weekly header

January 14, 2011
Issue 2, Volume 5
It's All About the Choices!     
          
Greetings!

Hello there!  Hope everyone is staying warm and dry.   Here is our newsletter offering for you for this snowy week! 
 
News Items: 
  • Autism Risk Rises in Closely Spaced Pregnancies, Study Finds
  • FDA to Have Hearing on Food Dyes and Hyperactivity
  • Babies Process Language In A Grown-Up Way
  • Please Sign the RSV Prophylaxis Petition
  • Diagnostic Criteria for Rett Syndrome Revised
  • Review of 'The King's Speech' by our Friends at CASLPA
     
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
  • Software Product Review:  Imagine Speech
  • Website of the Week: Autism Games
  • Activity Ideas for Students with Severe, Profound and Multiple Disabilities
     

Upcoming Events

  • Workshop featuring Lindsey Biel of Raising a Sensory Smart Child - Central NJ

Articles and Blogs 

  • Pediatric Therapy Corner:  3D Vision Syndrome: What Your Clients Should Know
  • Guest Blog: Interview with Mary Huston, SLP on Barbara Hodson's Cycles for Phonology Program for Highly Unintelligible Children
  • Guest Blog: "Art As Therapy": Sensory Activities for the Child with Autism
  • Worth Repeating: What Causes Down Syndrome?
  • Also Worth Repeating:  Child Word Finding: Student Voices Enlighten Us                                                                                                        
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
Feed My Inbox and have any feed you like delivered to your email inbox!

Have a great weekend and Take Care!

Heidi Kay and the PediaStaff Team






The Career Center

The links to the right are "live" and reflect the most recent jobs with PediaStaff.  To further narrow your search by state use the drop down menus on the search page to select a specific state.   If a particular search is returning no hits it is Girlpossible that we do not currently have new openings
for you in that state.

To see ALL our openings click HERE
and select the checkbox for your discipline.
Recent Speech Language Pathologist and SLPA Jobs
Recent Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs
 
Recent Physical Therapist and PTA Jobs
Recent School Psychologist Jobs

 
Hot School-Based Job of the Week
School-Based Speech-Language Pathologist, Central CT
 

Our client is a private pediatric practice located between Danbury and Hartford, CT. They offer speech, occupational, and physical therapy to children and adolescents ages birth to 21 in clinic, early intervention, and school settings in central CT. We are searching for a Speech Therapist to work primarily in a school based setting in either Waterbury or Hartford. The salary is very competitive and includes a comprehensive benefits program. This is a direct hire (non-contract) position.

Waterbury and Hartford are vibrant cities known for advanced technology capabilities, historic architecture and facades and most importantly, strong communities and neighborhoods. They are beautiful areas that are easily accessible for day trips into New York City or Boston. Enjoy the four season climate with winter and summertime activities as varied as snow skiing in the New Hampshire and Vermont mountains and sailing in Long Island Sound.

Qualifications: Musthold a Master's Degree in Speech and Language Communication and have graduated from an accredited university. CFY supervision is available. Must have a current Connecticut state license (or eligible).
 

Interested in this job?  Contact PediaStaff today!..

...IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CHOICES! 

More Hot School Based Jobs of the Week

School-Based Speech Language Pathologists - Houston, TX 


If you're looking for School-Based Speech Pathology opportunities in the Houston, Texas area...then this is for YOU!

We are actively looking for Speech-Language Pathologists to join the team of several of our school districts. These positions are to begin immediately...and would last until early June 2011. Also, if you like the team you are working with , you could elect to return for the 2011-2012 School Year as well! We have multiple needs in the Houston, Texas Metro area....working in some of the most sought-after school districts. Whether you're looking to work with Pre-school, grammar, middle, or high school age...we have the right job for you! CFYs are highly encouraged to apply as we have supervision and CFY mentorship available through the school district. You would work school hours....basically from 7:45 until 2:45....NO nights or NO weekends!

Our preferred clients accept our therapists as if they were their own. You will be invited to attend any "in-service training", will attend regular staff meetings, and in some cases have your own offices. Why wouldn't you want to work this school year...and possible beyond...in this wonderful and rewarding environment?

OK...so you are serious about this possible opportunity... lets look at what you will receive in return. Very competitive wages, all major holidays off, outbound travel assistance, Continuing Education Reimbursement, ability to contribute to your 401k, and much more. Call today...we are waiting to talk with you personally and confidentially!

Interested in this job?  Contact PediaStaff today!..

...IT'S ALL ABOUT THE CHOICES! 

Autism Research in the News:  Autism Risk Rises in Closely Spaced Pregnancies, Study Finds
Parents planning more than one baby may have another reason for giving extra thought to the timing: A new study shows that the risk of autism may go up when a second child is conceived shortly after the first is born.

Columbia University researchers found that the risk of an autism diagnosis in a second-born child rose more than three-fold when the child was conceived within 12 months of the birth of the first baby, according to the study which was published online Monday in Pediatrics.

And second-borns conceived between 12 and 23 months after a first child was born had twice the risk of being diagnosed with autism compared to babies conceived a full three years after an older sibling was born.

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

ADHD in the News: FDA to Have Hearing on Food Dyes and Hyperactivity
[Source PhysOrg.com]

Acting on research published in the Lancet, the European Parliament last year began requiring products containing synthetic food colors to carry warning labels saying that "consumption may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children."

Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has scheduled a March hearing on whether food dyes adversely impact children's health. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, or CSPI, is asking the agency for a synthetic food-dye ban and to place warnings on products until the colors are removed.

Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog
Language Development in the News:  Babies Process Language In A Grown-Up Way
[Source: Medical News Today]

Babies, even those too young to talk, can understand many of the words that adults are saying - and their brains process them in a grown-up way.

Combining the cutting-edge technologies of MRI and MEG, scientists at the University of California, San Diego show that babies just over a year old process words they hear with the same brain structures as adults, and in the same amount of time. Moreover, the researchers found that babies were not merely processing the words as sounds, but were capable of grasping their meaning.


Read the Rest of this Article Through a Link on our Blog
Advocacy Opportunity: Please Sign the RSV Prophylaxis Petition
RSV. It is the three-lettered acronym every preemie parent dreads throughout the NICU stay and at discharge and going home.

RSV hospitalizations are increasing and RSV complications lead to and estimated 200-500 deaths a year. Passive antibody protection is available however the AAP's Committee on Infectious Diseases recently recommended a drastic change in the recommendations for immunoprophylaxis for late preterm infants (32-35 weeks gestation). These changes leave fragile infants vulnerable by reducing the number of doses they can receive during the RSV season. No clinical study or logical evidence supports this dramatic change. However, the FDA and a decade of the National Association of Neonatal Nurses (NANN) clinical nursing practice clearly demonstrates that monthly dosing is imperative to ensure adequate protection.

We must fight to ensure that any guideline put into place for infants is based on scientific evidence. These preemie families deserve our attention and if we don't take a stand they will not have the optimal health outcomes they deserve.

If we don't fight for our fellow preemie families enduring the NICU now and and in the future, who will? We need to STAND UP NOW and make it CLEAR that we want ALL PREEMIES to receive the full amount of the RSV Prophylaxis, not just a certain percentage of the preemie population.

Please take a minute to sign this petition and save preemies lives.  Thank You!

Please Visit Petition Spot Through This Link to Sign this Petition.
Movie Review: of The King's Speech by an SLP
Thanks to our friends at the Canadian Association of Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists for sharing their review of 'The King's Speech' with us!!

Watch this Review Through a Link on our Blog
Software Product Review: Imagine Speech
Reviewer: Sue Currie and CARE (Collaborative Autism Resources and Education)

Fun, easy, to use - and effective in aiding communication? "Imagine that"!

Imagine Speech has developed an Interactive Speech-Language Software three-disc series that targets children with speech-language disorders, including children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The discs are easy and quick to load onto your computer and work equally well on Mac or PCs. Although they can be utilized independently, I found that the "Wh" Question Quest Program was really the "first" in this set or series of 3 discs from Imagine Speech.

All three disks consistently used four characters, starting with the "Helper", Imagine, a furry dog that introduces and supports each program, and then the three unique characters (Brainy Ben, Cool Katie, and Noble Nick) are utilized throughout the programs.

Read the Rest of this Review on our Blog
 
Therapy Resource/Website of the Week: Autism Games
Special Thanks to our new friend Jourdan Saunders of the blog Future SLPs for this week's Therapy Resource, Autism Games.  We look forward to featuring her recommendations as a regular contributor.   Here are Jourdan's comments and blog post about this site:

"Play is important throughout life but in childhood, it is nature's unparalleled way of teaching a child about body, mind, and spirit." ~Tahirih Bushey~

Play is a valuable element of a child's life, it involves a different type of creative learning which is distant from the academic environment of school. Autism Games is an incredible website because it provides ideas and visuals for parents/caregivers of ways to promote and develop play skills by taking the child into a positive, fun, and imaginative world where anything is possible.

Autism Games serves as a resource of games that young children with Autism Spectrum Disorders can play, video models of games that parents/caregivers can view and learn from, tips and strategies for making games more educational and fun and so much more!

Learn More About this Resource Review on our Blog

Therapy Activities of the Week: Activity Ideas for Students with Severe, Profound and Multiple Disabilities
This is an older but excellent resource filled with physical activity ideas for children with severe/profound and multiple disabilities. broken down into the following units:Activities to help teach cause and effect;Popular Activities with Balls;Group Activities;Musical Activities;Locomotor Movement;Recreational Activities

Palaestra is is published in cooperation with United States Paralympics (USP), a division of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC).

Read this Article Through a Link on our Blog
Upcoming CEU Event: JCC 2nd Annual Special Needs Symposium Featuring Lindsey Biel
JCC 2nd Annual Special Needs Symposium
Sunday, February 13 � noon - 5:00 p.m.
1391 Martine Ave.  Scotch Plains
, NJ

Families, educators and professionals with an interest in cutting-edge special needs issues/topics are invited to attend this day of learning and connecting.

Keynote presentation by Lindsey Biel, M.A., OTR/L, pediatric occupational therapist and coauthor of Raising a Sensory Smart Child (foreword by Temple Grandin)

Learn More About this Symposium

Pediatric Therapy Corner: - 3D Vision Syndrome: What Your Clients Should Know
By: Dominick M. Maino, OD, MEd, FAAO, FCOVD-A

What is 3D Vision Syndrome?

3D Vision Syndrome (3DVS) has all the required qualifications for a new but not yet officially recognized syndrome. As you know, a syndrome is comprised of a group of symptoms and/or physical signs that collectively indicate or characterize a disease, psychological problem, other abnormal condition or, in this case, a functional vision disorder. 3DVS symptoms include but are not necessarily limited to headaches, blurred vision, eyestrain, double vision, dizziness/nausea and vision induced motion sickness. Another unique aspect of this syndrome is that it is induced by state of the art entertainment, gaming, and educational technology.

How many people experience discomfort while watching 3D?
The US Census Bureau notes that there are 310,553,072 people in the USA and 6,890,416,942 in the world. Since 2-6% of the population exhibit either amblyopia or strabismus millions upon millions could have 3D Vision Syndrome and the many symptoms associated with this disorder (amblyopia is a 'lazy eye' where the clarity of vision is typically much better in one eye than the other and strabismus is when an eye is turned in, out, up or down). Both amblyopia and strabismus can totally disrupt the 3D viewing process. This would mean that no appreciation of 3D would occur. Our clients and their families often pay a premium price for seeing 3D movies, watching 3D television and playing 3D video-games. Since a person with amblyopia and strabismus could not see the 3D affect, that would make these activities quite expensive with no benefit to the viewer.

Read the Rest of this Article on our Blog

Guest Blogs This Week: Lexical Linguist, Full Spectrum
Interview with Mary Huston, SLP on Barbara Hodson's Cycles for Phonology Program for Highly Unintelligible Children - Tanya Coyles and special guest Mary Huston, SLP

 
I am thrilled to have Mary Huston, Speech-Language Pathologist, as a guest blogger today! She is the resident expert in Cycles for Phonology on Twitter and has been answering so many questions posed to her by other professionals that I invited her to blog about Cycles. Happily for all of us, she accepted. I thought I knew about Cycles and phonology until I met her and realized I don't know nearly what I thought I did. I hope that her post will enlighten you and help you with Cycles as much as it has helped me. ~Tanya

------

Recently I have been asked several questions about Barbara Hodson's Cycles Program for highly unintelligible children. I'm not quite sure how I became known as the "phono" person, but I will confess to a love of phonology. I also have the benefit of having been trained by someone who has worked closely with Dr. Hodson and will share some of her information as well as Dr. Hodson's information.

I think the easiest thing to do is to start at the beginning and explain Dr. Hodson's Cycles program. Cycles was designed to be used with highly unintelligible children and not with children with mild/moderate articulation errors(2).

 
Read the Rest of this Guest Post on our Blog
"Art As Therapy": Sensory Activities for the Child with Autism - By: Pamela Ullmann, ATR-BC, LCAT

 
Very often my goals as an art therapist will focus on the creative expression in developing the child's imagination, communication and socialization skills. These are all areas that the child with Autism Spectrum Disorder is working on in school, home and other therapies as well. However, sometimes art can simple be used in a more non-directed way and purely allow the child to experience the sensory elements of the materials.

In the field of Art Therapy, using the model of "Art as Therapy" is a process that allows individuals to experience the art making with little direction. This then allows them to gain insight and open up to their feelings in their own time. However, with the population of Autism, I see the "Art as Therapy" model more about the intrinsic sensory processes and believe that it can benefit the child that needs to "just have fun" with the creative activities. Having fun and engaging in this experience can then ultimately regulate the senses, emotions and behaviors.

Let's explore some techniques and materials that both professionals and parents can use to help their children have this experience. These are some activities that can be adapted for any functioning level by either limiting the amount of materials presented and/or limiting the time allotted


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


Worth Repeating: What Causes Down Syndrome?
[Source:  National Down Syndrome Society]

What Causes Down Syndrome

The human body is made of cells. All cells contain a center, called a nucleus, in which genes are stored. Genes, which carry the codes responsible for all our inherited characteristics, are grouped along rod-like structures called chromosomes. Normally, the nucleus of each cell contains 23 pairs of chromosomes, half of which are inherited from each parent. Down syndrome occurs when some or all of a person's cells have an extra full or partial copy of chromosome 21.

The most common form of Down syndrome is known as Trisomy 21. Individuals with Trisomy 21 have 47 chromosomes instead of the usual 46 in each of their cells. The condition results from an error in cell division called nondisjunction. Prior to or at conception, a pair of 21st chromosomes in either the sperm or the egg fails to separate. As the embryo develops, the extra chromosome is replicated in every cell of the body. This error in cell division is responsible for 95 percent of all cases of Down syndrome.

Read the Rest of This Article on our Blog

Also Worth Repeating - Child Word Finding: Student Voices Enlighten Us

By: Diane J German

(2009, February 10). The ASHA Leader.
 

The prevalence of child word-finding difficulty is high among learners with specific language impairment (25%; Dockrell, Messer, George, & Wilson, 1998) and learning disabilities (49%; German, 1998). Clinical reports also document WF difficulties among learners with reading (Faust, Dimitrovsky, & Shacht, 2003) and written (Scott, 2002) language difficulties. Earlier research literature (Johnson & Myklebust, 1967; Wiig & Semel, 1976) suggests that previous generations of students also struggled with word finding.


 

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

Sign up for Our Newsletter!
Would you like pediatric and school-based therapy tips, resources, articles, and news delivered to your computer once a week? Sign up here for our newsletter!

Sign up HERE
Quick Links to PediaStaff
If you would like to opt out of receiving this newsletter, there is a link located in the footer below. However, please note that once you've opted out, we will be unable to send you any future correspondence via newsletter.
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.