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August 31, 2012
Monthly Edition
Issue 8, Volume 5
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings and Happy Friday! Here is our August monthly newsletter.   Have a happy, healthy and safe holiday weekend!

News Items:
  • NYT Opinion Piece: An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism
  • Little Evidence Supports Autism Treatment Options in Adolescents
  • Hunter Spanjer, 3-Year-Old Boy, Who is Deaf, Told By Preschool To Change Way He Signs His Name 
  • Pretend Play May Not Be as Crucial to Child Development as Believed, New Study Shows
  • Researchers Develop New Tool To Distinguish Typical "Temper Tantrums" From More Concerning Misbehavior  
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Pinterest Pin of the Week: Great Way to Discreetly Redirect Student Behavior
  • App Review of the Week: Verbs News      
  • Therapist Resource of the Week:'Talk Tips for Teachers' Short Video Introducing Childhood Apraxia of Speech
  • Therapy Resource of the Week: My AutismTeam

Articles and Special Features

  • PT Corner: Ideas for Helping Kids Develop Better Posture   
  • SLP Corner: Can Everybody Be Bilingual?
  • OT Corner: Teens with Autism and Driving a Car
  • Focus on Bilingualism:  Focus on Bilingualism: What is Clinical Cultural Competence? 
  • Pediatric Therapy Corner Pediatric Therapy Corner: Trisomy 21 - The Story of Down Syndrome  
  • Worth Repeating: Why Autistic Students Need Autistic Role Models
  • Also Worth Repeating:  Good Article to Share from New York Times  
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Have a great weekend and Take Care!

Heidi Kay and The PediaStaff Team

 





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Autism in the News: Opinion - An Immune Disorder at the Root of Autism 

[Source:  The New York Times Sunday Review]

By Moises Velasquez-Manoff

In recent years, scientists have made extraordinary advances in understanding the causes of autism, now estimated to afflict 1 in 88 children. But remarkably little of this understanding has percolated into popular awareness, which often remains fixated on vaccines.

So here's the short of it: At least a subset of autism - perhaps one-third, and very likely more - looks like a type of inflammatory disease. And it begins in the womb.

It starts with what scientists call immune dysregulation. Ideally, your immune system should operate like an enlightened action hero, meting out inflammation precisely, accurately and with deadly force when necessary, but then quickly returning to a Zen-like calm. Doing so requires an optimal balance of pro- and anti-inflammatory muscle.

 

Autism in the NewsLittle Evidence Supports Autism Treatment Options in Adolescents

[Source: Science Daily]

 

Vanderbilt University researchers studying interventions for adolescents and young adults with autism are reporting that there is insufficient evidence to support findings, good or bad, for the therapies currently used.

 

Although the prevalence of autism is on the rise, much remains to be discovered when it comes to interventions for this population, the researchers concluded.

 

"Overall, there is very little evidence in all areas of care for adolescents and young adults with autism, and it is urgent that more rigorous studies be developed and conducted," said Melissa McPheeters, Ph.D., M.P.H., director of Vanderbilt's Evidence-Based Practice Center and senior author of the report, a systematic review of therapies published by the Department of Health and Human Services' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

 

 

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

Hearing Impairment in the News: Hunter Spanjer, 3-Year-Old Boy, Who is Deaf, Told By Preschool To Change Way He Signs His Name

[Source:  Huffington Post]

In a move blasted by rights groups, a 3-year-old-deaf boy has been told by his Nebraska school district to change the way he signs his name because the gesture resembles shooting a gun.

 

Hunter Spanjer uses the standard S.E.E., Signing Exact English. He crosses his index and middle fingers and waves them slightly to signify his name. And, Grand Island Public Schools' policy forbids any "instrument" that "looks like a weapon," reported NCN. 


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

Play in the News:  Pretend Play May Not Be as Crucial to Child Development as Believed, New Study Shows   

Editor's Note:  This study is creating a lot of negative buzz.  We reprint the findings here so that you may decide on your own if the study is valid. 


[Source: Medical News Today]

 

A new study by University of Virginia, published online in the journal Psychological Bulletin states that pretend play is not as important to child development as researchers previously thought.  

Pretend play can be any type of play using imagination to make toys talk or creating sounds coming from toys, or pretending to be in a fictional situation, such as cops and robbers or house. This play can occur when the child is playing by themselves, other children, or their parents and other adults.

 

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

Pediatric Mental Health in the News: Researchers Develop New Tool To Distinguish Typical "Temper Tantrums" From More Concerning Misbehavior

[Source:  Science Daily]

Temper tantrums in young children can be an early signal of mental health problems, but how does a parent or pediatrician know when disruptive behavior is typical or a sign of a serious problem?

New Northwestern Medicine research will give parents and professionals a new tool to know when to worry about young children's misbehavior. Researchers have developed an easy-to-administer questionnaire specifically designed to distinguish the typical misbehavior of early childhood from more concerning misbehavior. This will enable early identification and treatment of emerging mental health problems, key to preventing young children struggling

 

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

Pinterest Pin of the Week Great Way to Discreetly Redirect Student Behavior

This terrific idea was our Pinterest Pin of the Week with over 250 repins!  

 

[Source:  Rock & Teach Blog] 

 

I pinned an awesome "STOP: Please stop what you're doing and make a better choice" sign weeks ago. When I finally got around to following the the blog link, I was taken to Ms. M's Blog. Great blog- but I could not find the sign anywhere. So I made my own little guys. I think these are an awesome and discreet way of redirecting a kiddo while

 

Check out this Great Idea on our Website

App Review of the WeekVerbs News

by Jessica Chase, M.A., CCC-SLP  

 

Breaking News! This just in...a new application is that focuses on verb tenses is now available for the iPad! With a news theme and graphics as well as the ability to collect data, this application is revolutionary in the iTunes store! The application is called Verbs News, developed by Virtual Speech Center. To read my review of this great application, continue reading below.

 

Read the More of this App Review on our Website 

Therapist Resource of the Week: 'Talk Tips for Teachers' Short Video Introducing Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Thank You Kim Singleton, MS, CCC-SLP for this nice video slide show, "Talk Tips for Teachers:  Childhood Apraxia of Speech

 

Watch (and Share) this Video Through a Link on our Blog

Therapy Resource of the WeekMyAutismTeam 

I got approached this week by a gentleman running a very interesting resource.  MyAutismTeam is a free social networking site for parents of kids with autism.  Based on our review, the site definitely looks like something to share with the parents/guardians of your kiddos.   Parents use MyAutismTeam to find and share the best autism providers and businesses (from dentists and therapists, to autism-friendly businesses like barbers, babysitters, etc.) that especially cater to autism needs - marked by "Autism-yes" - on a hyper-local level.

 

Read More About MyAutismTeam and Visit Their Site Through a Link on our Website  

Physical Therapy Corner: Ideas for Helping Kids Develop Better Posture  

by:  Stacy Menz, DPT, Board Certified Pediatric Clinical Specialist 

 

Posture is always an interesting topic.  As adults we are often trying to improve our posture because we have started discovering that poor posture can cause other problems like pain.  These are things we don't think of when we are younger and don't always think about for our kids.  Posture is something that can and should be worked on from when kids are little so that they can hopefully avoid long term problems as they get older.  I have to thank one of our readers for coming up with this idea!

 

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

SLP Corner: Can Everybody Be Bilingual?

By: Lucy Windevoxhel, M.S., CCC-SLP  

Can everybody be bilingual? Lately a new article researching bilingualism pops up almost every single week. It seems that there is a growing awareness of the importance and advantages of being bilingual for the general population. In many parts of the world this is a non-issue. Children in other countries grow up speaking more than one language because they live in a bilingual or multilingual community. However, the United States tends to be monolingual. Hopefully, as parents become more aware of the benefits of being bilingual this will change.

 

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

OT Corner: Teens with Autism and Driving a Car
Editor's Note:  Great article to share with the parents/guardians of your kiddos!

by: Susan N. Schriber Orloff, OTR/L

Depending upon where you live in the United States, the decision to let your HFASD (High Functioning Autistic Syndrome Disorder) child drive could rest solely on the shoulders of parents.

If you are lucky enough to live in a state such as Pennsylvania, then all teens applying for a driver's permit must have a physician sign off on their potential driving abilities.  And if you live in Michigan, Montana or Illinois (for example)  then all teens also need proof having a Graduated Driving License certificate.

 Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Focus on Bilingualism: What is Clinical Cultural Competence?

By:  Alejandro E. Brice, Ph.D.,CCC-SLP, Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, and Roanne Brice, Ph.D., CCC-SLP

 

Previous Viewpoint
The idea for this column comes to me via the courtesy of the ASHA Multicultural Issues Board.  I am the Chair of this committee for the period of 2012-2014.  During our last face-to-face meeting, we had a long discussion of defining cultural competence? ASHA (2008) defined cultural competence as valuing diversity, conducting cultural self-awareness,  being knowledgeable of how cultures interact, having institutional cultural knowledge, and adapting oneself to the diversity and cultural context of the cultures that one serves as a SLP or audiologist (ASHA Multicultural Issues Board, 2008).  This definition typically invokes the concept of my culture versus the client's

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Pediatric Therapy Corner: Trisomy 21 - The Story of Down Syndrome
By Len Leshin, MD, FAAP

A Brief History
The formal story began in 1866, when a physician named John Langdon Down published an essay in England in which he described a set of children with common features who were distinct from other children with mental retardation. Down was superintendent of an asylum for children with mental retardation in Surrey, England when he made the first distinction between children who were cretins (later to be found to have hypothyroidism) and what he referred to as "Mongoloids."

Down based this unfortunate name on his notion that these children looked like people from Mongolia, who were thought then to have an arrested development. This ethnic insult came under fire in the early 1960s from Asian genetic researchers, and the term was dropped from scientific

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Worth Repeating: Why Autistic Students Need Autistic Role Models
Editor's Note:  Our republication of the term "autistic" rather than "person with autism" is a deliberate choice, as that is the terminology used by the people in this interview.  The authors have specifically requested we leave their vocabulary 'as is'.

[Source:  Thinking Person's Guide to Autism]

How many autistic kids are truly supported in school? How can we help students avoid failure? And how do we determine what really are best practices for autism and learning? We talked with psychologist Dr. Cynthia Arnold of the Portland area's New Leaves Clinic, Autistic self-advocate Karla Fisher, and Tasia, the parent of 14-year-old Nick, about the specific strategies they used to help Nick transition from educational crisis to classroom success - including the importance of getting autistic perspectives on environments and supports for autistic students, and for those students to have autistic role models. (Nick gave permission for this interview to be published, but chose not to participate.)

  

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog
Also Worth Repeating:  Good Article to Share from New York Times
[Source:  New York Times, Well Column]

Parents who want to stimulate their children's brain development often focus on things like early reading, flashcards and language tapes. But a growing body of research suggests that playing certain kinds of childhood games may be the best way to increase a child's ability to do well in school. Variations on games like Freeze Tag and Simon Says require relatively high levels of executive function, testing a child's ability to pay attention, remember rules and exhibit self-control - qualities that also predict academic success.

 

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

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