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November 26,
2010: Issue 11, Volume 4
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It's All About the Choices!
Greetings and Happy 'Day After Turkey' Day. I wonder how many
people end up napping on the couch wherever they sat down after
dinner? Someone needs to take a survey. Well, if you are one of
them, wake up now, because we have a great newsletter issue for
you.
News Items:
- ASHA Wrap-up and #SLPeeps
- More Bullying Resources in the News
- People Who Stutter Show Abnormal Brain Activity When Reading
and Listening
- Newly Identified Brain Pathways Vital to Understanding
Language
- New Approach Finds Success In Teaching Youth With Autism
- Feel Good Story of the Week: Children with Autism Practice
Traveling on Mock Flights
- Feel Good Video Story of the Week: Kids with Autism Meet
'Sensitive Santa'
Tips, Activities and Resources:
- Webinar: Development, Validation, and Use of the OASES for
Children, Teens, and Adults Who Stutter
- The Importance of Early Autism Detection and Other ASHA
Podcasts
- Introduction to Friedrich's Ataxia and FARA
Upcoming Events/CEU Opportunities:
- CASANA Workshop: Childhood Apraxia of Speech - Multisensory
Strategies for Evaluation & Therapy Challenges
- The Sequential Oral Sensory Approach to Feeding Conference
Presented by the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation
Articles and Blogs
- Speech Language Pathology Corner : Four Steps of
Communication
- Occupational Therapy Corner: Why Touch is so Important
- Pediatric Therapy Corner: The Neuropsychological Evaluation as
a Guide to Intervention
- Q&A: Ask the Expert About Tummy Time
- Focus on Bilingualism: Using Storybooks in Therapy
- Guest Blog: Case Presentation - The Beauty of Imitation and An
Update
- Guest Blog: A Myriad of Materials
- Worth Repeating: Serving Students with Hearing Loss in the
Schools: Speech and Language Services for Students in the
Mainstream
- Also Worth Repeating: Playing with Self Esteem: The Importance
of Social Skills
Please note: Much of our content here is provided by wonderful
contributing authors and organizations. Please support our
contributors and visit their websites. Links and bios are featured
on each article!
Have a great weekend and see you next month! As an FYI, the
December monthly issue will be published on December 17th. There
will be no newsletter either December 24th or 31st so that our
staff may enjoy their holiday season.
Heidi
Kay, Newsletter Editor
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The
Career Center
The links to the right are "live" and reflect all open 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
openings
for you in that state.
If any of your information (geographic, population or setting
preference) has changed since we've last spoken, please let us
know. See an opening that interests you? Just apply to that job
and one of our staff will contact you right away.
Remember, one of the things that makes PediaStaff unique is
that we will actively "market" your skills to prospective employers
of pediatric and school based therapists, so if you don't see a
position that interests you make sure you let us know what you are
looking for. |
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ASHA 2010 - Wrap-up
and #SLPeeps
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What
a great show we had. Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to
meet our entire team face to face (and get a free Toobaloo!). It
was wonderful that so many of you stopped by. Thanks too to all of
our newsletter and blog contributors who visited.
We also really
enjoyed the first annual ASHA "Tweet-up." Even though it was really
early in the morning, there were lots of "speechies who tweet"
(known affectionately as #SLPeeps") present that got to chat in
person and "put a face with the twitter handle!"
Speaking of
Twitter, if you are an SLP or assistant, please join us on
Twitter. Use the hashtag "#slpeeps" at the end of your post and
you will be sure to meet LOTS of new friends interested in sharing
ideas and resources.
Read The Rest of this
Blog Post to see a Photo from ASHA and Learn how to get the
#SLPeeps Feed HERE
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Bullying Resources in the News -
From
the CNN Stop Bullying Campaign
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[Source:
CNN.com]
Editor's Note: We realize that we already
featured a list of Bullying Resources in a recent issue. However,
CNN has recently completed a big campaign in conjunction with "Stop
Bullying Now," so we thought we would also bring you their list of
resources as some are different than what we have already shown
you.
Read the Rest of this Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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Stuttering in the News - People
Who Stutter Show Abnormal Brain Activity When Reading and
Listening
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[Source:
ScienceDaily.com]
A new imaging study finds that people who stutter show abnormal
brain activity even when reading or listening. The results suggest
that individuals who stutter have impaired speech due to irregular
brain circuits that affect several language processing areas - not
just the ones for speech production.
The research was presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting
of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego.
Read the Rest of this Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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Language
Development Research in
the News - Newly
Identified Brain Pathways Vital to Understanding
Language
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[Source:
ScienceDaily.com]
A complex network of brain connections necessary for language
comprehension has been mapped in new detail, according to recent
research. These newly charted pathways will help scientists
understand how language is processed in the brain, and how brain
injuries disrupt the system.
The research was presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting
of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego.
Read the Rest of this Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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Autism
in the News -
New
Approach Finds Success In Teaching Youth With Autism
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As
the number of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders
continues to increase, the one thing that won't change is the need
for those children to develop social skills. Statistics show that
if these students are able to communicate effectively, they can
achieve success in the classroom, and later, in the workplace. In
addition to the challenges facing each individual student,
educators find themselves facing dwindling resources. Now,
researchers at the University of Missouri are developing an
effective social competence curriculum, with a virtual classroom
component, that could help educators meet the demand of this
growing population.
Read the Rest of this Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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Feel Good Story of the Week -
Children
with Autism Practice Traveling on Mock Flights
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[Source:
The Philadelphia Inquirer]
At 8 p.m. Saturday, Southwest Airlines Flight 2149 was poised to
push back from the gate. Flight attendants gave fasten-seat-belt
instructions, and First Officer Peter Hayes announced, "There's 25
minutes of flight time until we touch down in Philadelphia."
Capt. Todd Siems said the Boeing airliner was cruising at 37,000
feet. And after he turned off the seat-belt sign, the young
passengers were served complimentary Sprite, cranberry-apple juice,
and airplane-shaped crackers.
Read the Rest of this Story
Through a Link on our Blog
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Feel
Good Video Story of the Week
- Kids
with Autism Meet 'Sensitive Santa'
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[Source:
WDTN.com]
MIAMI TWP., Ohio (WDTN) - Meeting Santa is a Christmas tradition,
but for some kids with autism it's just not possible to brave the
crowds and noise. That's why the Dayton Mall opened early Sunday
for a "Sensitive Santa" event.
Organizers provided lower lighting and quieter surroundings to help
kids relax while they waited to see Santa.
"It's very nice to give children the opportunity who may have never
visited santa before the opportunity to come, see santa, kind of on
their own terms," said David Casper, Marketing Director at the
Dayton Mall.
Read and Watch the Rest of this
Story Through a Link on our Blog
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Therapy Resource of the Week -
Webinar:
Development, Validation, and Use of the OASES for Children, Teens,
and Adults Who Stutter
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[Source:
Pearson]
On November 1, 2010, J. Scott Yaruss, PhD, CCC-SLP, BRS-FD, ASHA
Fellow, presented the webinar "Development, Validation, and Use of
the OASES for Children, Teens, and Adults Who Stutter." You can
view the recording and/or download the slides below.
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Therapy Resource: - The
Importance Of Early Autism Detection and other ASHA
Podcasts
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Have
you discovered the ASHA Podcasts? If not, check them out at http://podcast.asha.org/
Here is one we thought you might enjoy to get you started!
[Source] ASHA Podcasts
ASHA fellow and speech-language pathologist, Amy Wetherby,
discusses how early diagnosis and intervention can make a dramatic
difference in treating children with autism. Dr. Wetherby is the
Laurel Schendel Professor in the Department of Communication
Disorders at Florida State University and Executive Director for
the Center for Autism and Related Disabilities.
Listen to this Podcast Through a
Link on our Blog
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Therapy Resource of the Week -
Introduction
to Friedrich's Ataxia and FARA
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This
video is an introduction to Friedreich's Ataxia and the
Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA) as told by interviews
with patients, families, researchers, and FARA employees.
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Upcoming Event/CEU Opportunity -
Childhood
Apraxia of Speech: Multisensory Strategies for Evaluation &
Therapy Challenges
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A
day long workshop with National Apraxia expert, David Hammer, M.A.,
CCC-SLP
Overview:
This presentation will focus on strategies that facilitate verbal
communication and speech intelligibility for children with apraxia
of speech. Attendees will leave with ideas and strategies that they
can begin using immediately with their client population. An
overview of diagnostic considerations will be presented. The
majority of the presentation will be intervention-based, with a
wide range of treatment ideas described.
This workshop is ideal for school, clinic, and outpatient based
SLPs working with late toddler's, preschoolers, and early
elementary school children, including those who are suspected to
have apraxia but not yet diagnosed.
Speaker
Our speaker, David Hammer, M.A., CCC-SLP is widely acclaimed for
his "hand-on" practical therapy strategies with this extremely
challenging population of children with apraxia of speech. He
lectures throughout the United States and internationally. David
was a key member of the ASHA committee on Childhood Apraxia of
Speech and serves as an advisor to the Childhood Apraxia of Speech
Association of North America.
Learn More About /
Register for This Workshop HERE
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CEU Opportunity - The
Sequential Oral Sensory Approach to Feeding Conference Presented by
the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation
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Basic
Course - December 1-3, 2010
Advanced Course - December 4-5, 2010
Denver, CO
Featuring Kay A. Toomey, PhD
The Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation is privileged to present
Kay A. Toomey, PhD, Pediatric Psychologist, teaching her
internationally renowned intervention for problem feeders.
The Sequential Oral Sensory (S.O.S) Approach to Feeding is a
family-centered, transdisciplinary program for assessing and
treating children with weight/growth problems from birth to 18
years. It integrates postural, sensory, motor, behavioral/
learning, medical and nutritional factors to comprehensively
evaluate and manage children with feeding/growth problems.
Learn More About this Great CEU
Opportunity
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| Speech Language Pathology Corner - Four Steps of
Communication |
By:
Michelle Garcia Winner, MA, CCC-SLP
The four steps of communication help
to define how the communicative act is heavily anchored in a
synergistic process that involves the mind, the body, the eyes and
language. More specifically, it involves social emotional thought,
the nuance of physical presence and visually processing non-verbal
cues in addition to language use and interpretation. As obvious as
these steps may sound to the reader, the reality is that most
speech and language social treatment programs teach students to
focus almost exclusively on their social language production,
called 'conversational skills' when teaching students how to be
more appropriately social, often working with them seated around
therapy tables while practicing having conversations. The four
steps of communication strongly encourage us to recognize the
social communicative act as being synergistic, always involving the
first three steps, but not necessarily involving the fourth.
Step 1: Thinking about others and what they are thinking
about us
We think about who we are near or who we want to talk to. If we are
going to talk to someone, we consider what information we may
already know about this person or what information we can infer
based on the situation. For example, if you want to talk to the new
student in your class, you have to think about what you may know
about that student even if you have never met them before. For
example, I know they are new to the class, I know they are a
student, I know they live in my community; I know they have been in
previous school environments, etc.
Read the Rest of this Article on
our Blog
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Occupational
Therapy Corner: Why Touch is
so Important
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By: Susan N. Schriber Orloff,
OTR/L
Touch is part of everyday life. An average child of 4 feet tall and
about 50 pounds has about 1410 square inches/ 9.8 square feet of
skin. Each square inch of skin mediates the three major types of
receptors: touch, pressure and temperature. And each square inch
contains dozens of each type of these receptors. This makes skin a
huge sensory conduit to the central nervous system processing our
immediate environment as well as being our major alarm
system.
The most primitive of the receptors is light touch. It is the
feeling of a bug creeping on your leg or arm or a brush of light in
your visual field, and it is so distracting that it prohibits
attention to any other stimuli until the source of the tactile
irritation is resolved.
Pressured touch is very important in the learning the process. It
does not require vision, such as light touch does. Pressure allows
us to recognize what we are touching and what is doing the
touching. Think about the pencil in a child's hand for writing, or
knowing where your shoes are under the table without looking for
them. Our feet do the "looking". Teaching a child to "look" with
their hands may be one of the most important things they can be
taught. Automatic writing happens because we know what it should
feel like.
Please Read the Rest of this
Article on our Blog
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Pediatric Therapy Corner: The Neuropsychological Evaluation as
a Guide to Intervention
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By: By: Shahal Rozenblatt, Ph.D.,
Clinical Neuropsychologist
People are highly complex organisms whose problems are of equal
complexity. In order to effectively treat the problems with which
people present, we need to have a way of understanding the nature
of this complexity, breaking it down so that targeted solutions can
be implemented. The neuropsychological evaluation is one such
method. This article is meant to serve as an introduction to
neuropsychology and neuropsychological evaluations and how they can
be helpful to physical, occupational, and speech therapists in
developing and guiding interventions.
Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology where the focus is on
understanding brain-behavior relationships, using a variety of
tests that tap into multiple brain functions in order to gain
insight into a person's difficulties. Most clinicians who do this
type of work are licensed clinical psychologists with specialized
training in and understanding of brain-behavior relationships.
Unlike neuroimaging techniques, such as MRI and CT scans, that look
at structural defects (e.g., tumors), neuropsychology relies on
paper-and-pencil and computer based methods to evaluate how
specific areas of the brain perform their functions. The goal of a
neuropsychological evaluation is not necessarily to determine if a
brain injury or other neurological disorder is present, although
this certainly can be a component, but to delineate the impact that
such a condition can have on the individual's ability to function
in his or her environment. For children
Read the Rest of this Article on
our Blog
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| Q&A - Ask the Expert About Tummy
Time |
By: Pathways Awareness
Q: What are the benefits of tummy time on infant motor
development?
A: A policy statement published in 2005 by the American Academy of
Pediatrics encourages tummy time when an infant is awake and
observed as a means to enhance motor development.(1) Increased
tummy time is significant to the earlier attainment of milestones
such as rolling over, supported sitting, sitting alone, crawling,
and pulling to stand. Additionally, it helps in the development of
fine and gross motor skills, improved neck and head control, and
stronger back and shoulder muscles.
Further, a study published in Development Medicine and Child
Neurology found that healthy infants, born at term, who spent time
in prone (on the tummy) when awake, achieved developmental
milestones significantly earlier than those who did not or who
spent limited time in prone when awake in the first 6 months of
life. (2)
Q: Why is tummy time education more important than
ever?
A: In a national survey of 400 pediatric physical and occupational
therapists, two-thirds of those surveyed said they have seen an
increase in early motor delays in infants over the past six years.
Of therapists noting an increase in early motor delays, the vast
majority named lack of tummy time while awake as the top reason for
the increase (3). These results indicate that a considerable amount
of parental and professional education on tummy time is still
needed.
Read the Rest of this Article on
our Blog
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Focus on Bilingualism - Using Storybooks in Therapy
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By: Scott Prath, M.A., CCC-SLP,
Bilinguistics
Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, Bilinguistics
Kara Anderson, M. A., CCC-SLP, Bilinguistics
Many clinicians express frustration that there are not more
materials designed for working with a Spanish-speaking population.
A book is a great tool. Storybooks are beneficial to the work of
speech-language pathologists from both an educational and a
practical perspective. Book themes can be selected to allow
students to explore fantasies, learn more about the real world,
further students' knowledge about current classroom subjects, and
introduce new topics. Storybooks can be used with all ages and
cultures to address a wide range of goals, including articulation,
semantics, syntax, comprehension, pragmatics, and discourse
skills.
Books provide a structure for teaching concepts while keeping the
student engaged and interested. Story structure additionally
assists in retention and retrieval of classroom concepts
Read the Rest of this Article
Online on our Blog
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Guest Blogs This Week:
Easy Speech and Language Ideas, ITeach2Talk
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Case
Presentation - The Beauty of Imitation and an Update: By: Shareka
Bentham, SLT
This is my first of what I hope will be many updates on a
patient's progress in therapy. It's good for parents and
professionals to see the beauty of progress, to keep them
encouraged. I think it is very important therefore to share some
stories. Due to confidentiality and other ethical principles we
will call this patient Josh.
Josh is 5 years old and is Autistic. He is nonverbal, but he is so
communicative by any other nonverbal means. I have introduced PECS
with him and he is flying with it. He is one I wish I could video
as an example to other parents, as he is doing so well. We jumped
to symbol
Read the Rest of this
great post on our Blog
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A
Myriad of Materials - By: Heather
Greenwood
As any speech-language pathologist or SLP student knows, materials
that we use for therapy can be quite costly. During my online
adventures traveling through the world of speech therapy resources,
I have gathered a collection of ideas to share with you to help you
in acquiring free and low-cost materials for your materials
library.
Read the Rest of this Guest Post
on our Blog
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Worth Repeating
- Serving Students with
Hearing Loss in the Schools: Speech and Language Services for
Students in the Mainstream
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By: Chute, P. & Nevins, M. (2009,
September 22). The ASHA Leader.
Professionals should understand the relationship between a
child's language and chronological age when serving students with
hearing loss in the mainstream.The National Center on Physical
Activity and Disability
Read the Rest of this Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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| Also Worth
Repeating: Playing with Self
Esteem: The Importance of Social Skills |
By: Stephen Rothenberg, Psy.D
Calvin ( a fictional name) is 9 years old, creative and full of
great ideas. He is always making up games and wants the other kids
to play with him. Unfortunately, Calvin's game are so complex that
only he can understand what to do and he can't understand why the
others are reluctant to play with him.
Sharon is 13 years old and is really excited about going on a ski
trip with her school. When they arrive she is in such a rush to get
on the lift that she impulsively pushes ahead of the other kids.
She doesn't really understand why they are angry with her.
Charlie Brown (real name) always tries his best to be optimistic
and make friends but, due to his low opinion of himself and past
experiences of failure, he fails. A woman you know at the office is
a very nice person but she tends to always stand a little too close
(both to the men and women) and makes you somewhat uncomfortable.
You are speaking with someone on the phone and they only want to
tell you their news, neglecting to ask about what is happening in
your life.
All of the above are examples of unsuccessful social interactions.
But when do they become actual problems? This depends upon 2
factors.
Read the Rest of this Article
Through a Link on our Blog
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The PediaStaff Website - is "Not Just for
Job Searching Anymore"
|
If
you haven't been to the our website lately you are in for a treat.
Not only have we completely redesigned it and added a whole lot of
great information about our company, services and philosophy but we
are stuffing it jam packed with fantastic pediatric and school
based therapy resources for you and your staff to use
everyday.
There you will find links to resources, organizations and websites
on topics in pediatric speech, occupational and physical therapy
including dozens of articles and videos. Topics are organized by
therapy discipline and include Stuttering, Bilingualism, Autism,
Down Syndrome, Pediatric Stroke, Oral Motor Issues, Speech
Language Delay and much more. All articles and videos are
resident on our site. No abstracts, no fees.
We hope you enjoy it! It is still very much a work in progress,
but we think there is enough there to suggest that you check it out
at your earliest convenience.
Visit our Resources Pages
|
Weekly News, Videos, & More - Sign
up for Our Weekly Newsletter
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Have you signed up for our new and improved weekly newsletter
yet?
Formerly just a weekly bulletin of newest jobs with PediaStaff, we
have changed the format of our weekly newsletter bring you News,
Video and stories from the world of pediatric therapy compiled from
our daily internet research.
Check out our Archived Newsletters
and See What You've Missed!
Want to check it out? Click HERE to subscribe to our Weekly
Newsletter. The form will ask you for your email address and then
give you the option to sign up for the weekly edition.
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PediaStaff is not endorsing or implying agreement with the views or
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