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August 12, 2016
Issue 32, Volume 9
It's All About the Choices!
Greetings and Happy Friday!
Well, the school year is already upon us in some parts of the US! Hope the rest of you are still enjoying your last week's of summer break. Please enjoy our weekly newsletter.
News Items:
- ABC's 'Speechless' Striving To Be More Than 'The Disability Show'
- Largest-ever Whole Genome Study Yields Autism Clues
- Scientists Identify Down's Syndrome Enzyme
- Schools Told Not To Skimp On Behavior Supports
- Early Brain Connections Key to Reading
- Caution Flags For Tech In Classrooms
PediaStaff News and Hot Jobs
- Placement of the Week: Outpatient Pediatric SLP - Eastern Tennessee
- Hot Job: School Psychologist Job - Anchorage, AK
- Hot Job! Pediatric School and Early Intervention OT - Mount Vernon, VA
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
- Classroom Time Capsules for the First Day of School
- Firetruck Visual Motor Game
- Olympic Ring Cap Sorting
- 20 Fantastic Jellyfish Activities
Articles and Special Features
- Pediatric Therapy Corner: Imagination in the Augmented-Reality Age
- OT Corner: The Confusion of Sensory Craving, Stereotypy, Hyperactivity and OCD
- PT Corner: Study Links Zika Virus to Joint Problems in Babies
- Autism Corner: 4 Tips To Transition a Child With Autism Back to School
- SLP Corner: How Do I Make a Speech Therapy Schedule?
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
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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
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not currently have new openings for
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To see ALL our openings
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ABC's 'Speechless' Striving To Be More Than 'The Disability Show
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[Source: Disability Scoop]
Television's track record for telling stories involving individuals with special needs is spotty, and particularly tricky when it comes to comedy. That's something that "Speechless" executive producer Scott Silveri sounded well aware of during a panel at this month's Television Critics Association summer press tour in Beverly Hills.
Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
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Largest-ever Whole Genome Study Yields Autism Clues
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[Source: Science Daily]
A new study from Autism Speaks' MSSNG program expands understanding of autism's complex causes and may hold clues for the future development of targeted treatments. The report, appearing in npj Genomic Medicine is the largest-ever whole genome study of autism, involving 200 children with the condition and both their unaffected parents.
The new research focuses on newly arising, or de novo, gene changes in the germline cells that produce a parent's eggs or sperm. Previous studies have shown that these mutations can be major contributors to autism through their effects on early brain development.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Scientists Identify Down's Syndrome Enzyme
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[Source: Medical X-Press]
Geneticists have identified an enzyme which regulates the production of sperm and egg cells in human reproduction.
The discovery furthers our understanding of a process which can often go wrong, resulting in miscarriage or infants born with Down's Syndrome, Edwards's Syndrome and other chromosomal irregularities.
Writing in the US journal Nature Scientific Reports, Dr Gary Kerr and colleagues stated: "Understanding how meiosis is regulated is of great importance to understanding the causes of aneuploidy and genetic disorders in humans."
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Schools Told Not To Skimp On Behavior Supports
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[Article and Image Source: Disability Scoop]
Frequent discipline may be a sign that kids with disabilities are not receiving a free appropriate public education, according to new federal guidance reminding schools of their obligations to provide behavior supports.
In a 16-page letter this month just before classes begin in many school districts, the U.S. Department of Education signaled its concern over data that shows students with disabilities are disciplined far more often than their typically-developing peers.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Early Brain Connections Key to Reading
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[Article and Image Source: Science Daily]
By scanning the brains of children before and after they learned to read, the researchers found that they could predict the precise location where each child's visual word form area (VWFA) would develop, based on the connections of that region to other parts of the brain.
Neuroscientists have long wondered why the brain has a region exclusively dedicated to reading - a skill that is unique to humans and only developed about 5,400 years ago, which is not enough time for evolution to have reshaped the brain for that specific task. The new study suggests that the VWFA, located in an area that receives visual input, has pre-existing connections to brain regions associated with language processing, making it ideally suited to become devoted to reading.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Caution Flags For Tech In Classrooms
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[Article and Image Source: NPR]
A group of recent studies on technology in education, across a wide range of real-world settings, have come up far short of a ringing endorsement.
The studies include research on K-12 schools and higher ed, both blended learning and online, and show results ranging from mixed to negative. A deeper look into these reports gives a sense that, even as computers become ubiquitous in classrooms, there's a lot we still don't know - or at least that we're not doing to make them effective tools for learning.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog |
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Congratulations to Kaelen M. on her new position with PediaStaff's client in Eastern Tennessee!
The company embraces a team concept to deliver the most appropriate services to children and their families. Their therapists work with children one at a time, supported by the synergistic, multi-disciplinary team made up by the entire Speech Pathology Services staff.
Congrats, Kaelen! This will be an excellent opportunity for you!
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New openings. Our client is in need of several School Psychologists to work full time contract starting as soon as possible through May 2015 in the vicinity of Anchorage, AK. Pay is based on your experience. Generous relocation allowance and per diem available for travelers.
Qualifications - Must have completed all requirements for at least a Master's or Specialty Degree specifically in School Psychology. NCSP preferred, must qualify for Alaska certification.
Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog |
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We have a wonderful opportunity for an Occupational Therapist to work in the Mount Vernon area servicing children from birth to age 5 in the home and preschool classrooms. Your choice of 30 or 36 hours per week, ideally split up into three 10-hour days, or four days.
Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog |
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Classroom Time Capsules for the First Day of School
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[Source: We Are Teachers]
Many teachers find that time capsules are not only a good ice breaker activity, but also a fun way to engage students in setting goals for the year.
First Week of School: You can do a classroom time capsule, into which everyone places their items, or you can make individual time capsules, allowing students to design and decorate the vessel. (Or, combine the two ideas and have each student place his/her capsule into the larger class vessel.)
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog |
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Firetruck Fine Motor and Visual Motor Game
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Download this freebie Firetruck Game to encourage fine motor and visual motor skills. It is available in color and black and white. Give each player a board. Roll one die. Trace over the number of ladder rungs that you roll. The first player to trace all the ladder rungs is the winner
Download the Firetruck Game Through a Link on our Blog |
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Olympic Ring Cap Sorting
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[Article and Image Source: I Can Teach My Child]
I have a problem with hoarding plastic caps, mainly those from milk jugs or squeezable yogurt or fruit. As you can see from this activity, I have a TON of caps in a myriad of colors....two gallon-size bags worth, to be exact. I keep them because they make wonderful manipulatives, they are colorful, and they are FREE! I pulled them out for this Olympic Rings Cap Sorting activity and it was a big hit with Little Sister (currently 2.5 years)!
Learn More Through a Link on our Blog |
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20 Fantastic Jellyfish Activities
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[Article and Image Source: Kids Activities Blog]
Many of you have taken a vacation to the beach this summer, so how about a round up of 20 fantastic jellyfish activities! When we go to the aquarium we try to plan some activities for afterwards, such as coloring some ocean coloring pages. Our favorite part of an aquarium visit has always been the Jellyfish and Seahorses.
learn About These Activities on our Blog |
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Pediatric Therapy Corner:
Imagination in the Augmented-Reality Age
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[Source: The Atlantic]
by Georgia Perry
At the start of every school year, Diane Levin, an education professor at Boston's Wheelock College who teaches a course called "Meaning and Development of Play," has her students interview people of different ages about how they used to play when they were children. The results are not surprising: Every year, her students report that interview subjects over age 50 played outside all day in big groups of their peers, with a few toys ("maybe a ball") and no adult supervision. People between the ages of 20 and 40, who grew up in the 1980s, '90s, and early 2000s, watched a lot of television but still played outside, often make-believe games inspired by TV shows and movies.
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OT Corner:
The Confusion of Sensory Craving, Stereotypy, Hyperactivity & OCD
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[Source: OT and Self Regulation]
It can be difficult to accurately distinguish between sensory craving and stereotypy. Both symptoms play a big role in autism and both are part of the ASD¹ diagnosis, so you might think they are distinct. But they're not. They can be easily mistaken for each other and even overlap. Does it matter that we identify exactly what is going on? Yes. How can we create successful interventions without pegging the problem correctly.
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PT Corner:
Study Links Zika Virus to Joint Problems in Babies
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[Article and Image Source: USA Today]
A new study out Tuesday links the Zika virus to a rare joint condition that can make it difficult or impossible for children to straighten their arms and legs.
Children with the condition, called arthrogryposis, have limited movement in joints such as the elbows or knees. In some cases, their joints are stuck in a one position and can't be unbent.
Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog
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Autism Corner:
Tips To Transition a Child With Autism Back to School
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[Source: Autism Speaks]
This is a guest post from blogger Chrissy who has two sons on the autism spectrum. These are tips that have worked for Chrissy and her family as they prepare to go back to school.
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SLP Corner:
How Do I Make a Speech Therapy Schedule?
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[Article and Image Source: The Speech Bubble SLP]
One of the most stressful parts of the year for me has to be making my therapy schedule, aka: the most challenging game of Tetris an adult can play. With large caseloads, multiple grade levels, kids receiving multiple services, and restrictions on when services can be provided, coordinating everything can leave you with your head spinning. Here my tips and things to keep in mind when scheduling your students.
Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog
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