Helping Your Child Who Is Not Social | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In today’s Webisode below, our Pediatric Neuropsychologist answers a question from a viewer on what to do when a child does not know how to make friends.

In This Video You Will Learn:

  • What to do when your child is not social
  • How to investigate the reasons
  • How to intervene on your child’s behalf

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. I am Robyn Ackerman with Pediatric Therapy TV. I am standing here today with Dr. Stasi. In today’s segment we will be answering questions from our viewers. Charlie has given us a question from Kansas City. Charlie asks, “My 4-year-old son is having a hard time making friends in school. What can I do to help him?”

Dr. Stasi: Thank you. That’s a great question. What we often think about in school is the child’s academic needs and the child’s behavioral concerns. We often neglect the social emotional concerns of the child. It is just as vital to identify these concerns as the academics and the behavioral functioning. What I really recommend first, if a child is struggling in the social realm, is to make an evaluation to determine why. Is it some underlying construct that this child has, an internal deficit with interacting with another child? Is it anxiety, that they are afraid to approach others? Or is it something else? Already being teased or bullied?

Once you can identify the reason for the behavior, then we can intervene for this child to develop what is going to be appropriate. It has to be individually. We cannot just create a plan for any child to improve his or her social functioning. It has to be based on specific needs. It works as a team, then, working with the school social worker, the school psychologist, the teacher, and also outside advocates that you have, be it a child’s therapist or a neuropsychologist. We really want to intervene for the child to determine what is going on and then where to go from here.

So, I think, Charlie, the answer to your question is that we can’t answer that question. We need to figure out why. We need to determine what’s going on. Then we have the basics to really intervene and make sure that this child succeeds socially.

Robyn: Thank you, Dr. Stasi, and thank you, Charlie. 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.

What Happens If Torticollis Goes Untreated | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In todays Pediatric Therapy Tv Webisode, a Pediatric Physical Therapist at North Shore Pediatric Therapy explains what happens if the condition of Torticollis goes untreated.

Click here to read more about Torticollis

How To Improve Handwriting in Children Part 1 | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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In part 1 of 2, a Pediatric Occupational Therapist shows all the ways to prepare a child for optimum handwriting skills.

In This Video You Will Learn:

  • How to wake up a child’s hands prior to writing
  • How to slow a child’s hands down
  • Which materials are best for a child’s handwriting

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 am your host, Robyn Ackerman. Today I am standing with occupational therapist Deborah Michael. Deborah is going to show us how to work with a child on handwriting.

Deborah: The first thing that we’re going to do is wake up your hands. Before we start writing, we have to wake up your hands because they could be sleepy and tired. Go ahead and put that Theraputty on the table. This is called Theraputty, Levi. What does it feel like?

Levi: Gooey.

Deborah: Gooey and hard. It exercises your fingers. Go ahead and make holes in there and wake those fingers up. Roll it like a snake. Do all kinds of stuff with it. This comes in all different kinds of hardness. You can get it a little softer, a little harder, depending on how old you are and how strong you are. That’s how we wake up your fingers.

You can wake up your fingers with Theraputty, you can do some pushups, you can do some moving around of your hands, you can do some pegs on the peg board. You can do all kinds of stuff to wake up your hands.

Now that your hands are awake, we are going to start to write. Now how does your engine feel? How does your body feel right now, Levi? Does it feel just right, fast, slow? A little bit fast, right?

Levi: Yeah.

Deborah: There are a couple of things that you like to do when your engine is fast in order to be able to sit down and write. One thing we can do is we have this weighted, heavy blanket. We can put this on you and it will give you a little weight to hold you down. We also have a vest that we could use for that.

Another thing we could do if you don’t want the vest, and we can only use these for 20 minutes, once you’re done with that, we can put you on a ball or another kind of ball that’s called a peanut. That is so that you’re constantly moving around a little bit, and kids can sit still better. Right? You’ve used these before? All right. We’re just going to leave that right next to you.

Now we are going to write. Levi, you write very fast and a little bit messy because your engine is going so fast. We already tried to slow you down a little bit. Some other ways that we try to slow you down could be, first of all, using a timer so that you have to write until the timer stops so that you don’t write too fast. Correct?

Levi: Yeah.

Deborah: And then we have pencils that have weights on them so they slow you down a little bit. These are fidget pencils. This is more for when you’re just waiting after you’re done writing the sentence so that you don’t have to sit doing nothing. It’s something to do and it doesn’t come off. And we have paper that has lines on it to keep you in the lines. So you have to stay between the two red lines, right?

Robyn: Thank you, Deborah, 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.

How Understandable Should A 3 Year Old Be? | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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Pediatric Speech Pathologist details the speech and language development for a 3 year old.  She answers a question from a concerned mother about her child’s speech.

In This Video You Will Learn:

  • What ages speech should be understandable
  • When to be concerned
  • What to look out for in regards to your child’s speech

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 am your host, Robyn Ackerman. Today I’m standing with speech and language pathologist Meghan Grant. Meghan, we have a question from one of our viewers. Katie from Chicago wants to know, “I can understand my 3-year-old son perfectly, but my friends and strangers never seem to know what he is saying. Should I be worried?” Meghan: That’s a great question. Parents are excellent at understanding exactly what their child wants or needs even though others may have a difficult time comprehending what the child is saying. It is important to know that speech development is acquired over a range of ages. For a 3-year-old it is expected that they have mastered certain speech sounds, but at this age new sounds are beginning to emerge and develop as well. Concerns arise when the child is having difficulties progressing with the speech development and others are noticing that they are just having difficulties within various contexts as well. Some things to look out for are consonant substitutions, distortions, and omissions; essentially, if the child is leaving off certain speech sounds in connected speech or if they seem to be substituting other sounds in their speech as well. Something else to look out for as well is when your child becomes frustrated. If you see that they are becoming anxious and upset when communicating, that is usually a red flag to us. Also, watch for repetition. If you are constantly asking your child to repeat, or others are asking your child to repeat what they have said, that is typically a good time to meet with a speech language pathologist to receive further assessment. Robyn: Great. Thank you very much, Meghan, and thank you, Katie, for submitting your question. 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.

Submit your own question to robyna@NSPT4kids.com (all questions will be answered discretely and question submitters will receive the response in an email as well).

For more on a 3 Year Old’s Development, Download our Free 3 Year Old Milestone Guide!

Child Struggling In School | Pediatric Therapy Tv

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Today’s episode answers a question from a viewer.  The mother asks if she should be worried that her son’s teacher tells her that her son has a hard time paying attention in class.  Pediatric Neuropsychologist Dr. Stasi answers her with what her next steps should be.

In This Video You Will Learn:

  • If a parent should listen to a teacher’s concerns even if the parent disagrees
  • Figuring out the why’s of the child’s struggle
  • What the goal of an evaluation is

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 am your host, Robyn Ackerman. Today I’m standing here with pediatric neuropsychologist Dr. Greg Stasi. Doctor, we have a question from Tina from Arlington Heights. Tina asks, “My son’s kindergarten teacher says he has a hard time paying attention in class. I think he is just being an active boy. Should I be worried?”

Dr. Stasi: Thank you. Tina, that’s a great question. I get a lot of parents coming in and telling me that their child struggles to pay attention or that the teacher told them that he has trouble paying attention on a day-to-day basis. Should the parent be worried? I don’t know. It’s a concern, and the teacher has the best viewpoint as far as identifying whether or not the child pays attention. She is comparing him to the peers in the classroom.

The goal is to identify the ‘whys’. Why is this child struggling? Is it because it’s ADHD? Is it because of some type of learning disorder, that the child has difficulty comprehending the text? Is it a language disorder, that they are really not comprehending what is being instructed to them? Or is the child bored? The goal is to get an evaluation and figure out why is the child struggling and then we can move forward. Thank you.

Robyn: Thank you very much, Dr. Stasi, and thank you, Tina, for submitting your question. 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.

Submit your own question to robyna@NSPT4kids.com (all questions will be answered discretely and question submitters will receive the response in an email as well).

Good Handwriting | When Should Your Child Develop Writing Skills? | Pediatric Therapy TV

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Pediatric Occupational Therapist Gives Our Viewers Age Guides For When Children Should Have Legible Handwriting

In This Video You Will Learn:

  • What age children should have legible handwriting
  • What age they should have their capital letter by
  • What age they should be writing words and sentences

Video Transcript:

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 am your host, Robyn Ackerman. Today I am standing with pediatric occupational therapist Deborah Michael. Deborah, at what age would you say children should have legible handwriting?

Deborah: Children are developing at different speeds and they have different exposure to fine motor play and to handwriting. Definitely, by kindergarten they need to have their capital letters. By the beginning of first grade, they should have their lower case letters. By the end of first grade they should be writing words, and by second grade we want sentences. Now, having legible handwriting does not mean that the actual spelling will be correct. Children use inventive spelling and you need to give them time to get their correct spelling.

Robyn: Great. Thank you, Deborah, 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.

The Importance Of Tummy Time For Your Baby | Pediatric Therapy TV

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Today we interviewed a Pediatric Physical Therapist on why Tummy Time is so important for the growth and development of babies.

Click Here to read more about Tummy Time

In This Video You Will Learn:

  • The importance of Tummy Time early on
  • The risks of not doing Tummy Time
  • Milestones Tummy Time helps babies reach

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 am Robyn Ackerman, your host. Today I am standing with Bridget Zarling, a pediatric physical therapist. Bridget, can you tell us why tummy time is so important?

Bridgett: Absolutely, Robyn. Starting very early on in a baby’s life, they need to be on their tummy during playtime. What this does is establish strength within the baby’s neck, chest muscles, and arm muscles. If they are not on their tummy time they can have risk for plagiocephaly, which is flattening of the back of their head. Tummy time is also important for developing gross motor milestones in a baby’s life. They learn to crawl, roll, and even sit, the longer that they are on their tummy during playtime.

Robyn: Great. Thank you, Bridget, 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.