3 Signs of Childhood Depression | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, a licensed social worker gives us 3 signs to look out for when it comes to childhood depression.

Click here to read our popular blog outlining all symptoms and treatment of Childhood Depression

In this video you will learn:

  • What can cause a child to become depressed
  • Indications of depression in children

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 sitting here today with Ali Wein, a licensed professional social worker. Ali, can you give us three things to look out for inchildhood depression?

Ali: Absolutely. The main thing we really want to look for is any sort of deviation from typical behavior. So the first thing we want to note, are there any changes in eating or sleeping patterns? If your child usually wakes up really early in the morning and they fall asleep really early at night, and all of a sudden they’re having a harder time falling asleep at night and they’re requiring more hours of sleep per evening, this might be indicative of something greater going on underlyingly.

Additionally, any changes in the eating habits. Are they eating more? Are they eating less? Are they rapidly gaining and/or losing weight? Things that aren’t just sporadic, but you’re noticing changes in patterns of behavior. Another thing we want to look for is disinterest in previously enjoyed activities. So if your child really loves soccer and can’t wait for Tuesdays when they get to wake up in the morning and practice with their soccer team, all of a sudden they’re crying. They don’t want to go. They’re coming up with excuses because they just don’t want to go to soccer. That might be indicative of something else going on as well.

Finally, we also want to pay attention to any sort of change in personality, mood, and affect, affect being the way that we present ourselves. So if your child is typically really easygoing, calm, relaxed, and now all of a sudden they’re having trouble communicating, maybe, they’re a little bit more spaced out and more inattentive, they’re more easily to get angry and have outbursts, this might also be indicative of childhood depression.

Robyn: All right. Thank you so much for letting us know those three signs. 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.

How To Teach Your Child Pre-Writing Skills | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, a pediatric occupational therapist explains strategies she uses to teach pre-writing skills.

Click here to check out our previous Webisode, suggesting games for fine motor practice to develop handwriting skills.

In this video you will learn:

  • How an occupational therapist uses shapes to teach a child beginning to advanced handwriting
  • At what age a child should master all shapes for writing

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 standing here with Lindsay Miller, a Pediatric Occupational Therapist. Lindsay, can you explain to us, what are some exercises you can do with a child to help with pre-writing skills?

Lindsay: Sure. With some children who are too young to begin writing their letters, we work on practicing making particular shapes. These shapes include horizontal lines, vertical lines, circles, diagonal lines, crosses, Xs, squares, and triangles. So with younger kids, we would probably start off working with the simpler shapes, such as the horizontal and vertical lines, and also the circles.

Once they’ve mastered those, then we would move on to the more complex shapes, like the diagonal lines, the crosses, the Xs, the squares, and the triangles. We work on these shapes in particular, because these are the shapes that you generally use when you’re writing. So if children learn how to write their horizontal and vertical lines and their circles, then it helps them once they’ve begin to start writing their letters, because these are the shapes that we use for upper and lowercase letters. So generally, by age five a child should be able to make all of these shapes.

Robyn: Wow. That’s really great tips. Thank you so much, and thank you to our viewers. 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.

How To Teach The Word “More” In Baby Sign Language | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, a pediatric speech and language pathologist walks us through teaching baby sign language with an emphasis on the word “more”.

To understand the benefits of baby sign language, click here.

In this video you will learn:

  • The best ways and setting to teach your infant sign language
  • Ways to teach the sign “more” to your infant

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 Kate Connolly, a Pediatric
Speech and Language Pathologist. Kate, can you tell our viewers how to
teach baby sign language, and maybe, even show us one of the signs?

Kate: Sure. The best piece of advice I can give you for teaching sign
language is to pick words and environments that are very motivating to your
child, so toys that they really enjoy, activities they love, food they
love. Those are all going to be very motivating for the child, and they
will acquire the language a little bit better, and the sign associated with
it.

One of the earliest signs to talk about is the word more. And it’s two duck-
like fingers and then double tap them very quickly, more. And the best time
to teach this is during mealtimes, because what is more motivating than
food for your child. My advice would be that when your child is indicating
that they would like more of an item, so they’re looking at the
refrigerator, or they are looking at you, they’re pointing at the peaches
in your hand. You can do the double tap, “More? You want more peaches?
Let’s have more.”‘ And then immediately provide your child with the
desired item.

As they start to see that, make sure they are focused on you. They are not
looking away, they are not looking at the refrigerator, they need to be
seeing the sign and associating it with the word, more. Enunciate. Change
your volume, “More? More?” That’s really going to help attract the
attention of the child. Then you can help them do the sign for themselves.
Take their hands into a more pattern and have them do it. And slowly,
slowly, as they get comfortable with the sign, gradually allow them a
little bit more time to do it independently, and hopefully you’ll be
signing with your child in no time.

Robyn: All right. Thank you so much, and thank you to our viewers.
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 Books For Beginning Readers | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, an academic specialist introduces us to some of the best choices of books for children who are beginning to read.

To determine if your child is prepared to read, watch our previous Webisode

In this video you will learn:

  • What types of books are best to help children begin to read

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. You are watching Pediatric Therapy TV, and I’m your host
Robyn, Ackerman. Today I’m sitting here with an academic specialist,
Elizabeth Galin. Elizabeth, can you tell us some great beginning reading
books?

Elizabeth: Absolutely. One of the best beginning reading books is the Bob
series. These are books that come in a package of ten, and they range from
pre-readers all the way up through second grade, working on different
sounds and they become more advanced as you move through.

My second choice is the We Both Read series, and the We Both Read series
has a page for parents to read, and then a page for the children to read.
So the child’s page has a more simple word or sentence, and the parents’
page allows you to get a more detailed story. It’s a really fun family
read.

The Flippa Word series is great as well. They work on three different word
families throughout the book, really bright pictures that allow the
children to address the different sounds. Just a really fun author for kids
of all ages is Mo Willems. He has the Piggie and Elephant series, and he
also has Pigeons on the Bus, great family reads.

Lastly is High Fly Guy for older kids. These books address some of the
needs of early readers, but they also arrange it into chapters, so older
kids feel like they’re really making some progress.

Robyn: All right, well thank you so much, Elizabeth, for bringing these,
and thank you to our viewers for watching. 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.

Food Choices for a 1 Year Old | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, a pediatric registered dietitian provides food suggestions for a 1 year old.

In this video you will learn:

  • What model is used to determine food choices for a 1 year old
  • What food is best for a 1 year old to consume at different periods of the day
  • How many meals and snacks should a 1 year old consume in a day

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 standing here today with a Pediatric Registered Dietician,
Stephanie Wells. Stephanie, can you tell our viewers what are some food
choices that are preferable for a one-year-old?

Stephanie: Sure. When you’re making meals for a one-year-old, you want the
plate to reflect what’s called the Healthy Plate Model. So the plate should
be divided in half, where half of the plate has grains and protein, and the
other half has fruits and vegetables.

In terms of the grains, about half of the grains should be whole grains.
And in terms of the protein, it could be from a variety of sources, such as
meat, beans, eggs, tofu, and even cottage cheese and yogurt are good
sources of protein. The fruits and vegetables could be a variety of fresh,
frozen, dried, or cooked. One-year-olds should eat three meals and about
two snacks per day. They should drink whole milk with their meals and water
in between, and limit juice to zero to four ounces per day.

In terms of an example of a one day meal plan for a one-year-old, you could
offer at breakfast scrambled eggs, oatmeal or cereal and blueberries. A mid-
morning snack could be something just simple like crackers or pretzels. At
lunch you could offer grilled cheese, green beans, and cut up peaches. For
the mid-afternoon snack, you could do something like a rice cake or if they
like edamame, they could try that. Just watch out because it could be a
choking hazard. At dinner time you could offer something like spaghetti and
meatballs, and cooked carrots and apple sauce.

Robyn: All right. Well, thank you so much for even providing that menu as
well. 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.

Books to Encourage Speech in a 1 Year Old | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, a Pediatric Speech Pathologist introduces us to the best type of books to help encourage speech in a 1 year old.

For more on your baby’s speech read these blogs: “Speech Milestones from birth-1yr”  and “Encouraging Speech and Language Development in Infants and Toddlers” 

In this video you will learn:

  • What types of books are best for a one year old
  • How can the books help a baby’s speech and language
  • What content the books should contain

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 sitting here today with a Pediatric Speech and Language
Pathologist, Megan Grant. Megan, can you show us some books that help
encourage speech in a child who is a year old?

Megan: Sure. Being a parent, it can be completely overwhelming walking into
the children’s section of a library or a book store. These are two great
tips when searching for books for your little one. First and foremost, you
want to make sure the size is appropriate. They should be smaller in size
that is perfect for little hands to hold. And also make sure that they are
board books. Board books are essentially just thicker cardboard books with
heavier pages. Not only are they easier for the kids to turn, but that way
they won’t rip them. And kids this age like to chew on books from time to
time, so you definitely will not destroy the books. So the size is
definitely key.

The second thing to keep in mind is make sure that the books are
interactive. They should have lots of bright, colorful pictures and pages
for the kids to look at. They should be attractive to the kids, and
essentially, too, you want to look for books that have the touch and feel,
so different textures of books, and also lift-the-flap and peek-a-boo books
are perfect for kids this age, as that will keep their interest as well. So
introducing books early on is definitely key, and you’re going to help
instill a lifelong learning of reading for kids, and that’s a wonderful
thing.

Robyn: All right. Well, thank you so much, Megan, 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.

3 Signs Your Child May Have Dyslexia | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, an Academic Specialist explains ways to determine if your child has dyslexia.

Click here to learn more about dyslexia and find out more signs and characteristics to look for.

In this video you will learn:

  • What is dyslexia
  • How do children develop dyslexia
  • What are common signs in children with dyslexia

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 sitting here today with Elizabeth Galin [SP], an academic
specialist. Elizabeth, can you tell us three signs to look out for that a
child may suffer from dyslexia?

Elizabeth: Absolutely. And to start, dyslexia is a learning disability
characterized by an inability to decode words. So kids who have dyslexia
show trouble with spelling, with reading fluently, reading with accuracy.
It’s a deficit in the phonological component of language. So the first
thing that is a sign that your child may have dyslexia is a lack of
interest in reading. Most young children really enjoy reading and look
forward to that time but dyslexic kids, it’s difficult so they might run
away and hide. They’re not interested. Second is a lack of understanding
that letters make a sound, the phonological component again. So each letter
has an associated sound and that’s a really difficult association for
dyslexic kids to make. And lastly, dyslexic kids, when they begin to read
once they get a little bit older, they often make reading errors that
really just don’t even connect to the word at all. It’s different sounds.
Dyslexic kids often have a hard time sounding out words, and they have a
hard time with even the most basic of sight words. So if you’re seeing any
of those in your child, it might be worth a look.

Robyn: All right. Thank you so much, Elizabeth, 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.

What is Baby Sign and how it can help a Child’s Speech and Language Development | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, a Pediatric Speech Pathologist explains what Baby Sign Language is and how it can be helpful for an infant’s ability to speak, contributing to their overall communication.

Learn how sign language can help late talkers in our blog!

In this video you will learn:

  • How do babies use gestures to communicate
  • What skills do babies develop using gestures and signs
  • What age is appropriate to use gestures and signs with your infant

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 today I’m standing with a Pediatric Speech and Language
Pathologist, Kay Connolly. Kay, can you tell our viewers what exactly baby
sign language is?

Kay: Sure. It’s a very natural part of development. Gestures are absolutely
what we use when communicating. You’ll see your baby doing those very early
signs of pointing or lifting up their arms to be held, waving goodbye.
Those are all early signs, and baby sign language is teaching some of those
more common gestures that also have words associated with them. They can
use those as building communication, building vocabulary, building a means
of communication that isn’t necessarily verbal.

It’s very appropriate for those infants aged about 9 to 18 months. That’s
when you’re really starting to see those communications, those gestures,
and you start to see them using some vocabulary, too. It’s a really great
way to increase their overall vocabulary, and help them really communicate
effectively without using their voice, because your child will develop
their comprehension and their gross motor skills, like the pointing and the
gestures, earlier than they are actually ready to speak.

This is a great tool to use to help them communicate with you and describe
their wants and needs. As far as there’s some concerns that maybe, this
would replace verbal communication, and that’s absolutely not the case. In
fact, there’s some research supporting that this will actually increase
their overall vocabulary instead, which is really some nice research there.
That said, it should be used as a link between the gesture and the verbal
word. So when you’re teaching it, it should absolutely combine both and
really help your child to make that connection to increase their
vocabulary.

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

Announcer: This has been Pediatrics 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.

Using Games as Fine Motor Practice to Improve Handwriting | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, an Occupational Therapist introduces us to beneficial games and tools to aid efficiency of handwriting practice for children.  For more on your child’s handwriting, click here.

In this video you will learn:

  • How certain game pieces prepare your child for writing
  • Which games are recommended to use for handwriting practice
  • Useful tools to warm up hands for writing

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 today I’m standing here with a Pediatric Occupational
Therapist, Lindsay Miller. Lindsay, can you explain to us what are some
games that you can play with children to help with their fine motor and
handwriting?

Lindsay: Sure. Some of the games that I like to play with children involve
small pieces and small pegs, such as this piece right here. This is from a
game called HiHo CherryO, and you use it by holding your thumb and your
index finger and middle finger to hold onto the piece. So that kind of
mimics the way that you would hold a writing utensil, such as a pencil.
Other games include Lite-Brite and Battleship. This is a piece from Lite-
Brite, and, again, you can see that I’m holding it with my thumb, index,
and middle finger. So it’s kind of a way to warm up the hands, before we do
handwriting tasks.

Some other games that I like to use with children involve tongs or
children’s’ chopsticks or tweezers. These are tongs, and, again, you can
see that I’m using it with my thumb, index, and middle finger, which mimics
the way that you would hold a writing utensil. Some examples of games that
use tongs and tweezers would be Operation and Bed Bugs. So those are just
some of the ways that I like to warm up the hands before we do handwriting
tasks.

Robyn: All right. Thank you so much, Lindsay, 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.

What is Failure to Thrive and What Can Be Done About It? | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode, a Registered Dietitian discusses Failure to Thrive and how you can help.

In this video you will learn:

  • The causes of Failure to Thrive
  • Steps and measures to take when your child shows signs of Failure to Thrive
  • How a dietitian and a doctor can help when your child has Failure to Thrive

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 standing here today with a registered dietician, Stephanie
Wells. Stephanie, can you tell us what failure to thrive is and what can be
done about it?

Stephanie: Sure. Failure to thrive is diagnosed in children that are less
than two years old when their weight for length is less than the fifth
percentile on the growth chart and for kids that are over two years old, if
their BMI is less than the fifth percentile on the growth chart.

So in terms of what can be done, first a doctor and a registered dietician
can assess if there are any medical factors that are causing the failure to
thrive and then address those medical issues if that’s necessary. Second,
then a dietician can meet with the parent and the child and put together a
high calorie, high protein diet that includes three meals and two to three
snacks per day. Third, often these children need to be on some sort of a
high calorie, high protein formula or oral supplement beverage which the
dietician can recommend and get a prescription for, if needed. And then
from there, the dietician and doctor will closely monitor the child’s
weight and growth to make sure that they’re moving in the right direction
and meeting the goals that the dietician has made for the child.

Robyn: All right. Thank you, Stephanie, for that explanation 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.