ECI Monthly news & updates December| 2019

Early Communicator Calendar

First Words Calendar

Expanding Language Calendar

Tried & True Tips from a Therapist

Traveling During the Holidays with Little Ones Larry Duron, OTR The holidays are a great time to spend quality time with family, but sometimes getting there may be a challenge. Especially if you will be traveling with small/young children. Remember when traveling with children or even other adults, patience is a virtue. Do your best to stay calm and collected no matter what may come up and rest assured something will come up. Here are some tips gleaned from many different articles that were reviewed that you may find helpful in getting to your destination safely and without feeling overwhelmed. Links for different articles are included at the end of these suggestions. If at all possible, prepare your children for the trip by telling them what to expect. Remember to live in the moment and enjoy yourself with your children. Helpful tips for travel: -          Ensure you vehicle is ready for a road trip if you are traveling by car. -          Make sure children that need to be in a car seat stay in their car seats. -          Allow enough time for taking care of unexpected stops, detours, or unexpected road conditions. -          Make sure you incorporate potty breaks. Ask if anyone needs to go before taking off and periodically during the trip. -          For small children pack plenty of diapers, wet wipes, small trash bags, and an extra outfit for your child and you, just in case. -          Pack snacks. Incorporate snacks that are not too messy and include water or something to drink. -          Don’t forget to pack medications if your kiddo is on meds. -          Consider letting your kiddo have a camera and they can take pictures that can be shared with you later.  -          We’ve all read the articles and we know that too much screen time from electronic devices is not a good thing, but don’t feel guilty if you make an exception for the trip. You can make the choices of shows to watch educational.    -          Play games with your children or provide ideas on games they can play with each other if you are going to be busy driving. Consider looking for animals (cows, horses, dogs, etc.), trucks or cars of specific colors, and see who sees the most of a particular thing. -          Consider packing a busy bag with different toys that your child can manipulate and entertain themselves with during the car ride. Some examples may be coloring books, fidget toys like spinners or Legos, and books to read for older children or picture books for younger children.  These are a few tips you can try while you travel. Review the linked articles listed below to get more helpful ideas. See the web sites below for related information/articles. Tips for Traveling with Baby Traveling with Kids: A Survival Guide Taking a Road Trip with Kids Tips for Traveling with Kids Best Fidget Toys for Kids Tips for a Road Trip with a Baby/Toddler GENIUS Life Hacks for Traveling with Kids

Spotlight Story-Easter Seals Bazaar Highlights By Amy Chavez Easter Seals first Bazaar and Sensory-Friendly Photography Event on November 2nd was a success! We want to express a HUGE amount of gratitude to all of our sponsors, vendors, the Easter Seals Family Engagement & Fundraising Focus Group, Easter Seals staff and all the volunteers who made this event come together beautifully! Over 400 people came out to enjoy free professional photographs, a vendor fair, concessions and a food truck. SeaWorld San Antonio brought some very special friends to interact with all of our guests. The Animal Ambassador team showed up with a Barred Owl, Bennett’s Wallaby, and Umbrella Cockatoo. Elmo and Cookie Monster took a break from the theme park to spend the day at Easter Seals posing for lots of pictures, playing ring toss and getting down with the DJ! There were craft stations set up for the children to create both fall and winter holiday themed keepsakes. The silent auction was full of amazing items to bid on, like the Whataburger for a Year basket, SeaWorld tickets complete with a GIANT plush Shamu, and a Backyard Camping package. There were also may great door prizes raffled off to lucky winners every 30 minutes. The weather was beautiful and the day was full of so much fun, fellowship and good cheer. We also raised over $2,000 for the Easter Seals ECI program! If you were able to come out and share in this special day, we thank you! We hope you had a good time and were able to create some wonderful memories. If you were unable to join us, we sure hope to see you next year! Bazaar Sponsors Cole Health diaABILITYSA Firefly Photography Gabriela Wilson Photograpgy Land Music MassMutual-Jeff McCracken SeaWorld San Antonio

Horizon Award Congratulations to Kathryn Crane, OTR, for winning the Horizon Award at the Texas Occupational Therapy Association (TOTA) conference in Austin in November. The Horizon Award is a statewide honor give to an occupational therapy practitioner who has been in the profession less than five years and has been recognized by his/her peers for exceptional contributions to the profession. Kathryn was nominated by Mary Deffenbaugh, OTR. We are very proud to have Kathryn as part of our Easter Seals team.

The Sonterra Tennis Club hosted an event called Toys for Tennis and chose Easter Seals and our Holiday Cheer program as the beneficiary charity! Thank you to the Sonterra Tennis Club and Robyn Paustian for the nomination.

H-E-B once again donated $1000 in gift cards for all of our Holiday Cheer families to use towards the purchase of holiday groceries. We are very grateful for their continued support of this program over the years.

Jennifer Green , mother of one of our enrolled ECI babies, donated several toys in excellent used condition for therapists to give to other ECI families who are in need of specific toys to assist with therapy goals.

H-E-B once again donated $1000 in gift cards for all of our Holiday Cheer families to use towards the purchase of holiday groceries. We are very grateful for their continued support of this program over the years.

Transitioning from ECI can be a stressful time for a family. Easterseals is considering hosting a resource fair in the spring that would showcase programs that are available in our community for children and families once the child turns three. This event would also highlight community resources that are available for recreation, socialization and support.

Would you be interested in attending a Resource Fair at Easterseals in the spring? Yes Select No Select

Reminders

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December Awareness Observations

Month-Long AIDS Constipation Universal Human Rights Month Days December 1 - World Aids Day December 3 - International Day of Persons with Disabilities  December 5 - International Volunteer Day for Economic and Social Development December 6 - National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women December 10 - Human Rights Day

2203 Babcock Road San Antonio, TX 78229 phone: 210.614.3911 fax: 210.616.0443 Constant Contact communication is made possible by the Korn Family in memory of James Korn who always had a very special place in his BIG heart for Easter Seals.