I assume as a parent of a child with special needs you already know about the importance of gross motor skill development for helping just about any and every developmental issue your child may have. Perhaps you know it by different references, such as physical or occupational therapy for improving basic body skills and coordination, or strengthening neuromuscular pathways, or stimulating neurodevelopmental programs. In the end, it means some kind of regular therapy program, often once or twice a week with a trained therapist and then daily interventions on your part to maintain progress.
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Danette M. Schott has 2277 followers
I assume as a parent of a child with special needs you already know about the importance of gross motor skill development for helping just about any and every developmental issue your child may have. Perhaps you know it by different references, such as physical or occupational therapy for improving basic body skills and coordination, or strengthening neuromuscular pathways, or stimulating neurodevelopmental programs. In the end, it means some kind of regular therapy program, often once or twice a week with a trained therapist and then daily interventions on your part to maintain progress.
What is Pajaggle? On their site the creators provide the following definition:
“Pajaggle™ (pa-jag-gul). The game that thinks it’s a puzzle. Pajaggle is an ever-growing collection of challenging games of fun made in America that brings people together regardless of age.“
But this definition barely scratches the surface.
Surprisingly, over three million children in the United States have some sort of specific learning disability or special need. Schools are mandated by a federal law called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to provide specialized services to children who qualify for special education. Every day, I receive an email from a parent asking how they can get their child an Individualized Education Program (IEP) or they are wondering why their child isn’t receiving special help. Their questions make me realize how difficult it is to understand special education and the IEP process. So, let’s start at the beginning. What exactly is special education?
Welcome to S-O-S Best of the Best (BoB), Edition 12. It’s hard to believe that this is the twelfth month that a collection of bloggers have come together to write on one topic pertaining to “invisible” special needs. These needs include ADHD, high-functioning autism, Asperger’s, anxiety, Sensory Processing Disorder, and mental illness.
For many of us the Fall and Winter holidays are filled with more activity than usual. Families visiting, holiday events and gatherings are added on top of the regular work, family and personal obligations.
While the approaching holiday season is one of Family, Gratitude and Giving, for many it means pressure, stressful schedules, situations and people to manage. In an informal online poll, more than 80% of the participants said that the holiday season is ‘somewhat’ to ‘very’ stressful. Doing, eating, drinking, spending too much, and even too much togetherness can leave us feeling drained, cranky and stressed instead of connected, cared for and uplifted.
It’s 11 pm and you’ve gone into your child’s room for the 5th time. You stay calm, you rub his back AGAIN, tell him to look at the stars painted on the ceiling and to just try to sleep. After nights of yelling, punishing, bribing and begging you realize in your frustration that he is not trying to defy you, he’s not just trying to make you crazy, HE JUST CAN’T FALL ASLEEP!
What’s up with that? Well, for kids who have ADHD, sleep disorders are not uncommon. In fact, studies have shown that between 25% and 50% of children and adolescents diagnosed with ADHD have clinically reported sleep problems. This can include difficulty falling asleep, staying asleep, and waking up from sleep.
This past weekend, I attended a conference for Speech-Language Pathologists here in British Columbia. I was fortunate to learn about several things, but the idea of Mindfulness, a new idea for me, was a topic that really stuck out in my mind, because I found that I could apply it to both clientele and to aspects of my own life.
What is Mindfulness?
The definition of mindfulness is “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgementally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994)
My pediatrician gave me the phone number for Early Intervention and I didn’t hesitate to call. They set up two appointments, one was a basic intake that was just paperwork and the other was an evaluation to see if my son qualified for services.
The differences between my son and the other children were becoming more and more apparent the older he got. The day of his evaluation, we spent the morning in the toddler class at the local library. Toddler class isn’t anything fancy. There are books and songs and nothing lasts longer than a couple minutes at a time. But it was obvious we were different. My son wouldn’t take a scarf to twirl. He wouldn’t sit through a book. He didn’t chatter and play.
Anxiety (also called angst or worry) is a psychological and physiological state characterized by somatic, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral components. The root meaning of the word anxiety is ‘to vex or trouble‘; in either presence or absence of psychological stress, anxiety can create feelings of fear, worry, uneasiness, and dread. Anxiety is considered to be a normal reaction to a stressor. It may help someone to deal with a difficult situation by prompting them to cope with it. When anxiety becomes excessive, it may fall under the classification of an anxiety disorder. Taken from Wikipedia
Perhaps your child has a speech problem; not one of those cute “developmental” speech errors that will go away on its own, but errors that persist and make him hard to understand. If so, you have probably considered speech therapy. Teaching him to pronounce his sounds correctly will fix everything…or will it? Would you be surprised to know that children with speech disorders are at risk for difficulty in learning to read?
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