August 18, 2017
Issue 22, Volume 10
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday

 Please enjoy our weekly newsletter!  
 
News Items:
  • Therapy for Kids with Autism Pays off for Moms & Dads
  • Instruction Influences Handwriting Automaticity in Children
  • New Study: MRI Reveals Striking Brain Difference in People with Genetic Autism
  • Researchers Find the Genes Responsible for Tourette's Syndrome in Children 
  • Growing Body of Evidence Supports Mental Health Programs in Schools
  • Genes and Motor Skills Development Linked
PediaStaff News and Hot Jobs 
  • Hot Job! Pediatric Early Intervention - OT - Atlanta, GA
  • Hot Jobs! Hospital NICU SLP, PT and OT! - San Antonio, TX
  • Hot Jobs! Adaptive PE Teachers - Monterey and San Mateo County, CA
  • Hot Jobs! OTs, PTs, School Psychs & PTA - Vancouver, WA and Portland, OR 
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Oil and Water Droplet Painting - Great for Pincer Grasp!
  • Resource of the Week: One Place for Special Needs Back to School Guide
  • Free Back to School Tracing Packet 
  • Spin A Sight Word (or Perhaps a Speech Word) Printable 
Articles and Special Features 
  • Literacy Corner: What We Still Don't Know About Digital Reading
  • Focus on EI: The Use of Gestures and Problem Solving in Early Intervention
  • SLP Corner: Language and Communication Skills That Make all the Difference for Kindergarten
  • Behavior Corner: Strategies to Address Challenging Behavior in Young Children with DS
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
8

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. 
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Recent Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs 

Therapy for Kids with Autism Pays off for Moms & Dads
[Source:  Medical X-Press]

Behavioral therapy for children with autism also benefits their parents, a new study finds.
About 70 percent of children with autism have emotional or behavioral problems and may turn to cognitive behavioral therapy to help with these issues.

Usually, while kids are with the therapist, parents are in a separate room learning what the children are doing, but not participating, according to researcher Jonathon Weiss.

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
Instruction Influences Handwriting Automaticity in Children
[Source:  Reading and Writing via Your Therapy Source]

Reading and Writing published research on handwriting automaticity of 177 Australian children in 23 classrooms at the end of kindergarten and the amount and type of writing instruction they experienced before entering first grade.  Individual child level data (e.g., handwriting automaticity and word-reading skills) were collected and teachers were asked to complete a survey assessing the amount of time and types of writing activities developed in their classrooms (e.g., teaching basic skills and teaching writing processes).

Read the Rest of This Article Through a Link on our Blog
MRI Reveals Striking Brain Difference in People with Genetic Autism
[Source:  Medical New Today]

In the first major study of its kind, researchers using MRI have identified structural abnormalities in the brains of people with one of the most common genetic causes of autism, according to a new study published online in the journal Radiology. The abnormalities visible on brain images corresponded to cognitive and behavioral impairments in the study group, suggesting a future role for imaging in identifying people with autism who are in most urgent need of intervention.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Researchers Find the Genes Responsible for Tourette's Syndrome in Children
[Source:  Medical X-Press]

An international research team including Vasiliy Ramensky, a member of the MIPT Life Sciences Center, has unraveled genetic characteristics that increase the risk of developing Tourette's syndrome. Tourette's is a central nervous system disorder that is often inherited. The scientists compared genetic data of thousands of people with Tourette's and healthy people, and found that in people with the condition, there are significant modifications in two genes-NRXN1 and CNTN6. The paper detailing their study was published in the journal Neuron.

Growing Body of Evidence Supports Mental Health Programs in Schools
[Source:  Science Daily]

School-based mental health programs can reach large numbers of children, with increasing evidence of effectiveness in improving mental health and related outcomes, according to a research review in the September/October issue of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry.

"This review provides evidence that large-scale, school-based programs can be implemented in a variety of diverse cultures and educational models as well as preliminary evidence that such programs have significant, measurable positive effects on students' emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes," write J. Michael Murphy, EdD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and colleagues.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Genes and Motor Skills Development Linked
[Source: Science Daily]

Genes for many may be widely associated with determining certain traits and characteristics. Now a study co-led by John H. Martin of The CUNY School of Medicine at The City College of New York is demonstrating that they could also influence neural motor skills. This could lead to new insights in the treatment of motor skills impairments such as Cerebral Palsy.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link our Blog
Hot Job: Pediatric Early Intervention - OT - Atlanta, GA
Full or part-time Early Intervention Occupational Therapy opportunity in north Atlanta with a pediatric clinic specializing in the diagnosis, treatment, and management of infants, children, and adolescents.

* Variety of congenital, developmental, neuromuscular, skeletal, or acquired disorders/diseases.
* Ideally full time OT but will take a part time therapist.

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
We have a fantastic opportunities with a hospital facility in San Antonio that is in need of a full time Speech-Language Pathologist, Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist in the NICU.  Hours are Monday through Friday with a Saturday rotation.  Hours can either be 7:30 - 4:00 or 8:00 - 4:30 dependent on the patients' needs. The therapist will provide direct Physical Therapy evaluations and re-evaluations, supervise and instruct PT interns, set one's own schedule and prioritize. NICU and pediatric experience required.

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
PediaStaff is hiring!   School-Based Special Education Teachers, Adapted Physical Education APE for SY17/18 for both Monterey and San Mateo County, California.

*  Elementary Schoool
*  Full time position 7 hours per day
*  Non-taxed / Per-Diem Wages are available for qualified applicants (in accordance with IRS guidelines)

Qualifications: Must hold the California Education Specialist Instruction Credential for - Adapted Physical Education. English Language Authorization required. Passing of CBEST, CSET or SSAT

Learn About / Apply for This Job on our Blog
PediaStaff has a several wonderful opportunities in the Vancouver, WA / Portland, OR area for OTs, PTs, School Psychologists and a PTA.    Positions serve K-12 and Early Intervention clients, are both part-time and full-time.

School-Based positions are in Vancouver, WA:
* Easy commute from Portland - or live in WA where there's no state income tax
* Vision to fully implement the Comprehensive Service Delivery Model
* Super team of School Psychs and you'll enjoy working here

Learn About / Apply for These Jobs on our Blog
Oil and Water Droplet Painting - Great for Pincer Grasp!
[Source: Stay at Home Educator.com]

Oil and water droplet painting is the result of mixing cooking oil and colored water to create a beautiful, slightly marbleized effect.  You can find such paper at a craft or stationary store, or you can invite your kids to help you make some of your own.

Supplies needed are a shallow pan (same size or bigger than the paper), cooking oil, plain water, dyed water (we used liquid food coloring), heavy paper (we used heavy sketching paper, but watercolor paper would be even better), large baking sheets, and eye droppers.

Learn More Through a Link on our Blog
One Place for Special Needs Back to School Guide 
[Source: One Place for Special Needs]

The kids will be back to school before we know it. Plan for your school year now with articles for parents, teacher resources, explaining a child's disability to teachers plus other resources like visual supports, social stories, school rules and more. Forward this link to special needs families as well as your colleagues support team.

Check out This Great Site From our Blog
Free Back to School Tracing Packet
[Source:  Artfully Occupied]

The start of the school year is just on the horizon for many of us parents, teachers, therapists, and children.  Summer break is full of activities that promote gross motor, sensory, fine motor, and other developmental skills. Many children do not pick up a pencil all summer and that is totally fine!  There are so many other ways of working on developmental skills that are needed for school tasks.  However, now that the summer is ending, it is a good time time to get back in the groove of school specific activities.  I have created a set of tracing worksheets to get those pre-writers and early writers going this school year.

Download This Free Packet Via our Blog
Spin A Sight Word (or Perhaps a Speech Word) Printable
Source:  Liz's Early Learning Spot via Classroom Freebies]

Use this sight word spinner to give your kids quick and easy practice at whatever words they're currently working on.

Just type in the words you want to use and print it off! Add a brad or flick a paper clip on a pencil.

 Download this Free Game Through a Link on our Blog 
Literacy Corner: What We Still Don't Know About Digital Reading
[Source:  Education Week]

Every day, students consume hundreds of words on their iPads, mobile phones, Chromebooks, and Kindles. Increasingly, educational publishers are delivering curriculum on these devices, including several start-ups focused on getting informational texts and news stories into 

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Focus on EI: The Use of Gestures and Problem Solving in EI
Editor's Note:  Occasionally we will re-run our favorite articles.  This one was originally published her in 2013

by Carrie Manchester - MS, CCC-SLP

Picture if you will, a small child sitting in a highchair.  A brightly colored toy sits just out of reach. As you observe, the child makes eye contact with you, reaches for the toy, then looks back at you.  What do you do?

Chances are you give the toy to the child! This child did not use words to let you know what they wanted, and yet you figured it out!  Maybe you're a mind reader...more likely you have picked up on the nuances of nonverbal communication.

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

SLP Corner:  Language and Comm Skills That Make all the Difference for Kindergarten
Editor's Note:  This is a great article to share with the parents and guardians of your kiddos.

[Source:  Mindshift]

By Devin Walsh, the Hechinger Report

Devin Walsh is a kindergarten to first-grade "looping" teacher at Oak Grove Primary School in Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Promoting good oral language and communication skills is perhaps the most important thing parents, caregivers and educators can do to prepare children to enter kindergarten.

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Behavior Corner: Addressing Challenging Behavior in Young Children with DS
[Source: Down Syndrome Online]

Children with Down syndrome are at an increased risk for engaging in challenging behaviorthat may present problems within community, leisure, and educational settings, and, in many instances, precludes them from accessing these environments. Factors contributing to the occurrence of challenging behaviors include characteristics associated with the Down syndrome behavioral phenotype, increased incidence of illness and sleep disorders, and the 

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