Info Spot 4 the Special Tot

Psylium will make breads spongy. Quinoa is a compl...

2012-04-26T09:17:22.250-07:00

Psylium will make breads spongy. Quinoa is a complete protein source and is apart of the Amaranth family. Bob's Red Mill flours is NOT suitable due to cross-contamination issues. Try to find a "top 8 free" flour brand. See if https://breadsfromanna.com/ can help you. I've not tried her breads, but I do appreciate her Allergy Awareness.

I would consider Quinoa flour or Buckwheat flour. ...

2012-04-26T09:12:35.713-07:00

I would consider Quinoa flour or Buckwheat flour. Both are Cereal/Soy free and Gluten free. Teff flour (cereal family) is gluten free as well. Hemp flour I thought existed. Mix with Xanthan gum as a binder.

I agree with you on that one.Without the help of a...

2012-04-13T10:58:20.770-07:00

I agree with you on that one.Without the help of a specialist, this could develop into a serious problem in later years.

prozac and pphn

Really fantastic post and i always like children p...

2012-03-06T21:56:44.138-08:00

Really fantastic post and i always like children post Baby Products

Baby Care Products

This is a great post! I think you've articulat...

2011-12-01T17:57:39.402-08:00

This is a great post! I think you've articulated very well why consultative services can be so much more beneficial than direct services. As a pediatric OT, I sometimes struggle with explaining this concept to parents, especially when they feel that the professional should be doing "hands-on" therapy. Thanks for sharing!
~Abby
http://pediatricotblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks for the post! We're working with a grea...

2011-06-17T21:50:22.347-07:00

Thanks for the post! We're working with a great PT who suggested Stride Rite shoes, but she wasn't sure about which other brands might work.

I spent 2 fruitless hours at the mall, yesterday, looking for anything that would fit my hypotonic 2 year old's feet + orthotics.

There are actually only two shoes at Stride Right that work for him (it's just now dawning on me that he must ALSO have a high instep) and they were completely out of stock!

I'll head out to Payless tomorrow am with my fingers crossed.

Thanks for taking the time to post on topics related to hypotonia!

Eve
in So Cal

Dogs can be best friends.I had also grown up with ...

2011-05-06T11:21:17.132-07:00

Dogs can be best friends.I had also grown up with 6 dogs my father loved to rear in my house and never felt bored and had a lovely childhood playing with them.plastic surgery

Hi Theresa. I use Kinesio Taping for this too. I...

2011-04-06T12:08:33.775-07:00

Hi Theresa. I use Kinesio Taping for this too. It really helps with some kids. :) I have some images on my site. http://ot4kids.co.uk/kinesio-taping/kinesio-tape-work I like the splints you mentioned as well as the McKie thumb splints. Munira

Hi. My 10 year old daughter writes with her left ...

2011-04-05T02:12:36.811-07:00

Hi. My 10 year old daughter writes with her left hand (untidy handwriting), yet does most other things like eating, cutting with scissors with her right hand. She can also write with her right hand, but finds it less easy than writing with her left. She's a bright child, but was starved of oxygen at birth and nearly died. I'm sure these traits that she has is something to do with this. Thankfully this won't affect her much in her life, it just affects the neatness of her handwriting and she is chastised for this by teachers who don't have any understanding of ambidextrous children.
Good article, thank you.
Rebecca

Thanks, you have a great blog here! I'm defini...

2011-03-27T10:29:55.501-07:00

Thanks, you have a great blog here! I'm definitely going to bookmark you!

I found a Autism App site. It pretty much covers tech. related topic.

Come and check it out if you get time.

Thank you Laura! I will check out your site!

2011-03-23T12:15:20.784-07:00

Thank you Laura! I will check out your site!

Hi, I am also an OT and love your blog! I have a w...

2011-03-10T20:44:06.835-08:00

Hi,
I am also an OT and love your blog! I have a website: Child Development Club and will be posting a link to your blog in a future blog entry I am compiling about W sitting.

Thanks,
Laura
www.childdevelopmentclub.org

Fidgets can be a very effective self-regulation to...

2011-03-04T08:42:06.891-08:00

Fidgets can be a very effective self-regulation tool! Use fidgets for calming or alerting, to promote focusing and attending, and to increase tactile awareness of fingers/hands.
special needs toys

Yes, Henry I do believe it helps with attention, t...

2011-02-13T10:54:45.352-08:00

Yes, Henry I do believe it helps with attention, that is if the child needs to move or "fidget" to focus. For those that don't have that need, then it is a distraction, but usually they will eventually put the item away. For some children who are sensory seekers, a "fidget" may not provide enough input, and in that case they need full body movement which gets a lot more difficult in tight spaces! But a "sensory diet" of proprioceptive activities helps such as pushing/pulling items, weighted vest/blanket, and other things that require whole body resistance. Thanks for your comment

Thanks for the information. Really it is very help...

2011-02-11T07:49:26.293-08:00

Thanks for the information. Really it is very helpful when you are out for medical check up,car drive etc. In some schools teachers recommend fidget toys as they are best stress reliever,help in developing attention. Do you think really it helps in developing attention, rather than distracting.

Thanks, I will contact you at your email!

2011-01-05T11:45:54.736-08:00

Thanks, I will contact you at your email!

I love this article and blog! Would you e-mail me ...

2010-12-20T21:15:44.199-08:00

I love this article and blog! Would you e-mail me at Kinderlady@gmail.com? Would love to add your story to a project for KI. Thank you!!

Thanks for your comment Michelle. I think that fid...

2010-11-03T18:03:13.437-07:00

Thanks for your comment Michelle. I think that fidgets can be distracting at school, if not for the child using them then maybe for the child sitting next to them. But if they are necessary for a particular child to self-regulate and participate in schoolwork, then I agree with using them. In my daughter's first grade classroom (public regular ed.), the kids are allowed to use fidgets at certain times of the day, including reading time in which they have cardboard "dividers" between each of them at this time, so I would think it wouldn't be too distracting. The school allows silly bands to be worn, which I think is like a fidget because most kids are fiddling with them. I told my daughter she could wear them to school but only if she can still pay attention, and when she came home after the first day of wearing them she said she won't wear the silly bands to school again because she was too distracted...wow, an honest six year old! Luckily, her teacher has only been teaching for a couple of years so she is open to new ideas and seems to be aware of sensory integration and ways to improve attention spans.

Thank you for the many great ideas for fidget toys...

2010-11-03T15:23:45.172-07:00

Thank you for the many great ideas for fidget toys! I am an occupational therapy graduate student and we have been familiarized with fidget toys for awhile now, but not to this extent! One of our professor's is very sensory-based and always supplied us students with a bin full of fidget toys during her 3 hour lecture. The fidget toys were very refreshing even for 20-22 year old students!
That was our first experience with fidget toys and recently we just finished a case on autism where fidget toys were brought back into perspective. Here we talked about allowing fidget toys into the classroom for all of the children to use for universal design and to facilitate inclusion for the child with autism. What are your thoughts about fidget toys during class in an elementary school setting? Do you think they would be too distracting while the teacher is giving a lesson? I can see where a chew tube at the end of a pencil would be Ok but to address the different learning styles and sensory preferences of children, some textures, sounds and visual appearances of certain fidget toys could be too distracting for the other children. Do you have any ideas or suggestions of appropriate fidget toys for situations like this?
I am also glad you shared your experience of fidget toys with your children because I think that this is a great tool for any parent to have in their tool box, whether it is for long car rides or waiting in long lines, etc. I am not a parent but have many younger cousins who could benefit from fidget toys when their attention spans are running low. Quiet fidget toys would also be great in church!

-Michele, OTS

The challenge for physical, occupational therapist...

2010-10-14T01:15:26.483-07:00

The challenge for physical, occupational therapists and the rehabilitation equipment industry is to find effective interventions and tools that will improve arm and hand function for patients with moderate to severe hand motor deficit and paresis.
CIMT is intensive repetition of functional tasks.For severe paresis it is difficult for the therapist to find intensive repetitive tasks that can be adapted to the patients’ active movement ability and remain challenging and motivating enough in order for the patient to do intensive repetitions of the task.
Therefore because of the inclusion criteria, alternative treatments to CIMT are needed which target more impaired subjects.
The HandTutor is a glove and dedicated rehabilaition software that uses biofeedback to encourage and motivate them during active hand exercises. The tasks can be customized to very severe paresis and assisted active techniques can also be used.

I teach peschoolers in Sunday School and appreciat...

2010-10-03T20:30:52.693-07:00

I teach peschoolers in Sunday School and appreciate your articles on special needs children. We have several with autism and SPD so we can use all the help we can get. Thanks for making me aware of October being Sensory Awareness Month.

I teach preschoolers in Sunday School and very muc...

2010-10-03T20:28:31.827-07:00

I teach preschoolers in Sunday School and very much appreciate your articles on special needs children. We have several children who are autistic and who have SPD. We need all the help we can get. Thanks for making me aware of October being Sensory Awareness month.

Thanks for sharing this! There's a number of ...

2010-08-20T19:47:58.157-07:00

Thanks for sharing this! There's a number of those theaters in south Florida; I'll pass that info on. BTW, many theaters have automatic toilets, so for kids with auditory sensitivity, the parents might want to bring a pack of post-its. Upon entering the stall, the parent sticks the post-it on the sensor so the toilet won't unexpectedly flush.

I am also a pediatric OT, and have the experience ...

2010-06-11T12:07:45.876-07:00

I am also a pediatric OT, and have the experience of my two children. My daughter was colicky only in the evenings, and it seemed to be worse on the days that she had more stimulation. I noticed that she stopped being colick at the same time that I saw her able to turn away from stimulation to keep from getting too stimulated. She has absolutely no sensory problems past that point. My son was not colicky at all, and he has some very mild not worth diagnosing sensory problems. Interesting. My OT website is http://www.therapyfunzone.com. I will check out yours too

We have feeding problems with my son who is visual...

2010-06-11T08:25:50.047-07:00

We have feeding problems with my son who is visually impaired with sensory problems, developmentally and gross motor delayed. We've found that the best way to get him eat a bottle is in a quiet, dark room. If there is anything else around to distract him especially noise, he will not eat.

BTW - I love your blog, I find your posts super informative and helpful, so thank you!