What is Phonemic Awareness | Pediatric Therapy TV

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric speech therapist explains to our views what phonemic awareness is.

Watch our previous Webisode, when Elizabeth Galin, our academic specialist, explains how phonemic awareness is important as your child is getting ready to read

Today you will learn:

  • What are daily uses of phonemic awareness
  • How phonemic awareness develops as your child becomes older

Why It’s Important For A Baby Not To Skip Crawling | Pediatric Therapy TV

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric physical therapist shows how crawling is essential for an infant’s muscles and sensory input.

Read these useful tips on how to encourage your baby to crawl

In this video you will learn:

  • How crawling influences an infant’s muscles
  • What essential skills infants learn to master when crawling

3 Signs Your Child Has An Articulation Disorder | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric speech therapist discusses common red flags to look for in your child’s speech development.

Click here to read a blog that suggests articulation activities to practice at home


In this video you will learn:

  • When your child’s frustration with articulation means something more
  • How speech therapists check articulation based on age

Physical Activities to Get your Child Moving | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric physical therapist will explain creative ways to help your child get up and get active!

In this video you will learn:

  • What indoor games are best for encouraging physical activity with your child
  • What outdoor activities increase muscular activity
  • What gaming system is best for enhancing your child’s activity

Video Transcription:

Announcer: From Chicago’s leading experts in pediatrics to a worldwide
audience, this is Pediatric Therapy TV, where we provide experience and
innovation to maximize your child’s potential. Now you’re host, here’s
Robyn.

Robyn: Hello, and welcome to Pediatric Therapy TV. I’m your host Robyn
Ackerman, and today I’m standing here with Leida Van Oss, a
pediatric physical therapist. Leida, can you tell us some
physical activities that we can use to get our children
moving?

Leida: Sure. When you want to get your kid moving and active, it’s
really important that it’s something that’s fun to them. So
if they’re really interested in doing board games, there
are a couple different board games you can do, such as
Hullabaloo or I Can Do That by Cat in the Hat or Twister.
If they like to go outdoors, then do something like a
sport, like swimming or soccer, or if there’s snow on the
ground, you can build forts or go sledding. But it’s really
important to pick something that they’re going to be
interested in so that they get really active.

If they really like video games, there are a lot of good active video
games you can do, especially with the new system, the
Kinect. Things like Just Dance or Dance, Dance Revolution
are all really good games that incorporate the video game
aspect with being really active.

Robyn: All right. Well, thank you so much for those tips, and thank
you to our viewers, and remember, keep on blossoming.

Announcer: This has been Pediatric Therapy TV, where we bring peace of
mind to your family with the best in educational
programming. To subscribe to our broadcast, read our blogs,
or learn more, visit our website at LearnMore.me. That’s
LearnMore.me.

Best Time to Teach a Child a Second Language | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric speech therapist will explain useful strategies to use when teaching a second language to a child.

In this video you will learn:

  • When is the right time to teach your child a second language
  • Effective tactics to use when teaching your child a second language

Video Transcription:

Announcer: From Chicago’s leading experts in pediatrics to a worldwide
audience, this is Pediatric Therapy TV, where we provide
experience and innovation to maximize your child’s
potential. Now, your host, here’s Robyn.

Robyn: Hello, and welcome to Pediatric Therapy TV. I’m your host Robyn
Ackerman, and I’m standing here today with a Pediatric
Speech Pathologist, Katie Secrest. Katie, can you tell our
viewers when the best time to introduce a second language
is?

Katie: Sure. So, just like when you teach your child their native
language, you want to teach the child a second language as
early as you possibly can. The later in life, or the older
your child is, the more difficult it will be for them to
learn that second language. You’re also going to use
similar techniques when you’re teaching a second language,
just like you would their native language. You want to
model, repeat and expand, and use visuals when you can.

So, for instance, if I was teaching a child the word “ball”
in English, I would model and say, “Ball.” I would repeat
and expand, and say, “Red ball. My ball. Bounce ball,” and
then I would use a visual, just like I am here, using the
actual object.

Robyn: All right, well thank you so much, and thank you to our
viewers, and remember, keep on blossoming.

Announcer: This has been Pediatric Therapy TV, where we bring peace of
mind to your family with the best in educational
programming. To subscribe to our broadcast, read our blogs,
or learn more, visit our website at learnmore.me. That’s
learnmore.me.

Ways to Encourage a Baby to Sit Up | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric physical therapist will show us helpful ways to encourage a baby to sit up independently.

Read about useful tips to get your baby to roll

In this video you will learn:

  • How old your baby should be to sit up
  • Strategies to support your baby as they sit up

Video transcription:

Announcer: From Chicago’s leading experts in pediatrics to a worldwide
audience, this is Pediatric Therapy TV, where we provide
experience and innovation to maximize your child’s
potential. Now your host, here’s Robyn.

Robyn: Hello, and welcome to Pediatric Therapy TV. I’m your host Robyn
Ackerman, and I’m here today with Leida Van Oss, a
Pediatric Physical Therapist. Leida, can you tell us a
couple tips on how to get a child to start sitting up
independently?

Leida: Sure. So the first stage of sitting should be done by four
months of age, and this is called prop sitting. This is
when they support themselves on their own. So you want to
put a toy down by their feet, and then tilt them forward so
that they put their hands on the ground, and then that
should encourage them to support themselves on their hands.
She’s older than four months, so she doesn’t want to do it.

But then the next stage is this kind of sitting, where they
want to bring up their hands, and sit by themselves
independently. So if they’re not quite wanting to do that
yet, you can take their toy – there we go – and lift it up
in front of them, so that they want to look up and raise
their arms up. This will activate the core and back
muscles, which will help bring up their head and do more of
an independent sitting.

You want to make sure that you keep a hand behind their
body, so that in case they topple backwards, you can catch
them really quickly. Then, the last mature stage of sitting
are things like rotating and reaching out if they need some
support. So, again, you can use toys to have them turn to
the side or reach up, or reach far [inaudible 00:01:37].
Those are all things that are going to help encourage more
mature sitting skills.

Robyn: All right. Well, thank you so much, and thank you to our
viewers, and remember, keep on blossoming.

Announcer: This has been Pediatric Therapy TV, where we bring peace of
mind to your family with the best in educational
programming. To subscribe to our broadcast, read our blogs,
or learn more, visit our website at learnmore.me. That’s
learnmore.me.

Toe Walkers Part 2: When You Should Seek Help | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric physical therapist discusses the intervention needed for a toe walking child.  For more on Toe walking, read this blog.

To Watch Part 1 of the Toe Walking Webisode, click here.

In this video you will learn:

  • How soon a toddler needs therapy intervention for toe walking
  • What is the maximum age  a child should stop toe walking

 Video Transcription:

Announcer: From Chicago’s leading experts in pediatrics to a worldwide audience, this is Pediatric Therapy TV, where we provide experience and innovation to maximize your child’s potential. Now, your host, here’s Robyn.

Robyn: Hello and welcome to Pediatric Therapy TV. I’m your host, Robyn Ackerman. I’m stranding here today with pediatric physical therapist, Colleen Kearns. Colleen, when it comes to toe walking, when is intervention needed?

Colleen: Well, when it comes to toe walking, the earlier the intervention, the better, because toe walking can become such a strong habit in children. The longer that they do toe walk, the harder it is to break that habit. And then, also I mentioned before, when the muscles do become shorter, the more the child’s toe walking, the shorter the muscles will become. And then the longer that it goes, the harder it’s going to be to reverse that. So, if the child is over 2 years old and walking on the toes over 50% of the time, so the majority of the time that they’re walking, then it’s time to seek intervention.

Robyn: All right. Thank you so much, Colleen. Thank you to our viewers, and remember, keep on blossoming.

Announcer: This has been Pediatric Therapy TV, where we bring peace of mind to your family with the best in educational programming. To subscribe to our broadcast, read our blogs, or learn more, visit our website at LearnMore.me. That’s LearnMore.me.

3 Coping Strategies to Help your Stressful Teen | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric social worker provides some useful tips to help a stressful teen.

If you haven’t already, check out our previous episode with Ali, discussing depression in children

In this video you will learn:

  • The first steps to take when helping a stressful teen
  • How to approach a stressful teen
  • Specific strategies to best help your teen overcome verbal or nonverbal stress

How To Introduce 2 Words Into a Sentence Using Baby Sign Language | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s webisode, a pediatric speech language pathologist explains effective ways of introducing a second sign into a sentence when teaching your baby sign language.

If you haven’t already seen the previous Webisode, you can view it here 

In this video you will learn:

  • How to use sign language to teach variety of other signs and gestures
  • How to incorporate 2 signs in one sentence
  • What is the best resource out there for sign language

Toe Walkers Part 1: What are Reasons Children Toe Walk | Pediatric Therapy Tv

In today’s Webisode, a pediatric physical therapist explains why children may walk on their toes.

Learn more from this blog called “Is Toe Walking Normal?”

In this video you will learn:

  • How sensory input is related to toe walking
  • What is muscular dystrophy
  • What is idiopathic toe walking

Video Transcription:

Announcer: From Chicago’s leading experts in pediatrics to a worldwide audience, this is Pediatric Therapy TV, where we provide experience and innovation to maximize your child’s potential. Now, your host, here’s Robyn.

Robyn: Hello, and welcome to Pediatric Therapy TV. I’m your host, Robyn Ackerman, and I’m standing here today with Colleen Kearns, a Pediatric Physical Therapist. Colleen, can you give our viewers an explanation of why some children toe walk?

Colleen: Of course, Robyn. There are three main reasons why children may toe walk. The first one is related to sensory issues. Some children may actually be hypersensitive to certain textures on the floors that they are walking on, and the surfaces that they are walking on. So if that occurs, they may be more prone to walk on their toes to avoid those uncomfortable textures.

On the other hand, they may also be seeking extrasensory input. Maybe, some kids need a little bit more of the sensory input, and by walking on their toes they are locking their ankles and knees, and by doing that, they are actually getting more input from their joints. So that’s also why children with autism will walk on their toes, to get that extrasensory input.

The second main reason that children toe walk is due to an underlying diagnosis. Muscular dystrophy is a big one. That’s a genetic disorder where the muscle tissue is destroyed and it’s actually replaced by fat, and the calf muscles are often the first ones to be involved with that. So children with muscular dystrophy will toe walk in an effort to stabilize, due to the decreased strength. Any condition that results in an abnormal increase in muscle tone will also result in toe walking. A common one with that would be cerebral palsy.

The third reason why kids may toe walk is actually unknown. Some children, who don’t have an underlying diagnosis and don’t have sensory issues, just prefer to walk on their toes, and that’s what we call idiopathic toe walking, which means we just don’t know. Unfortunately, they can get into a very strong habit of doing it, and when they do that it results in a shortening of the muscles in their calf, and that actually makes it harder for the child to be able to get their foot flat on the ground. And when that happens, it’s kind of like a vicious cycle. They are more likely to be walking on their toes because they have a strong habit, then their muscles get shorter, then it’s harder for them to walk on their flat feet, so then they are even more prone to walking on their toes.

Robyn: All right. Well, thank you so much, and thank you to our viewers. And remember, keep on blossoming.

Announcer: This has been Pediatric Therapy TV, where we bring peace of mind to your family with the best in educational programming. To subscribe to our broadcast, read our blogs, or learn more, visit our website at learnmore.me. That’s Learnmore.me.