If you have questions about these or other milestones, schedule a free screening with one of our child development experts at 701.364.3945.
7+ Winter Break Activities to Keep Busy Kids...Busy!
Winter break is right around the corner, and we know how it can be.
The first day or two is full of excitement that school is out and you can all sleep in a little later, play a little more, maybe watch a family movie. Then there's the busyness of the holidays to fill in a couple days as well.
But then the high wears off and the pent-up energy needs to come out! We've got you covered with a list of inspiring ideas to keep those busy kids busy during the winter break.
Icicle Ornaments
These glittery icicles are an ideal project because it will intrigue the science-minded, delight the artistic decorators, and it is much sturdier than it's delicate appearance.
No-Mess Snow Window Sensory Play
Perfect for ages 2+, this allows them to get creative and use their imagination. Extend the learning and fun by asking your child to tell you the story behind her wintery scene.
Ribbon Fine Motor Play
A no-mess option for the toddler-set, this is a super simple, engaging twist on the basic in-and-out play that young children love. If you don't have ribbons, just look around the house for whatever you might have lying around.
Another twist on this one is to use an empty wipes container and ribbon or any other fabric scraps you have. Babies and toddlers always seem to love pulling out the wipes when they're not supposed to - here's their chance to go crazy with it!
Find & Match Alphabet Game
This one will keep 2-4 year olds busy for a while. Perfect when you need a quick coffee break to yourself, plus it's the kind of fun play that develops multiple skills at once - and they don't even know they 're learning!
Bubble Wrap Hopscotch
Bubble wrap is such an entertaining invention, for kids and adults of all ages! It's great for getting out that extra energy and developing gross motor skills. You can have little ones jump on large pieces for the fun of hearing it pop, and for school-age children, create an indoor hopscotch course. Just be sure to tape it down wherever you're using it, so it doesn't slide out from underneath their little feet.
Discovery Box: Straws
Give your child access to something they usually want to dig out of the cupboard - straws. This will develop their fine-motor skills, creativity, and have them concentrating quietly. Sure, you might be finding straws underneath the couch into the spring, but it's an inexpensive, low-mess delight for your toddler!
Need more ideas?!
Teaching Mama has 20 MORE great ideas to keep your little ones active and learning over winter break. Anything can be turned into a game or activity...you just have to use your imagination!
To love, laughter, and learning ~
Celebrate National Sugar Cookie Day
Sometimes you just need an excuse to bake up something yummy! We rounded up some of the cutest and most delicious recipes on the web for you to share with your little ones.
Don't worry if your finished product would be best suited as a "Pinterest-fail." All that counts is the taste...and the time spent together.
Enjoy!
Watermelon-Shaped Cookies
Kids often lose interest after just a few cookies, so it can be easiest on the head-baker if you just keep everything uniform instead of doing multiple designs at once. These watermelon-shaped cookies are fun and adorable, yet keep it simple enough with just a couple colors of frosting.
Skillet Sugar Cookie
A different twist that won't involve heating up the oven on a hot day! Plus it's all done at once, so you don't have to spend hours taking cookie sheets in and out.
Firework Sugar Cookies
We know, the 4th of July has passed, but you can use the memory of the holiday's fireworks displays to inspire your little decorators. This is a great activity for little hands, because it develops their fine motor skills - just keep an eye out that no one gets poked with a toothpick! Let them pick their favorite colors too: pink, orange, red, or yellow would all make spectacular displays.
Spiral Sugar Cookies
Who doesn't love sprinkles! These cookies are great because you can make them as fuss-free as you want by using pre-made dough and just adding some food coloring gel, or add in lots of flavor by making them from scratch and then amping them up with lime, lemon, almond, strawberry, or whichever extract flavor corresponds best with your color choice.
Swirly Cookie Pops
A cookie on a stick! Adorable and whimsicle, yet simple to create because you only need one shape to cut. Kids can each choose a color to work on, then create a sampling for a cookie pop bouquet which is a perfect "thank you" gift for someone who needs an act of kindness in your life.
Top 5 Expert Tips for Potty Training Success
1. Preparation is the key for success and the most
crucial step is choosing a time to begin. You will need to persist daily for at
least three months.
2. Remember to praise each triumph and not scold when
things go badly. Even having a grumpy face when cleaning up a mess sends a
negative message to an impressionable little mind.
3. When children are learning to use the toilet and
having accidents, have your child wear underpants, then place the training pants over the underwear. This allows the child to feel the uncomfortable wet underwear, yet will
prevent the "accident" from running onto the floor.
4. Most kids begin toilet-training around 2 years, but it’s
not uncommon for a child to be in diapers at their third birthday. Many aren’t
potty-trained until 4 years of age. However, if by age 4 your child is still
resisting vehemently, it may be time to seek expert help.
5. Like any kind of training schedule, routine helps. Many
children have a bowel movement around the same time each day, often within an
hour of eating, and urinate within an hour of having a long drink. Be guided by
your child’s body clock and try to ensure it doesn’t correspond with their
tired time.
Wondering if your child's development is normal? Still struggling with toilet training issues? We can help!
Contact our professional team of therapists to answer all your questions and give you peace of mind.
Contact our professional team of therapists to answer all your questions and give you peace of mind.
Busy Bags
Keeping a child occupied doesn't need to be time consuming
or stressful. There are plenty of easy ways to quickly put together activities
where you will be able to keep your child occupied, while they are learning at
the same time!
We quite often use ‘busy bag’ activities to work on various
skills such as fine and gross motor, speech (talking about colors, shapes,
animals, etc.), attention to detail, and concentration. The wonderful thing about busy bags is that
depending on how many you have, it is easy to swap them out so that you always
have a variety of activities to do. Another great thing about busy bags is that
they can vary in difficulty and length of time, so if your child needs easier
activities that don’t require a long attention span you can alter the busy bag
to fit their needs. You can also create themed busy bags to match seasons or
various holidays, providing further learning opportunities.
Here are links to some of our favorite Busy Bags!
You can also find more Busy Bags over on our Pinterest page.
Featured App: Heads Up! By Warner Bros.
Heads Up! is an interactive app that is fun for kids and adults. This app is available for both Android (free) and Apple ($0.99) devices. Heads Up! comes with seven card decks including: Happy Holidays, Act It Out, Superstars, Animals, Accents & Impressions, Just for Kids, and Famous Families. Additional decks are available for purchase at $0.99 each.
Once a deck is selected, a player places the phone or tablet up to his or her head. A second player describes each word or phrase so that the first player can guess what it is. The tablet or phone is flipped forward when the item is guessed correctly and flipped backward to pass to the next item. The player or team who can guess the most words within the one minute time limit wins!
Heads Up! is a great app to target turn-taking and teamwork. It is a fun way to practice language skills such as using clues to identify an item and using expressive language to describe people, objects, actions, or animals. In addition, a video is recorded during each round and may be played back for review. The video feature can allow the child visual feedback on facial expressions, body language, and can help with understanding different perspective taking techniques.
Requires iOS 6.0 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5.
Requires Android 2.3 and up.
If you have any questions about this app, or would like to see other featured apps, please visit the resources page on our website at www.pediatrictherapypartners.com.
It’s Turkey Time!
The holidays present many wonderful opportunities for
learning. In the spirit of Thanksgiving we’re busy incorporating turkeys into our
sessions giving the children ways to work on their speech and fine motor, along
with other skills in their time with us.
We have different
variations turkeys hanging out with us this month. We’re talking about colors
that we want our turkeys to be, how long their legs should be, what shapes we
are using, how we should attach the various pieces of the turkeys together, and
so on.
For our first turkey we used half of a paper plate, tissue
paper squares, a construction paper circle, and construction paper for the beak
and giblet. Depending on the age of the kiddo and the skill set that they have,
we’ll let them cut out the different pieces needed; such as cutting the plate
in half, the tissue paper into squares, and the construction paper into the
shapes needed for the head, beak and giblet.
For our second turkey we used half a paper plate,
construction paper for the body, head, eyes, beak, giblet and legs. We colored
the feathers onto the edges of the plate, and glued the various body parts of
the turkey to the plate. We worked on our folding skills with giving the legs a
little dimension, and cut the ends for feet.
Both of these activities are really easy to do with the
kiddos with only a minimal mess to clean up at the end, and covers speech,
gross motor skills, fine motor skills, decision making, and creativity.
Skills Addressed with Carving a Pumpkin
Carving a pumpkin
creates a great way for children to work on their occupational, physical, and
speech-language skills through the use of a fun task right at home. Skills
including gross motor, fine motor, visual motor, speech, social skills,
decision making, bilateral coordination, imagination and creativity are all
skills that are used while carving a pumpkin.
Choosing a pumpkin creates an opportunity for a child to use
their decision making skills and their social skills. If they are given the
opportunity to choose a pumpkin on their own it creates an environment where
they not only will have to weigh the options of which pumpkin to pick, but they
will also be using their independence to pick out their pumpkin, and to be
confident in their selection. Picking out a pumpkin also allows you (or others)
to have a conversation with your child to get them speaking. Language such as
“shall we get the big pumpkin or the little pumpkin?” and, “Which one do you
want?” gives children the opportunity to interact and describe which size and
look of pumpkin they would like. They
are also given the chance to use their gross motor skills through this process
by picking up pumpkins, pushing them around, and carrying them to the car.
After a child has made the decision on which pumpkin they
would like to carve, they need to clean out the inside of the pumpkin. Tactile
input can be incorporated by using their hands to clean out the pumpkin, as the
guts are cold and squishy. Then bilateral skills and upper body strength can be
incorporated by holding the pumpkin with one hand and using a spoon to scrape
with the other hand. You can incorporate speech by asking them to describe how
the insides of the pumpkin feel to them. Do they feel slimy or squishy? Are
they cold or warm?
Fine motor skills are incorporated when drawing on the
pumpkin to decide where to cut out for the eyes, nose and mouth. This also is
another opportunity for the child to use their imagination and creativity,
along with decision making. Depending on the age of a child you might want to
do the cutting yourself and let them watch, but overall the end result will be
that your child put to use many of their skills to get to the end point of
carving a pumpkin, and they can be proud of the results too!
It's Time to Play!
Summertime has started, and as the days become longer, the
amount of activities that children are involved in become greater. From
baseball to summer camps and classes, children are often times rushed from one
activity to the next in an attempt to help them learn skills that are necessary
for their development. However, in the midst of going from one activity to the
next, children become stressed out and end up disengaged in the activities that
they are immersed in due to the lack of downtime or free play that they are
allowed.
Studies show that free play is the best possible way for
children to grow and gain skills that are necessary for their development. It
allows children to use their creativity while developing their imagination,
dexterity, and physical, cognitive and emotional strength. As a result of this,
free play is very important at aiding in healthy brain development.
There are many things that children can learn through free
play. The advantages of it certainly outweigh any disadvantage to free play
that might be present.
- Social Skills – When a child is engaged in free play, they often times will seek out other children to engage with them. They might turn the playground into a castle, and one child will be the king, and the other the queen. Through this process they will be acquiring the abilities to make decisions, collaborate, cooperate with others, control impulses and empathize.
- Virtues – Sometimes while playing a child might run into issues with their puzzle piece not fitting the way they would like it to, or their stack of blocks might keep tumbling down. It is through these experiences that children learn perseverance, patience, temperance, contentment, persistence, and the list continues on.
- Physical Development - Through free play a child is learning how to do things without being told how. Just like when your child learned to crawl and walk, free play allows him the chance to try new things. A great place to do this is at the playground and let them climb. This allows him to build their strength, coordination, a sense of body awareness in space and competence.
- Self-Discovery – Free play gives kids the time that they need to be kids. They can write, think, build, draw, figure out what they like and don’t like, dream and most of all, use their imagination.
There are many ways that you can allow your child to have
free play to learn and grow. Have playdates with other children, go to the park
or spend time in your sandbox in your backyard, provide your child with a dress
up box filled with costumes and props and let them pretend to be adults. Have a
box filled with objects such as paper towel rolls, plastic bottles, scraps of
yarn, fabric and paper and allow your child to build things with no pressure to
have any sort of required end result. Encourage them to tell stories and sing
songs and most importantly of all, allow your child to do what they do best, be
a kid.
The Importance of Timers
A timer can be an important tool for success with daily
activities and routines for children of all ages. A visual timer helps children
understand the concept of time by allowing them to see the movement of time.
This can be a good motivator as it allows a child to visually see an end to an
activity or how long they must wait for a preferred activity. It can also
assist with smooth transitions so the child knows when to expect a change in
routine.
There are a variety of visual timer apps available for both
apple and android products, which have an option for alarm sounds and the
ability to choose the time duration. Some of these include:
| Android Or Apple | App Title | Developer | Price | Description | |
 | Android | Flip's Timer | Spark Developer | Free | Time elapses visually on a circular picture. |
 | Android | Time Timer | Time Timer LLC | $1.99 | Shows elapsed time on analog clock. |
 | Android | EasyKidTimer | Goodbehaviortools.com | $1.00 | Shows elapsed time on analog clock. Customizable with ability to import pictures and descriptions. |
 | Android | Kids Timer | Skywise | Free | Time elapses visually on a circular picture. Option for visual to move faster/slower. |
 | Apple | Children's Countdown - Visual countdown timer for preschoolers | Fehners Software LLP | Free | Timer uncovers a picture as it counts down. Optional sound. Up to 60 minutes of time |
 | Apple | Kids Countdown - Visual timer for preschool children | Idea4e | Free | Timer uncovers picture as it counts down. Optional Sound |
 | Apple | ASD Tools | Chestnut Apps | Free | Timer shows digital and visual countdown. Able to select from picture library or import your own picture. |
| | Apple | Time Timer | Time Timer LLC | $2.99 iPhone, $4.99 iPad | Shows elapsed time on analog clock. |
 | Apple | Timer+ Touch HD | Six Axis LLC | $1.99 | Time elapses visually on a circular clock-like picture |
If you have any questions about these apps, or any other ways that the therapists at Pediatric Therapy Partners can help your child, please visit our website at www.pediatrictherapypartners.com
Tummy Time and Why it is Important
Tummy time is influential with helping your child develop
the muscles they need for physical development in their early years. The American
Academy of Pediatrics endorses tummy time, and has stated that it is important
for infants to spend time on their tummy in short increments throughout the day
since they spend so much time on their backs.
Infants need time on their tummy while they are awake to
strengthen their head, neck and upper body muscles. Tummy time helps to build
the strength and coordination that infants need to roll over, crawl, and reach
for things. Tummy time is beneficial for all infants, including newborns.
Although the length of time for tummy time for newborns is much shorter than
for babies that are 3-6 months of age.
The benefits of tummy time continue beyond strengthening muscles. Tummy time also helps to reduce the risk of positional plagiocephaly, which is also known as flattened head. An infant’s skull is made up of several separate bones that eventually fuse together, but in infancy they allow for the child’s brain to grow. If an infant is spending a lot of time lying on their back, they are susceptible to having their head be molded into a flat shape. Infants that have a flat spot on their heads sometimes have to put more work into moving their head in certain directions, depending on where the flattening is, which causes them to use their muscles incorrectly and it can hinder their development and affect them their entire life. Cassandra Borlaug, MS, OTR/L from PTP notes that “Not only is tummy time important for a child's motor development, but also sensory and cognitive development. Tummy time promotes a better understanding of a child's position in space and body awareness, exposure to a variety of textures, movement of the head and body, and ability to see and look around.”
Sharon Drewlo, BS, OTR/L from PTP highlights that there are reasons other than gaining motor skills that it is important to engage in tummy time. “Your baby is also getting exposed to tactile stimulation to the front side of her body when doing tummy time. Instead of looking up at the ceiling when lying on her back, your baby can work on developing near point vision when on her tummy and gain a different visual reference to the world around her.”
It is easy to incorporate tummy time into your everyday
routine, especially if you start when your infant is a newborn. For newborns
start with placing them on their tummy in your lap for a minute or two, or
place them on your stomach or chest while you are awake and in a reclined
position on a chair, bed, or the floor.
As they get to be older and more active, babies can be
placed on their tummy on a blanket on the floor starting with short intervals
of 2-3 minutes at a time and work up to at least 20 minutes of tummy time per
day. Be sure to pay attention that your baby is not getting tired or resting
their face while engaging in tummy time. You can also encourage your baby to move and interact with you by holding toys or by placing
a mirror in front of them to get their attention, which will encourage them to
lift their head and reach for things.
If you are worried that your baby is not properly developing
and reaching their developmental milestones, give our sister company Early Intervention Partners a call to set up a free screening.
For more information on establishing tummy time, check out
the following resources.
Winter Olympics and Learning
The Winter Olympics are only a couple weeks away! The
Olympics are the perfect time to teach kids about all kinds of things. Not only
can we teach them about parts of the world that are different from where we
live, but we can also teach them about all of the different sports and the
science and dedication that is involved with the preparation for each sport. We
all have our favorite Olympic sports that we enjoy watching for both the summer
and the winter Olympics and we can use those favorite sports as education tools
for kids.
Starting with the location of the Olympics, kids can learn
about the cultural aspects of where the Olympics are being hosted. This year
the Olympics are held for the first time in Russia, in the host city of Sochi.
Sochi has a population of 400,000 people and it is situated in Krasnodar, which
is the third largest region of Russia. The
Opening Ceremony for the Olympics provides a glimpse into the culture of the
location through the use of dance and other cultural aspects that are integrated
into the ceremony. Another part of the
opening ceremony that is discussion worthy with kids is the parade of nations.
You can discuss with kids beforehand different countries to look out for during
the parade of nations, and turn it into a game. A possibility here is playing
Flags of the World Bingo, where each of the kids has a card then when the flags
go by the can mark it off on their bingo card.
When it comes to the actually events of the Olympics, you can talk through them with your child and help them to understand the rules of the different events. You can then help your child keep score of which country is in the lead to win the medals in each of their favorite events. You can even incorporate using motor skills by having your child write out the score board to keep track.
For more ideas on how to incorporate learning into watching
the Winter Olympics, head on over to our Pinterest page to see ideas from books
to read, games to play, and other fun activities for kids that are all Olympic themed.
New Year's Resolutions
Does your family make a point to have New Year’s resolutions
each year? The beginning of a year can be a great time to revisit old goals and
create new goals that can help children to grow in various different ways; much
like the goals that kiddos in therapy have. Here are some tips on how you and
your child can create New Year’s resolutions that are kid friendly.
- Talk with your child and discuss what goals they might like to achieve. For some kids, they might want to improve their reading skills and would like to have a goal of reading one book or chapter a day or trying new foods, but for others their goals might be a physical accomplishment that they would like to achieve. Remember to start with small goals so children won’t be overwhelmed by the aspect of working towards achieving their goal.
- Have your child choose and write their goal down and post it somewhere that it is visible. Hang it on the fridge, or in another location where it will be looked at daily.
- Be supportive and encouraging of your child’s effort to accomplish their goal. If they miss a day or two, tell them that is alright and that they can still work towards accomplishing their goal. Tell them how great you think they are doing, and set up some sort of reward for when they reach their goal.
- Set resolutions for yourself and post them next to your child’s. This can be a conversation point by being able to discuss with your child what is working to achieve the goals and what isn't working, as well as how you and your child are feeling about the goals that have been set. By doing this you are also helping your child learn to keep someone else accountable.
Christmas Gifts
It is that time of year again where we start searching for the perfect Christmas gift for our loved ones. Our therapists have put together lists of gifts that they recommend for children that will help them to grow through play. Most of these gifts you can find at area stores such as Target or Wal-Mart.
OT Fine Motor Gifts
OT Fine Motor Gifts
- Coloring Books and Crafts
- Cootie Game
- Hi-Ho Cherrio
- Lacing Cards
- Mancala
- Pick-Up Sticks
- Barnyard Bingo
- Candyland - The shapes, colors and matching all provide talking points for your child to interact with.
- Guess Who?
- HeadBandz
- Rory's Story Cubes - www.storycubes.com
- Uno Moo
- Zingo
- Animal Scramble
- Balance Board
- Hopscotch - mats or draw outside
- Hula Hoop
- Jump Rope
- Twister
Traditions
The holidays bring along with them the time of year where
families come together and participate in traditions. These traditions help to
define the memories that a child has throughout the years. From a meal that is
prepared for the holidays to an activity that we participate in, when it comes
to the holidays, these traditions are important. Especially to a child with special
needs that struggles with change.
There are different traditions that you can put into place
to help your child feel at ease during the holiday season. Here are some things
that you can try to help your child recognize each holiday as they come and go every
year.
- Give your child a section of your Christmas tree to decorate or ask them which ornaments are their favorites and place those on the front of the tree so your child can enjoy them.
- Find alternative decorations that your child can use to decorate their room or a space in your house. One option for alternative decorations is the holiday themed ones that are intended for bulletin boards. These can be attached to a wall and your child might have fun designing and decorating their own space.
- Include your child in the planning of events that are going to happen. By explaining what will happen will help them to understand what is going on at the event and will help keep them from being overwhelmed.
- Create a “safe space” room for your child with special needs where nothing in the room has changed. Explain to your child that if they need to get away for a break they can go to the room for one.
- Have a holiday calendar. The calendar outlines
the events for the holidays and you and your child can decorate the calendar.
By having the calendar handy, your child will have a better understanding of
what will be different from their normal routine throughout the holidays.
By implementing traditions into your holiday routine that
will help your child be at ease throughout everything going on, not only will
they become great memories for you and your family, but they will help the entire
holiday season go smoothly.
Happy Holidays from all of us here at Pediatric Therapy
Partners!
Sheknows.com
FriendshipCircle.org
Care.com
Psychcentral.com
Bismarck Office Coming Soon
As
residents of the Fargo-Moorhead area have seen, our Fargo facility is currently
undergoing a major expansion. This project
should be completed in late fall and will better allow us
to serve clients with expanded treatment areas.
Our sister company, Early Intervention Partners, will be moved on site
as well.
Along
with the changes in Fargo, we are also excited to announce that we will be
opening a facility in Bismarck in August, 2013. Pediatric
Therapy Partners will be located at 4501 Coleman Street North - Suite #103
Bismarck, North Dakota 58503. The telephone number for this location is
701-751-6336. Our facility will provide Occupational, Physical, and Speech-Language
Therapy for the pediatric population. Services will be provided in
our facility, home environments and daycares. Therapy offered
outside of a clinical setting is something that will be new to the Bismarck-Mandan area and we hope this will make therapy decisions much easier for
families.
Pediatric
Therapy Partners has over 30 therapists in physical, occupational and speech
therapy who work with infants and children through adolescents. We provide
therapy services both in the home and in our pediatric therapy clinic located
in south Fargo. Our therapists have experience in numerous areas of pediatric
care, including inpatient/outpatient care, PICU, NICU, Early Intervention, and
school settings. Our therapists believe
in providing services in the child’s most natural environment whenever possible.
Pediatric Therapy
Partners was founded in 2005 to fill a need in the community for quality,
coordinated, home-based therapy services for special needs children in the
Fargo-Moorhead area. While keeping an emphasis on high quality care, Pediatric
Therapy Partners has grown to become the largest provider of pediatric therapy
services in the region. As well as providing outpatient therapy services, other
programming is available to meet more specific needs that your child may have.
With these expansions,
Pediatric Therapy Partners continues to reach further to help your child laugh,
love, and live life to its fullest!
Cleft & Craniofacial Awareness Month
Join others this
July in spreading the word about National Cleft and Craniofacial Awareness
Month.
Children born
with cleft lip, cleft palate or craniofacial disorders encounter health
conditions that affect both structure and function of a their head and face
(CDC). Each year, numerous infants are born with a cleft lip. Many are born with a cleft palate as
well.
According to the
Cleft Palate Foundation, a cleft lip is a separation of the two sides of a lip,
whereas a cleft palate is an opening in the roof of the mouth in which two
sides did not fuse during development. These congenital defects occur very
early in pregnancy, often due to genetics and environmental factors.
Treatments vary depending on the severity of the defect. Frequently, a team of medical, surgical, dental and other health professionals work to ensure all developmental and medical needs are met. Additional support services such as speech therapy may be beneficial. Speech therapists at Pediatric Therapy Partners, for example, may practice oral-motor skills, feeding, language skills, and other rehabilitation services that can help support a child’s plan for short-term or long-term goals.
Janette
Venaas-Gilbraith, Speech Coordinator and owner at Pediatric Therapy Partners,
explains how therapy can improve skills throughout a child’s life.
“It is essential for
children with repaired clefts to initiate direct speech and language services
to increase the child's sensation where the clefts have been repaired to
increase blood flow, feeling, and movement. The earlier the child initiates
therapy for the repaired cleft areas and for craniofacial anomalies the better
the outcomes for the child has to improve his speech, language, and feeding
skills,” Janette said.
Treatments vary depending on the severity of the defect. Frequently, a team of medical, surgical, dental and other health professionals work to ensure all developmental and medical needs are met. Additional support services such as speech therapy may be beneficial. Speech therapists at Pediatric Therapy Partners, for example, may practice oral-motor skills, feeding, language skills, and other rehabilitation services that can help support a child’s plan for short-term or long-term goals.
The Speech-Language staff
at Pediatric Therapy Partners has been trained in specific strategies to better
the child's outcomes with clefts and craniofacial anomalies. If you have concerns about your child, please
call or visit our website at www.pediatrictherapypartners.com for more
information.
RESOURCES:
Aquatic Therapy
Hoping to take the family to the lake or pool this
summer? Water can be a great medium for
therapy.
RESOURCES:
http://angelfishtherapy.com/aquatic-therapy
http://www.aquatictherapyinfo.com/
http://www.aquaticnet.com/index.htm
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org
Aquatic or Pool Therapy can be a great alternative for
children to perform activities that they may not be able to on land. When the correct combination of land and
water therapy is used, it can be incorporated into all therapy disciplines,
including Occupational, Physical, and Speech-Language Therapy. We are proud to offer an Aquatic Therapy Program
here at PTP, led by Shannon Buckmier, PT.
According to Shannon, the potential benefits of aquatic therapy are
many.
“Aquatic Therapy provides great sensory input as the water
provides gentle movement and pressure.
It can provide a great supplement to traditional “land based”
therapies.” Shannon also states that “children can gain strength and range of
motion as children may be able to move in the pool in ways they could not on
land.”
The pool is a great place to work on language skills, social
skills, behavior issues, play skills and cognitive skills. Working in the water helps to improve
endurance and respiratory function. Plus
it is just plain fun!
Children that have gross motor delays, Autism Spectrum
Disorders, sensory processing disorders, Down Syndrome, Celebral Palsy, and any
other phsyical, sensory, or developmental delays are great candidates for
Aquatic Therapy. Aquatic Therapy also
provides a great environment for post-surgical rehabilitation as it can help
increase range of motion and decrease pain associated with movement after
surgical events.
If you feel Aquatic Therapy is right for your child, or if
you have more questions, please visit our website or call today to set up an evaluation.
RESOURCES:
http://angelfishtherapy.com/aquatic-therapy
http://www.aquatictherapyinfo.com/
http://www.aquaticnet.com/index.htm
http://pediatrics.aappublications.org
National Safety Month
It may not feel
like it but summer is here!
http://www.nsc.org/safety_home/HomeandRecreationalSafety/Pages/HomeandRecreationalSafety.aspx
http://www.healthychildren.org
June is a great
month to enjoy the outdoors and is a good time to encourage safe behaviors
during National Safety Month. Whether
planning a vacation or playing in the front yard, it is important to stay
safe.
The National
Safety Council (NSC) provides some valuable safety measures families can take
to prevent injuries.
If siblings or
neighborhood kids are running around the house or in the yard, help prevent
tripping or falling by moving obstacles or securing rugs. In
the home, find storage for the hazardous materials and locate all danger zones
to avoid poisoning, burns, and choking. Help encourage your family, friends and
neighbors to get involved by setting examples in their own home.
Going for a dip
in the swimming pool or spending a day at the lake? The American Academy of
Pediatrics (AAP) offers some tips on how to keep your family safe near water.
To prevent sunburn, have lightweight pants & shirts as well as hats within
reach to provide shade. Sunscreen should be applied throughout the day if
exposed to the sun for long periods of time and reapplied if swimming. Avoid
overexposure to the sun during the peak hours, approximately 10am-4pm.
Whether it’s
swimming at a pool or in open water, always have an adult nearby. Inform your family of water safety, including
knowing where to find rescue equipment and practicing the buddy system. Taking
the family boating? Test life jackets for the proper fit, based on the child’s
weight.
Jumping on the trampoline? Although
this can be a fun activity for the neighborhood, the AAP states that there is a
great risk of head and neck injuries, sprains or strains, fractures, scrapes
and bruises. To help ensure safety, designate an adult to supervise at all
times. Check equipment often and repair or replace as needed.
If your child is
exercising or spending long hours outdoors, be aware of the signs of heat
stroke, heat exhaustion and heat cramps and know where to seek medical
attention. These symptoms can include headaches, dizziness, nausea, and
behavioral changes such as confusion, disorientation, or staggering.
With these
resources in mind, you can keep your kids safe while still enjoying the summer.
RESOURCES:
http://www.healthychildren.org