In today’s Webisode, a pediatric speech therapist explains to our views what phonemic awareness is.
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 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 today’s Webisode, a pediatric physical therapist will explain creative ways to help your child get up and get active!
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.
In today’s Webisode, a pediatric speech therapist will explain useful strategies to use when teaching a second language to a child.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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?”
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.