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Summer Camps and Programs

The staff at Emerge has been busy planning our summer programs.  Summer is a wonderful time to offer your child an intensive therapy experience.  We offer a wide variety of programs designed to enrich children's lives and develop new skills.  The fliers will soon be up on the website, but in the meantime, please feel free to call or email us and we will happily send you information about any programs that you might be interested in.

Capable Kindergartners - Developing fine motor skills through fun art activities

Ready Writers - Developing fine motor and handwriting skills for rising 1st and 2nd graders

Preschool Power - Developing social and language skills

Staying Cool - Helping children develop strategies to reduce anxiety

How Does Your Engine Run - Helping children learn regulation strategies

Recipe for Fun - Developing fine motor, social and language skills while having fun cooking

Horse Sense - One week day camp integrating horses and other sensory-motor strategies

Fine Motor Skills in Preschoolers

The development of fine motor skills is an important foundation for future success in school.  In an article published in the American Family Physician, Dr. Hamilton makes two very interesting obsevations about the identification of motor skill deficits in young children.  One, is that a diagnosis of difficulties is often missed because many parents do not recognize it as a serious and modifiable problem.  And second, when parents do present concerns to their physicians, it is common for the physiciams to reassure the parents that their child will outgrow any clumsiness or coordination challenges.  Young children with persistant difficulties with fine motor skills display higher rates of educational, emotional and social problems in adolescence.

Occupational therapy can play an important role in helping young children develop the fine and visual motor skills that they need to meet the demands of school.  Early intervention typically results in a shorter period of therapy and reduces the impact on a child's self esteem.  At Emerge, intervention can begin long before kindergarten if a child is experiencing delays.  Therapy can signficantly improve a child's skills and provide parents with lots of ideas for promoting skill development at home.

By age 2: Scribbles; turns pages 1 at a time; feeds self with spoon and fork

By age 3:  Copies circle and cross; holds pencil with thumb and 1 or 2 fingers; cuts with scissors

By age 4:  Copies a square; cuts out simple shapes; skillful with eating utensils; mature pencil grip

By age 5:  Clear hand preference (often much earlier); draws a variety of recognizable pictures; copies a triangle, writes name, colors within the lines.

If you have a child entering kindergarten who has not mastered the 4 and 5 year old level skills, consider enrolling them in Emerge's Capable Kindergarten summer program. (Call 928-0204).

What is Therapeutic Listening (and can it help my child)?

Therapeutic Listening®  combines a sound-based intervention with a sensory diet to impact a child's sensory processing and behavioral organization. Therapeutic Listening can impact sensory modulation, attention, behavior, postural organization, and speech and language difficulties. Therapeutic Listening employs electronically altered compact discs that are used in a home program, providing parents the opportunity to significantly enhance their child's sensory program on a daily basis  Ceck out the  Vital Links website for more detailed information, including a four page parent handout.

At Emerge, we have found that therapy outcomes are improved and the length of time in therapy is often reduced when the child is on a consistant Therapeutic Listening program.  Therapeutic Listening is started during therapy sessions and then if it seems to be a good match for the child, headphones and CD can be loaned for a two week trial.  After that, parents puchase the headphones and join the Emerge Therapeutic Listening library so that they can take advantage of a wide array of CDs.  Each CD provides a somewhat different impact on the nervous system, depending on the style of music and instrumentation.

Case one:  A seven year old boy who had been receiving occupational therapy for four months prior to starting Therapeutic Listening.  Each week his teacher sent home a checklist of negative behaviors this child demonstrated during the school week.  Typically it included 16-18 negative checks.  After one week of therapeutic listening (and without informing the teacher), this child brought home a report with only 3 negative checks.

Case two:  A four year old boy who had severe auditory defensiveness, to the point where he would vomit when a fire drill occured at school.  Additionally he would become so overwhelmed at school, that he would growl at other children and attempt to bite them.  After a few weeks of Therapeutic Listening, he was able to just cover his ears in response to the fire drill and was able to appropriately interact with his classmates.

Interactive Metronome

Summer is a great time to undertake an Interactive Metronome® (IM) program for your child.  IM is a neuro-motor assessment & treatment tool used in therapy to improve the neurological processes of motor planning,sequencing, rhythm and timing. IM ‘trains the brain’ to plan, sequence and process information more effectively through repetition of interactive exercises.

The IM program provides a structured, goal-oriented process that challenges the child to synchronize a range of hand and foot exercises to a precise computer-generated reference tone heard through headphones. The child attempts to match the rhythmic beat with repetitive motor actions. An auditory-visual guidance system provides immediate feedback measured in milliseconds, and a score is provided.

The IM program has been shown to produce significant results in children and adults with a wide range of physical and cognitive difficulties including ADHD. The March/April 2001 issue of the American Journal of Occupational Therapy identified five core areas of statistically significant improvements gained through the IM training program:

• Attention and Focus
• Motor Control and Coordination
• Language Processing
• Reading and Math Fluency
• Ability to Regulate Aggression / Impulsivity

Ongoing studies continue to validate correlations between Interactive Metronome and academic achievement in mathematics, language, reading and attention to task. The IM program has also proven to be a powerful tool for improving both the physical and mental aspects of athletic and musical performance.  IM is useful not only with children (or adults) experiencing specific attention, learning or motor challenges, but also as a tool for improving skills in typically developing children. 

An occupational therapist on our national list serve shared this experience with Interactive Metronome: "I have had two students who had Interactive Metronome through a private occupational therapy clinic; both are first graders. The mother of the boy said it "turned her son's life around", and he is doing much better academically. The teacher of the girl is seeing academic improvement, as well as the ability to sit and focus for longer periods of time. I also work with a PT whose daughter was having difficulty with motor
skills, and struggling academically. She completed a course of IM and now works at grade level, and began ice skating during the winter."

While Emerge offers this program year-round, the summer is often the best time to do it, due to the program's intensity.  It is typically a 15 session program completed over the course of 5 weeks.  While it can sometimes be adapted for use with younger children, it is typically used with children aged 7 and above.  If you are interested in exploring Interactive Metronome as an option for your child, please call Michelle @ 489-7333.

Food School

Are you frustrated by your child's limited food repertoire?

Do you want your child to eat a more varied, healthy diet?

Emerge can help!

In addition to our preschool program, Emerge is very excited to offer FOOD SCHOOL.  In Food School therapists work with small groups of children, ages 5 year olds and up using the Toomey SOS (Sensory-Oral-Sequential) Approach in order to:

• expand a child’s food repertoire,
• develop socially acceptable behaviors around food,
• correct sensory misperceptions and damaging self-esteem issues related to food.

The focus of these groups will be to use kid-friendly “scientific approach” to “exploring food”. Children will learn to engage with and explore food in a comfortable and sensory supportive environment. The groups will also incorporate “lessons” to facilitate a child’s understanding of nutrition and the process of eating (both anatomical and physiological).

Please check with your child's therapist or call 489-7333 if you would like more information or want to register your child.  new preschool and school age groups will be starting on June 16th.

YOGA

Did you know that Emerge is now offering Yoga with both small group and individual sessions?  We are fortunate to have Michelle Byers, a certified Kids Yoga instructor with us.  Michelle's classes revolve around a theme, generally selected by the children in the group.

 
As the children explore the theme, stretching their imaginations, they also move through a variety of Yoga poses and learn deep breathing and relaxation techniques. Many children involved in speech and/or occupational therapy supplement their therapy by participating in yoga, but it is also open to children who are not receiving therapy.