Bonnie's Blog

Facebook

Emerge is now on Facebook!  Please join us for up to date happenings and information.

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

School-Based and Clinic-Based Therapy: What’s the Difference?

Is there a difference?  Would your child ever need both?

 

When therapy is recommended for a child, the physician may often recommend that the parents pursue therapy through the school system.  Most people have heard that children can receive speech and occupational therapy through the schools at no charge.  And they sometimes can, but it comes with a lot of caveats. 

 

For the most part, public schools deliver speech or occupational therapy under the orders of the Individuals with Disabilities Act – Part B.  To qualify for services, children must meet the Act’s definition of being disabled.  The Act states that school-based therapy must focus only on goals that are related to a child’s ability to benefit from education.  Therefore, school-based therapy puts emphasis on functional oral and written communication skills.  Challenges that affect a child’s ability to function normally at home or in the broader community may be excluded from therapy.  For instance, speech impediments may not fall under the Individuals with Disabilities Act because a stutter or trouble forming Rs would not necessarily interfere with learning at school and sensory processing disorders, even though they can clearly impact a child's ability to learn and function in the school environment are often not addressed directly.  In fact most schools do not have the equipment required to effective treat sensory processing disorders.

 

On the other hand, clinic-based therapy takes a more global outlook on the well-being of the child and the family.  At Emerge – A Child’s Place, therapists will often coordinate with teachers, school-therapists, and physicians.  The children who receive support at Emerge are not limited to those fitting the federal government’s definition of disabled.  Emerge focuses first on defining the underlying foundations of each child’s challenges.  Subsequent therapy focuses on those foundations with goals that encompass success at home, school, public, and later adult life. 

 

Specific Differences

·         School-based therapy typically ends when the child no longer requires therapeutic intervention to perform school tasks.  Therapy at Emerge ends when a child has reached maximum potential or when the family can continue the therapy maintenance independently. 

·         When choosing a clinic-based therapy program, families can look for specific training, equipment, techniques, or certifications among their therapy providers. 

·         School-based therapy must limit itself to goals that relate directly to benefiting from school education.  Emerge can address those issues, plus Emerge is free to directly address issues of sensory processing, articulation, picky-eating, coordination, self-care, etc. 

·         With Emerge, productive therapy can begin before grade school and give a child the best possible head start on his or her individual school career.

·         Frequency, parental support, and parental involvement are all vitally important to most pediatric occupational and speech therapy plans.  With Emerge, parents and doctors have more say in the frequency of treatment and the goals of therapy.  Emerge gets parents highly involved in therapy and teaches parents ways to help and support their child’s development.

Supporting speech development with pictures

Photos and pictures provide great support for children as they develop their language skills, both receptive (understanding) and expressive (talking). 

1)  Put pictures of your child, family members, teachers, toys, activities, etc. into a child friendly photo album.  Use the photo album to look through with your child.

2)  Place pictures in magnetic photo holders and place the pictures on the refrigerator for easy access.

3)  Make small books about outings your child has been on, using pictures taken on the outing.  These books provide great support to help your child tell/show others about the outing.

4) Help your child make a placemat using stickers or small pictures of words in their vocabulary.  Cover the mat with clear contact paper.  These were made by 19 month old Jack with stickers representing words he knows.

Speech vs. Language

Kristine wrote:  "This really got me to thinking and comparing this to speech v. language. I have been personally struggling a lot with when to address the SPEECH issues and when to address communication issues- and can they be done concurrently....if, for example, a child has both autism (communication probs) and verbal apraxia (speech issues). Comparing it to your separating the composition from the writing- would this be the same as separating the speech and communication? And if so, what would be the logistics of that in therapy (and, more generally, in play, activities, school, etc...?"

Excellent point Kristine.  I think it is a very similar issue.  Content vs. clarity.  And I think the big picture is content (language/composition).  Without content, the clarity (articulation/handwriting) doesn't really matter.  So in day-to-day life I would focus primarily on language.  Creating an atmosphere of facilitation and acceptance for whatever communication the child produces.  And for children with limited communication, our demands/expectations regarding clarity may actually limit their communication efforts.  As their language develops, the focus can than shift to articulation.  What you can do is model back correct articulation without making demands on the child changing what they are saying.  So when the child says "tookie"  you can say "Oh you want a cookie.  Here is a cookie."   In speech therapy sessions, the therapist may focus on both, although not necessarily at the same time.
 

Halloween is Coming!

Have you smelled it?
Have you seen the colors start to change?
Have you felt the crisp morning air?

Fall weather is finally peeking into the Triangle and Halloween is soon to follow. Halloween often presents challenges for families of children with special needs. Whether or not you choose to celebrate or how you celebrate, the signs are everywhere and hard to escape. For children with sensory processing disorders, Halloween can be an overwhelming and/or overstimulating experience. You can find ways to lessen the impact, make the holiday fun and use the holiday as a fun way to develop and practice new skills. Here are some ideas:

1. Carve a pumpkin and have your child scoop out the inside. If this is too overwhelming, let your child use a spoon and/or wear gloves. Don't force if your child does not want to touch. As an alternative to carving, let your child hammer in lite brite type pegs available in kits at Target or for the younger child, use Mr. Potato Head decorating kits.

2. Check out this site: language ideas for lots of fun communication activities that are related to Halloween. Scroll about half way down the page.

3. Let your child make a spider snack. Spread peanut butter on a round cracker. Add eight pretzel legs sticking out to the sides. Top with a second cracker. Use peanut butter to adhere raisin eyes on top. (develops fine motor skills)

4. Try out costumes before the big day. Simple is generally better. Some children fare well in pajamas that portray a character (e.g. spider-man). The pajamas are soft and familiar. It is best to avoid masks (which also reduce a child's ability to see). Face paint is a great option for those who will tolerate it.

5. For old children, we have found Ed Emberley's Drawing Book of Weirdos very popular, esp. with older boys. Ed provides for step by step instructions on how to draw bats, black cats, witches, Frankenstein, etc.

6. For an alternative Halloween celebration, the Chapel Hill Parks & Recreation Dept. will be holding a Halloween party for children & youth with disabilities, their families, friends & neighbors on:
Wednesday, October 31st from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
at Homestead Community Center
600 homestead road, chapel hill, nc 27516

Costumes appreciated but not required
Pizza and soda served
Tricks & treats throughout the party
Games
face painting

RSVP by October 30th before 5:00 pm
Marian Kaslovsky
chapel hill parks & recreation
968-2787 ext. 217
or email: mkaslovsky@townofchapelhill.org