Children’s first words are generally composed of nouns: the people and things in their lives. Children start to understand and use verbs more frequently as their vocabularies build. They then begin to use modifiers and adjectives. Concepts are among these early modifiers and adjectives. Children acquire these concepts at different stages in their development. Read on for conceptual milestones for children ages 1 through 6.
Conceptual milestones for children ages 1 through 6:
Ages 1-2
Follows simple commands using spatial terms in or on
Uses a few spatial terms such as in or on
Uses simple directional terms such as up or down
Ages 2-3
Understands number concepts such as 1 or 2
Understanding of spatial terms become mastered with in, on, off, under, out
Begins to understand same/different
Time concepts begin to emerge, specifically with soon, later, wait
Begins to use color and size vocabulary
Ages 3-4
Advances spatial terms to understanding next to, besides, between
Uses spatial terms behind, in front, around
Begins to follow quantity directions such as a lot and empty
When your child’s frustration with articulation means something more
How speech therapists check articulation based on age
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Scoliosis can be a very scary diagnosis, especially if you aren’t exactly sure what it is or what can cause it. Scoliosis is a lateral curvature of the spine to the right or left as you are looking at the spine from behind. There is typically a rotation of the involved spinal segments as well.
There are 3 different types of scoliosis, each the result of a different mechanism:
Congenital scoliosis– the child is born with the lateral curvature due to an atypical development of the spine in utero.
Neuromuscular scoliosis– caused by an underlying neuromuscular condition that results in abnormal muscular pull on the spine. Conditions such as cerebral palsy or spina bifida are examples of underlying diagnoses that may result in neuromuscular scoliosis.
Idiopathic scoliosis-this means that there is no known cause of the scoliosis. This is the most common form of scoliosis and can present in childhood, adolescence, or adulthood.
Adolescents, predominantly female, who are currently or have recently gone through a growth spurt are the most likely to develop scoliosis. Kids between the ages of 10-15 are therefore at the greatest risk. Except for more severe cases, scoliosis is typically not associated with back pain; however, kids with scoliosis are at an increased risk of having back pain during adulthood.
Treatment for scoliosis will depend on the severity of the curvature:
Conservative-for mild to moderate cases of scoliosis, treatments such as bracing, postural exercises, and physical therapy are used to prevent progression of the curve.
Surgical-for severe curvatures, surgical placement of rods to maintain a straight spine is often utilized.
Regardless of the type or severity of scoliosis, the key to optimal outcomes is early recognition. With early detection through school screenings or screening from a physician or physical therapist, treatment and monitoring can begin immediately. If you are concerned that your child may have scoliosis, or are looking for treatment for a child with a diagnosis of scoliosis, please see a physical therapist at North Shore Pediatric Therapy.
