Mental Health

There are many things we try to do to lead long, healthy lives but often times addressing mental health wellness is not one of them.

The month of May is recognized as Mental Health Month to help raise awareness of mental health issues and continue to help individuals live healthy lifestyles. Although it can be more difficult to recognize signs of poor mental health, it is just as significant and important as physical health. 

According to the American Psychological Association, biology, genetics, and other factors can lead to different levels of risk for developing a mental health disorder. Poor mental health can often times become a hindrance in a child’s development. For example, anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and stress can become roadblocks in daily activities and make it very difficult to learn new skills and participate in age appropriate activities.

Signs of poor mental health can include behavior issues at school or home; change in appetite; difference in sleep pattern; withdrawal; signs of sadness or self-destructive behavior.  If your child is showing any of these signs, there are options that you can take including talking about it with health care professionals. 

At Pediatric Therapy Partners, we have a team of Occupational Therapists that can help treat such concerns.  In addition to the typical mental health training that Occupational Therapists receive, our staff has additional training and certifications that help us better serve children with mental health concerns.

If you have any concerns regarding the mental health of your child please call or visit our website to schedule a free screening.  Don’t wait and see.  Find out and know.

RESOURCES:

http://www.apa.org/pi/families/children-mental-health.aspx  

http://www.kidsmentalhealth.org/behavioral-therapy-for-children-with-emotional-disorders/

http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/child-and-adolescent-mental-health/index.shtml

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month

Help us celebrate with the Speech-Language Pathologists at PTP during Better Hearing and Speech Month!

Pediatric Therapy Partners’ Speech-Language Pathologists enjoy working with children and their families to help improve their child’s skills in the areas of communication, feeding, articulation, social, cognitive, and voice that are needed for a child to participate in everyday activities.

Speech-Language Pathologists help children with both verbal and non-verbal means of communication, both receptively (what they hear) and expressively (what they say). They also teach others language skills which include what words mean, how to make new words, and how to put words together to put into sentences. They show how speech sounds are made and demonstrate the use of voice and breathe to produce different sounds. The therapists provide interventions for phonological disorders, oral motor skills, swallowing and feeding disorders, clarity of speech, fluency, hearing and language disorders, cognitive and voice deficits, auditory processing disorders, reading delays, and autism spectrum disorders.

At Pediatric Therapy Partners there are several speech-language therapists who have received certification and extensive training in the Fast ForWord Programs, Beckman Massage, Talk Tools Oral Motor Program, Sequential Oral Sensory (S.O.S.) Approach to feeding, intervention and strategies for children with autism and/or on the spectrum and cochlear implants.   To better the services at Pediatric Therapy Partners, the Speech–Language Pathologists have developed “Teams” to provide education and support to their colleagues and families that they serve.  Such teams include: Hearing Impaired, Autism/Children on the Spectrum, Feeding, and Assistive Technology.  

Speech therapists use a variety of treatment techniques to achieve predetermined goals and outcomes.  Speech-Language Pathologist, Tiffany Voigt, shares with us that the best activities for speech are games and tasks that children do every day.  She explained how they can work on direction following, making requests, labeling objects/toys, and answering questions during daily routines. 

“Now that it is warming up outside, you can have kids sequence what they need to do before going outside and what they are going to do when they get outside or on the playground,” she said.

Thank your Speech-Language therapists today for playing such an important part in helping children communicate every day!

Pediatric Therapy Partners offers a free screening that reviews overall developmental as well as specific concerns including speech and hearing. If you have concerns about your child, please call or visit our website at www.pediatrictherapypartners.com for more information.

 

RESOURCES:

http://www.asha.org/bhsm/

http://www.speakingofspeech.com/