want to read these easy to play self regulation games for children. These six games provide great suggestions for physical or occupational therapy self regulation activities and require no equipment! We all love activities that do need any preparation or equipment.
A
previous article discussed research on self regulation in children as a predictor of academic abilities. The researchers, Megan McClelland, Ph.D., Associate Professor Human Development and
Learn More About this Activity Through a Link on our Blog |
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Picture Books for Kids in Quarantine
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[Source: No Time for Flashcards]
I started writing this list of books for kids in quarantine with the idea that I'd just share my favorites. Still, soon it became apparent that so many of my favorites had lessons that would help young children deal with the new reality of being without playdates, without the structure of school, and without seeing family the way they may want to. Books are influential, and they are especially powerful when you are in a crisis and need to talk about big emotions calmly. Usually, the best way to do that is a spectator, not when you are feeling big feelings. Books allow parents to dive into these topics and meet their children
Read This Blog Post Through a Link on our Blog |
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A Visual Support for Expected Social Teleconference Behaviors
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[Source: Speech Techie]
I created this mostly as a support to parents in reviewing some "expecteds" needed for individual or group teletherapy, given some clients we have had who have challenges with these. Some of the language is based on Social Thinking ® Concepts and also the whole body listening paradigm
Learn More About this Activity Through a Link on our Blog |
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Printable Spring Postcards for Kids at Home
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[Source: The Inspired Treehouse]
We're definitely feeling the pressure of this extended time at home and I've been reminding my kids daily that one of the best ways we can keep ourselves busy and bring a little brightness to our lives right now is by reaching out to the people we love and miss who we can't see in person right now.
Learn More About this Activity Through a Link on our Blog |
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Issue Six: Teaching & Therapy Resources for Home Bound Families
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We have our sixth issue of this new COVID-era E-letter out today! We are hearing from many of you that this is a wonderful resource for sharing.
You should have received your copy yesterday. It is a publication that like this newsletter we are generating in Constant Contact so that you might recommend that your families to subscribe to it directly. We are also posting the content of the entire letter weekly on our blog. You can access it through the link below.
Learn More About this Activity Through a Link on our Blog |
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SpeEd/Therapy Corner: How to Handle IEPs During the COVID-19 Crisis? Some Expert Advice
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[Source: On Special Education Blog; Education Week]
The federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act outlines specific requirements for identifying and educating children with disabilities, but the coronavirus crisis has sparked fierce debate over how adaptable the law is to a world where online education may be the only option.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has instructed school districts that federal law should not be used as a cover to prevent them from offering online learning to students with disabilities. However, experts say, that guidance and fact sheets from the federal government have offered little direction on the topic beyond encouraging parents, educators, and administrators to collaborate creatively-and many school districts have struggled to respond.
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Sensory Corner: DIY Ways to Meet a Child's Sensory Needs at Home
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Editor's Note: Written for parents and guardians, this article is an excellent one to share with your client families.
[Source: Edutopia]
Occupational therapists and trauma-informed teachers weigh in on how to create sensory tools and spaces with what you have at home.
The coronavirus pandemic has upended all students' day-to-day routines, but has created particular disruption for students with special needs, sensory processing disorders, and kids who have experienced trauma who rely on the structure of school to stay grounded.
Creating an at-home sensory space and sensory tools that resemble the supports students received in school can help kids during this transition, easing them out of a meltdown or giving them a much-needed break before one starts.
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SEL Corner: Social-Emotional Learning Should Be a Priority During COVID-19 Crisis
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[Source: NEA Today]
In Wendy Turner's class, social and emotional learning (SEL) comes first. "SEL is the foundation, the heartbeat of the classroom," she says. "It's about connecting everybody and making them feel safe and secure before you get to the academics."\
The shift to full-time online learning in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic has brought change and challenges to her second-grade classroom but hasn't shaken SEL's standing.
"This virus has stolen our kids' school experience for the rest of the year potentially and we're not sure what comes next," says Turner. "They miss their friends and their teachers, the feeling of being together and connected."
Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
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Health Care Corner: School-Based Health Care Providers COVID-19 Listening and Learning Sessions
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[Source: The School-Based Health Alliance]
The School-Based Health Alliance invites SBHC sponsor organizations and administrators and SBHC primary care and behavioral health clinicians to join their peers from across the nation to discuss, share, and learn from each other on how SBHCs are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.
While the Alliance does not have all the answers, we want to provide support to SBHCs by connecting like individuals and facilitating peer-to-peer listening and learning opportunities.
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SLP Corner: Thoughts from a Speech Pathologist: Teletherapy
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[Source: Speech Chick Therapy]
I am glad I chose to write this post after my second week of teletherapy. If I had written it after the first week, it would have most likely been filled with **beeps**. I am not going to lie. After that first week, I was ready to cry and throw in the towel. Nothing went right. I tried out 5 different platforms that week. Each one starting out OK for the first kid, and quickly taking a nose dive by mid-morning. I ended up Facetiming some kids because nothing would work. Parents weren't receiving email links for whatever reason. Certain platforms do not work right if the child is using a phone. I am telling you NOTHING went right. I also discovered that from 12-1, when everyone is at home for lunch, the video feeds don't work correctly because someone is watching Netflix.
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Please Note: The views and advice expressed in articles, videos and other pieces published in this newsletter are not necessarily the views and advice of PediaStaff or its employees but rather that of the author. PediaStaff is not endorsing or implying agreement with the views or advice contained therein, rather presenting them for the independent analysis and information of its readers.
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