New Group Sessions Starting Saturday, February 21 2015!

Save the date! We have lots of great Saturday groups including:

~ Mighty Movers - this group focuses on children with extra energy. This group has lots of organized movement and teamwork with a focus on attention, motor planning, and sensory processing all while having fun!

~ Mindful Movers - new this year! This group focuses on rhythmic and organized movement activities that target reflex integration. Patterned reflexes can persist past the developmental period in which they are useful. If this occurs, then motor planning, reading, writing, and attention and focus can be challenged. 

~ Food Investigators - This group targets the picky eater using a combination of sensory, emotional regulation and behavioral approaches this provides a non-threatening environment for children to explore new foods with peers.

If you would like more information or to sign up for one of our groups please contact us at 610-625-4404. Next session for all groups starts Saturday, February 21.

Sensory Activity of the Day: Changing out chairs for therapy balls!

I have been doing research reviews for our upcoming presentations and have come across a lot of research associated with therapy balls as an alternative to chairs in the classroom. Finding suggest that sitting on a therapy ball increases on task performance, improves attention and focus, and decreased complaint of back pain associated with sitting all day in the classroom. So how about trying it out for homework time or in the classroom?
Sitting on a therapy ball allows for self-modulation of the sensory system through movement. Rhythmic bouncing on the ball activates the core musculature for improved focus and attention. Having a position that has the hips at a greater angle (100-110 degrees) allows for weight bearing to occur through the feet instead of the pelvis decreasing the 'slouch' position or exaggeration of the c curvature of the spine. By opening up the diaphragm for improved respiratory flow.

Sensory Processing and the Classroom

Bethlehem Pediatric Therapy Services will be presenting Sensory Processing and the Classroom continuing education course on October 7th due to an overwhelming response to the September education program.
This course discusses the typical development of sensory processing skills throughout the lifespan. This course will present research supporting the use of multisensory strategies and movement in the classroom to improve academic performance. The course instructions will have hands-on activities for the participants to try and discuss modification of activities for your specific student population and need.

About the Presenters:
Jen Doyle, MA OTR/L

has been practicing in pediatrics for 13 years. She is certified in Sensory Integration (SIPT) and Neurodevelopmental Treatment (NDT). She is trained in the Listening Program, Interactive Metronome and has completed her level 1 mentorship withLucy Jane Miller.

Karen Gualtieri, MS OTR/L

}has been practicing in pediatrics for10 years and is training in DIR/Floortime. She is certified in the Listening Program, Interactive Metronome, Therapeutic Listening and Handwriting Without Tears.

Learning Objectives:

• describe fundamentals of sensory processing development of the typical child
• have a basic understanding of the impact of sensory development on social and emotional development
• identify and implement multisensory strategies within the classroom setting to improve attention, focus, and academic success for all student

We look forward to seeing you there. Certificates of participation will be provided for all attendants.

Activities for Writing Readiness

If your child has started back to school, you that getting back into the school routine can be difficult. This can also translate to difficulties with activities that weren't practiced much over the summer such as writing. Here are some activities to get your school aged child back on track after a summer off or help your kindergartner get ready for a successful school year.

Weightbearing through hands and arms wakes up muscles for writing readiness and engages core muscle groups for attention and focus. Some activities to try:

• bear walks (from standing place hands on floor. With weight on arms, move forward. When your child masters moving forward, have them try it backward or with eyes closed.)
• crab walks (from seated position, place hands and feet on the floor and lift your bottom off the floor. After your child masters the movement, try crab walk races or games of crab soccer - remember, no hands!)
• Tug or war (you can use a sheet or blanket if a rope is not available. To make this activity more challenging, try it on an uneven surface such as piles of pillows or blankets. Just remember to have a soft landing zone in case you fall)
• Wall push ups, chair push ups, or desk push ups can also be used in a classroom setting where space is limited.
• Pushing hands together at midline or finger push ups can also be used in a classroom setting

Manipulating putty or playdough can also be helpful for writing readiness. Pulling and pushing the dough helps with finger strength and in hand manipulation skills as well as bilateral coordination.

Activities that promote thumb opposition and opening of webspace are particularly helpful for children with weak pencil grasps. Some activities to try include:

• Different shape hole punches (you want to make sure that your child has enough strength to operate the hole punch with one hand, maintaining thumb on top and pushing down.)
• Clothespin activities such as matching letters and shapes or writing words by hanging letters on a string or clipping to the edge of a box (make sure your child maintains his thumb on top and thumb meets the pad of the first finger)
• Beading activities
• Perler beads
• Using tongs to pick up progressively smaller pom poms, beads, or pieces of paper (make sure child has pinky side down with chopsticks or tongs on top of hand with action coming from thumb and first 2 fingers)
• small stickers (removing small stickers from a sticker sheet is a great bilateral coordination activity)

For pre-writing, having the right utensil is critical. Little pencils, crayons, and chalk pieces work best for little hands. Some activities to try include:

• chalk bit (broken pieces of chalk on a chalkboard or black construction paper)
• 'writing' with small sponge bits on a chalk board with water or painting a picture with small sponge bits 
• Using eye droppers for art projects or for measuring in science
• Using broken crayon bits for coloring

If you have activities that you use in your classroom or at home to prepare your student for writing in the new school year let me know! These are just a few of the ideas that I use in my practice and I am always looking for new activities to motivate my students.

  

Tips for Helping Your Left Handed Writer Succeed

As an occupational therapist, I see many children with fine motor and handwriting difficulties. Many of these children are left hand dominant and being left handed myself, I wanted to provide some tips for helping your left handed student in the classroom. Only 8-10 percent of the general population is left handed. The classroom is primarily setup for right handed learners and chances are, your left handed student is going to be taught by a right handed teacher. Here are some tips in helping the left handed students with writing success.

• Provide an additional copy of a worksheet or the writing stimulus to be copied on the right side of the paper - often times, worksheets are setup with the stimulus on the left. If a student is left handed, his or her hand covers the question they are to answer or the word they are to copy increasing writing time, because they have to lift up their hand or taxing working memory because they need to hold the information in their brain as opposed to being able to visual scan the stimulus as needed. This is particularly true with new spelling words, a question that requires multiple answers, or when putting information in sequence.

• Work backward through a notebook, provide loose-leaf paper for assignments, or copy of workbook pages - a left handed writer often has their hand resting on the binding of the book when trying to write. This can be extremely difficult for a novice writer. A flat surface is an easier surface to write on. A single sheet of paper is also easier to grade pencil pressure. A single sheet of paper also allows the left handed writer to turn their paper as needed.

• Provide adequate arm support for writing - in higher grades, desks and chairs are often attached with the arm support on the right side and entry into the desk on the left. Without adequate arm support during writing, the left handed writer may become fatigued more quickly. 

• Seat left handed writers next to each other or seat a left handed writer at the end of a row if you seat students at tables for written work decreasing the opportunity for bumping elbows with a neighbor

• Demonstrate writing and fine motor tasks as the left handed student would perform them - left handed students are in the minority and as such, things are often demonstrated from a right handed perspective. When learning a new task, this perspective can be frustrating. Instead of mirroring the task, the left handed student needs to utilize cognitive resources to reorganize the motor plan in their head and then proceed with the task.

If you have any questions or additional suggestions that have helped left handed students in your classroom please let me know and I would be happy to post them. Have a great return to school!!

Correlation Found between Handwriting and High Scores

Here is more food for thought from CNN on the handwriting debate. Follow the link below. Any thoughts or comments would be welcome! Connecting the Dots

Child Development, Movement, and Academic Learning

If we consider our ancestors and the evolution of our brain, we are descendants of nomadic people spending the majority of the time hunting and gathering with the majority of their time spent outdoors. Children played outside and learned through social play interactions and imitation of older children and adults.
Now, I am sure you are going to question what this has to with children in today's society. Our brains are still 'wired' to learn through movement which is evident in a child's achievement of developmental milestones. An infant child turns his head to localize the sound of his mother's voice. As a baby rolls onto his belly and activates his spinal muscles and coordinates muscles on both sides of the neck to extend symmetrically to maintain his head in midline. As he pushes his chest off of the ground and comes up onto hands and knees, he has an opportunity to learn more about his surrounding environment. As he rocks back and forth he provides his joints with information about where his body ends and the external environment begins. He can now free his hands and move into a sitting position to manipulate objects at midline. His eyes converge together to examine toys and he will bring objects to his mouth to learn more about them. As he starts to crawl, he will need to pair the left and ride sides of his body instead of pairing top and bottom when he was rocking (children that have difficulty separating the left and right side will often attempt crawling but will end up 'bunny hopping'. These children often abandon crawling at an early age). The external environment (mom calling his name, a toy lying just out of reach, a sibling running into the other room) will encourage baby to crawl. He will learn to diverge and converge his eyes as he crawls toward objects. He will then start to pull up to stand, cruise along furniture and other objects in the environment, and then walk. This upright position will free up the child's hands for more opportunities for object manipulation and will provide a more detailed perspective to the auditory and visual systems.
Unfortunately, more and more children are not going through these stages within the developmental norms that were established 15-20 years ago. There are many factors that contribute to this latency in development, however, I am going to focus on the environmental factors that can be changed for the sake of this blog. These factors include seats that prop children up in seated positions before their musculature is able to support their body, play yards, bouncy seats, exersaucers, car seats that snap in and out of the car, videos designed to keep baby occupied and quiet. Young children are being tuned out with computers, tablets, smartphones, and video games. This type of play does not promote social engagement, social pragmatics, or social problem solving leading to difficulties with a child's overall social interaction with other children. Video games do not provide the same movements required for fine motor manipulation and development of the fine hand musculature.
Babies learn through movement and exploration of the environment. Baby needs lots of opportunity for tummy time. By getting down on the floor with your child to you motivate them, encourage them, and provide opportunities for engagement, communication, and play. Children need to be given the opportunity to run, jump,climb, and swinging to continue development of body awareness and bilateral coordination and coordinate the sensory system.

Implications for the Classroom:

• Under development of spinal musculature makes it difficult for a student to sit still in their seat, stand still in line, or do written work without stabilizing themselves on the desk (leaning) or wrapping legs around their chair
• Poor coordination between eye convergence and divergence makes copying long passages from the board difficult
• poor sound localization, habituation of background noise, tuning in to salient auditory information (the teacher speaking) leads to difficulty following directions and completing tasks
• Poor development of hand musculature leads to difficulty with self-help skills such as tying shoes, snapping snaps, buttoning, and zipping. This can also lead to problems with drawing and writing in grade school.