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December
3, 2010
Issue 38, Volume
4
It's All About the
Choices!
Greetings!
Hope you are enjoying the start of the festive season. Happy
Hanukkah! Here is our offering for you this week:
News Items:
- Untangling Autism - What Scientists from Brandeis University
are Doing
- Weight Training CAN be Safe and Good for Kids
- 'The King's Speech' Creating Lots of Awareness of
Stuttering
- Drum Circles Improve Social and Emotional Behavior in
Children
- Friends of PediaStaff in the News
- Specific Language Impairment in the News
- Stunting Disabled Children's Growth is 'Morally Permissible,'
Group Says
Therapy Activities, Tips and Resources
- Scented Christmas Crayons
- Special Playdate.com
- The Playdough Stomp
Upcoming
Events and CEU Opportunities
- Selective Mutism: Your Resource to Understanding a Child with
SM
Articles and Blogs
- Guest Blog: Colleen's Top Toys for
Kids with Autism - Holiday Gift Guide
- Guest Blog: Five Fundamental Facts About
SPD
- Guest Blog: Resources from the ASHA Convention
- Pediatric Therapy Corner: What's in a Name?
- Worth Repeating: Graphomotor Skills - Why Some Kids Hate to
Write
- Also Worth Repeating: Tummy Trouble! Gastroenterological
Conditions That May Affect The Voice
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
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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  possible 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.
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| Hot Outpatient Jobs of the Week |
Temporary
Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist, Atlanta, GA
Our client is a pediatric outpatient clinic located in Fulton
County, Georgia. We are seeking a full time Speech Language
Pathologist for a maternity leave. The position is to start on
January 3, 2011 and run through March 18, 2011. There are 28 kiddos
needing services during this time with a varying population of
autism, cerebral palsy, downs syndrome. Past experience in
feeding-based intervention patients is highly desired. Our client
offers flexible scheduling. The staff works as a team to evaluate
and implement therapy practices for each child.
This is an independant contractor position paid on a per-visit
basis.
Pay Per Visit is Between $55.00 and $65.00/visit BOE.
Qualifications: Must hold a Masters Degree in Speech Language
Pathology or Communication Disorders; a current state license (or
eligible) if applicable.
Interested in this job? Contact PediaStaff
today!..
...IT'S ALL ABOUT
THE CHOICES!
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| Another Hot Outpatient Job of the
Week |
Contract to Hire Pediatric Occupational
Therapist, East of Tacoma, WA
Setting: Outpatient
Status: Direct employment (contract-to-hire)
You spend half your waking hours at work -- shouldn't you love your
job?
You'll love this one! We have a full time opening at a
therapist-owned Pediatric clinic located east of Tacoma. The owners
and staff are family oriented and all have a passion for working
with children. You'll be joining a strong team, and they have fun
at work!
* Full time
* Salaried (starts out hourly $26 - $33)
* Full benefits including health, dental, vacation, CEU
* Roughly 80% utilization rate, 32 treatments per week
On top of all this you'll have three months to decide if you like
it here. You'll start out in a contract position and after 3 months
if you and the owners are happy you'll be hired directly.
Qualifications -- Must hold a Bachelor's Degree in Occupational
Therapy; a current state license (or eligible). New graduates are
welcome to apply.
Interested in this job? Contact PediaStaff
today!..
...IT'S ALL ABOUT
THE CHOICES!
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Autism Research in the News: Untangling
Autism - What Scientists from Brandeis University are Doing
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[Source: Brandeis
Magazine]
In 1994, Liane Kupferberg Carter '76 and her husband found
themselves watching as a team of unsmiling experts at a New York
teaching hospital poked, prodded and measured their toddler son,
Mickey. Carter, a professional writer, recalled in her blog that,
after Mickey had undergone two hours of testing, she "perched
forward" to catch the doctor's words more fully, hoping to hear how
adorable her child was, how promising his future. Instead, the
doctor told her matter-of-factly, "Don't expect higher education
for your son."
That bombshell still reverberating in her head, Carter gathered up
Mickey, his diaper bag and his stroller and headed for the
elevator. A social worker they had met that day waved goodbye. No
one seemed to notice that the family had just received
life-altering news. The formal diagnosis of autism wouldn't come
until much later, when Mickey was 6, but Carter wrote, "It felt as
if we were looking down a dark and endless tunnel."
Read the Rest of this Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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Physical Fitness in
the News: Weight Training
CAN be Safe and Good for Kids
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[Source: Medical
News Today]
Contrary to popular belief, weight training can be safe and good
for children, and does not make them short, dumpy and susceptible
to weak joints and injuries for the rest of their lives. An article
published in the medical journal Pediatrics and written by
researchers from the German Sport University Cologne (Deutsche
Sporthochschule Köln) shows that resistance training can not only
be safe for children, it is also beneficial, some would even say
essential.
The authors explain that previous studies have demonstrated the
benefits of resistance training for adolescents and children.
However, different age groups and maturity levels' response to such
exercises have not been clearly understood.
Read the Rest of this
Article Through a Link on our Blog
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Stuttering in the
News a LOT! 'The King's
Speech' Could do for Stuttering What 'Rain Main' Did for
Autism
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Music Therapy for Pediatric Wellness in
the News: Drum
Circles Improve Social and Emotional Behavior in Children
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[Source: The NAMM Foundation]
The NAMM Foundation today announced the findings of a recent study
that shows how group drumming can improve social and emotional
behavior in low-income children.
The study, that appears in the Oxford Journal: Evidence-based
Complementary and Alternative Medicine, was conducted by the
Pediatric Pain Program in the Department of Pediatrics at the David
Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los
Angeles.
The study, funded by Remo Belli (longtime NAMM Member and founder
of REMO, Inc.), demonstrates how group drumming can significantly
improve such problem behaviors as: Withdrawal/Depression
Post-traumatic Stress; Anxiety; Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity;
Oppositional Defiance; Sluggish Cognitive Tempo
Read More About this Study and the
Beat the Odds Program on our Blog
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| Friends of PediaStaff
in the News: Music
Helps those with Motor Disorders |
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[Source: The Buffalo News]
A retired dentist and former big-band leader, John (name changed to
protect identity), was grappling with the limited mobility, poor
balance and painfully slow gait of Parkinson's disease. One of his
greatest challenges was walking from his bedroom to his TV room.
He'd freeze when the floor changed from wood to carpet. It could
take him 15 minutes to traverse his own home.
Music therapist Kimberly Sena Moore visited John regularly as a
home health aide during her undergraduate years at the University
of Iowa. John mentioned that he liked the band music of John Philip
Sousa. Moore started singing the introduction of "Stars and Stripes
Forever." Suddenly, the octogenarian with advanced Parkinson's was
marching to the beat.
Read the Rest of This
Article Through a Link on our Blog
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| Specific Language Impairment in the
News: A
Common Childhood Disorder that Has Been Left out in the
Cold |
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[Source: The Guardian (UK)]
Specific language impairment (SLI) is a developmental disorder 10
times as common as autism and just as prevalent as dyslexia. So how
come you've never heard of it?
Taxi drivers have become the modern equivalent of the man on the
Clapham omnibus. I've conducted a totally unsystematic but
long-term survey of them and can report that most know what autism
and dyslexia are, but very few have any idea about specific
language impairment (SLI). Now this is odd because SLI is reckoned
to be as common as dyslexia and 10 times as common as autism.
In SLI, children have noticeable problems with understanding and/or
producing language, for no obvious reason. However, it is clearly a
condition with an image problem. So we have what I call the taxi
driver paradox: how come taxi drivers (and lay people in general)
know about dyslexia and autism but not about SLI?
Read the Rest of This Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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Pediatric Medical Ethics in the
News: Stunting
Disabled Children's Growth is 'Morally Permissible,' Group
Says
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[Source: Seattle PI]
Four years after Seattle Children's hospital created a firestorm of
controversy by stunting the growth of a profoundly disabled girl, a
Seattle-based group studying the ethics of growth attenuation has
decided the procedure is "morally permissible" under certain
conditions.
The 20-member group, which included doctors, ethicists and parents
of disabled children from across the country, published their
findings in the current issue of the Hastings Center Report, a
prominent bioethics journal.
The group was unable to achieve a consensus on the polarized topic,
which is often referred to as the "Ashley treatment," after the
6-year-old girl who underwent the procedure at Children's.
Read the Rest of This Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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Therapy Activity
of the Week: Scented
Christmas Crayons
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Here is a fine motor project
that encourages fine motor skill practice and muscle strengthening
of the fingers. Thank you to Your TherapySource.com for this great
activity.
Watch a Video Demonstration of
this Activity on our Blog
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Therapy Resource of
the Week: SpecialPlaydate.com
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SpecialPlaydate.com is an online community
that assists in the development of children's social and
communication skills by offering an opportunity for these
individuals to interact with other children and create lasting
relationships. The website's services, available in all 50 states,
present parents with a secure platform to search for compatible
playdates with or without disabilities based on selected search
criteria.
Visit this Site Through a Link on
our Blog
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Therapy Activity
of the Week: Therapeutic Play
with Playdough
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Thank You to Joni Redlich,
DPT for this week's Therapy Activity of the Week!
Playdough can be a great tool to strengthen the hands and for
imaginary play. It can also be a great tool for increasing sensory
awareness of the feet. It can also be used to challenge balance in
standing like in this video, or it can be done in sitting too.
Have fun trying it out!
Watch a Video Demonstrating the
Activity HERE
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Upcoming CEU
Event: Selective
Mutism: Your Resource to Understanding a Child with
SM
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Friday, December 10, 2010;
1-4pm EST (3.0 contact hours); Cost: $74.95
AOTA member discount code: ct7cr (10% off)
Course description: Recent literature has identified Selective
Mutism as more prevalent than previously thought. Once thought of
as a rare childhood anxiety disorder, Selective Mutism's prevalence
was recently estimated to be nearly as common as Autism. Because
Selective Mutism impacts not only a child's social emotional
development, but also her communication and sensory processing
skills, it warrants the attention of mental health treating
practitioners, speech language pathologists, occupational
therapists, and educators. This presentation will provide an
overview of the assessment and treatment process for a
comprehensive and multidisciplinary approach to working with
children with Selective Mutism as indicated in current literature
and evidence-based practice
Learn More About this
Course and/or Sign-up HERE
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Guest Blogs This Week: Learning Expressions,
Our Journey Thru Autism,
SpeechTechie
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Colleen's Top Toys for Kids with Autism
- by Colleen
I've worked as the manager of the Learning Express toy store
in Roseville, California for ten years now and wanted to share some
of my experience with finding toys for children with special needs.
Let me preface this by saying that I am not a qualified
professional in child development, but I do have quite a bit of
life experience. My daughter is fifteen years old and she has
Autism. She was diagnosed before she was two and although she has
very little language she's been "mainstreamed" since kindergarten.
The reason this was possible is due to the time we spent making
every play opportunity a learning opportunity.
Read the Rest of this Guest Post
Through a Link on our Blog
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Five Fundamental Facts About SPD - By:
Britt Collins
So many children
and adults that are on the autism spectrum have sensory issues and
many people are not as familiar with what Sensory Integration (SI)
is. Many Occupational Therapists (OT's) are trained in SI work and
use this in their treatment when working with all types of
diagnosis but especially when working with children with ASD. There
are 7 sensory systems: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell,
vestibular and proprioceptive systems.
The vestibular system detects movement of the head and the pull of
gravity. The sensory information is received through the inner ear
and then interpreted in the brain. This system governs your balance
and tells you whether you are right side up or upside down.
Children who have under-responsive vestibular systems seem to want
to be constantly on the move, spinning, jumping and running.
Children who have over-responsive vestibular
Read the Rest of this
Post Through a Link on our Blog
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Resources
from the ASHA Convention - By: Sean J. Sweeney
It takes one a lot of time to consolidate all we learn at a
conference like the ASHA Convention. Unfortunately some years we
never fully do consolidate the information, because we are thrown
back into the busy schedule and, well, it's HARD to integrate new
practices. I think it's helpful to have realistic expectations of
ourselves and consider a conference successful if we have a few new
ideas that we implement.
ASHA's practice of putting handouts on the internet and keeping
them there is, I think, a really open and useful one. I first of
all wanted to post links to mine:
Narrative Rubrics to Support Evaluation and Eligibility in School
Settings is a poster I
Read the Rest of this Post Through
a Link on our Blog
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Pediatric Therapy Corner: -
What's in a Name?
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By: Len Leshin, MD, FAAP; Copyright
2003. All rights reserved.
The "Mongol" Debate
In 1866, Dr John Langdon Down published his first work on
a group of children in his care at the Earlswook Asylum in Surrey,
England. It was an intuitive paper for his discovery that there was
a subset of people with mental retardation that had a common
appearance and characteristics; however, it was also shortsighted
as Down characterized the appearance of these people as greatly
resembling people of the Mongoloid race. At the time, the popular
thinking of the races were that there were five distinct races:
Caucasian, Mongolian, Ethiopian, Malaysian and Native American.(1)
In Down's first paper (2), he describes one child as:
Read the Rest of this Article on
our Blog
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| Worth Repeating - Graphomotor
Skills: Why Some Kids Hate To Write |
[Source: Apraxia Kids]
By: Dr. Glenda Thorne
We thank Apraxia-Kids for allowing us to link to their
very useful articles.
Handwriting is complex perceptual-motor skill that is dependent
upon the maturation and integration of a number of cognitive,
perceptual and motor skills, and is developed through instruction
(Hamstra-Bletz and Blote, 1993; Maeland, 1992). While a plethora of
information exists in lay and professional literature about many of
the common problems experienced by school age children, difficulty
with handwriting is often overlooked and poorly understood.
Students with graphomotor problems are frequently called "lazy",
"unmotivated" and/or "oppositional" because they are reluctant to
produce written work. Many times, these are the children who
dislike school the most. Because they are sometimes able to write
legibly if they write slowly enough, they are accused of writing
neatly "when they want to". This statement has moral implications
and is untrue; for children with graphomotor problems, neat
handwriting at a reasonable pace is often not a choice.
Read the Rest of This Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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| Also Worth Repeating -
Tummy Trouble! Gastroenterological Conditions That May
Affect The Voice |
By:
Caroline Bowen
We thank Dr. Bowen
for explicity allowing us to link to her articles. They are all
found on her Website
"There are two major tracts in our necks: the trachea, for the
passage of air to and from the lungs, and the oesophagus for the
passage of food, usually to, but sometimes, when all is not well,
from the stomach. The two passages run along-side each other in the
neck and chest."
Read the Rest of this
Article Through a Link on our Blog
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