ERI’s Therapies in the School Conference is going Virtual – Save the Date November 19-20, 2020

a group of kids with a teacherWe know that hundreds of you come back year after year to learn from our experts and to inspire and learn from each other.  Recognizing how extraordinary today’s challenges are, we are developing a unique Therapies in the School Conference on the virtual platform.

This year’s conference will deliver the same quality you’ve come to love and expect in a highly interactive virtual experience.  If you couldn’t join us in the past because distance was prohibitive, this is YOUR CHANCE to JOIN this AMAZING COMMUNITY of school-based therapists!

We are excited to announce that the following renowned experts in their field will be joining us and sharing their expertise and passion in dynamic interactive sessions:
Susan Cecere, Sharon Cermak, Colleen Whiting, Kim Wiggins, Kimberly Wynarczuk and more…

We are working closely with the faculty to build the content and want to ensure we bring you education materials that are most applicable to your daily practice. Therefore, we are asking for a few minutes of your time to take a short survey about specific topic needs and about the format of our annual conference. 

Please click here to complete the survey

Come together on November 19-20, 2020 for an engaging, dynamic and interactive VIRTUAL conference

 

Attention NICU Therapists: Registration Open for “Treating Infants and Families in the NICU and Beyond” – a LIVE Webinar with Roberta Gatlin PT, DSc, PCS

Therapists working the NICU will not want to miss this engaging webinar that provides participants tools and strategies to prepare the NICU patient and family for discharge and transition home. Join Board Certified Pediatric Specialist Roberta “Bertie” Gatlin, PT, DSc, PCS and learn to evaluate, identify, and optimize services and care for NICU graduates as well as to enhance home based and/or outpatient clinical setting skills. Evidence based medical, developmental and outcome data will be discussed to inform treatment, best practices, and management of the medically fragile NICU child.

Learn to:

  • Provide evidence based thoughts and comments for recommendations of follow up care of an infant and family/caregiver after discharge from the NICU.
  • Provide rationale for selection of a therapeutic intervention plan of care with a post NICU infant and their family/caregiver.
  • Determine positioning needs within a therapeutic intervention plan with the post NICU infant and their family/caregiver.
  • Determine the need for developmental follow up, family intervention, and a positioning and handling programming for NICU graduates.
  • Complete all both sessions on Saturday, July 18 from 10am to 7pm EST, and Sunday, July 19 from 10pm to 6pm EST for 15 Hours (1.5 CEUs).  Please note, participants will need to have a doll and two baby blankets available to practice techniques during the webinar.

Early registration is encouraged as space is limited! Register for “Treating Infants and Families in the NICU and Beyond”

Let’s Stand Together Against Systemic Racism and Support Justice for All

Like you, we have watched the events of these past two weeks unfold with heavy hearts.  We at ERI share the pain and grief that so many in our local community and across the country are feeling. As healthcare providers, we have committed our lives to respecting the inherent dignity and rights of all individuals. Today let us amplify our voices as we recommit ourselves to standing together against systemic racism and support justice for all.  We stand with APTA, AOTA and ASHA in condemning the multifaceted aspects of systemic and deeply seated racism in our country.  

As therapists, we have been heartened by the unprecedented desire by many to commit to making deep personal and systemic change. This is a pivotal moment in our nation’s history. Let us take the time to listen, to learn and to find new ways to create lasting change. Justice and equality will prevail if we stand together and take action.

The ERI Team

 

Second Webinar Just Added! Join Melissa Gerber OTD, OTR/L for “Functionally Assessing and Treating Visual Processing, Visual Perception and Visual-Motor Deficits” – Includes Mock Telehealth Session

Did you miss our May webinar “Functionally Assessing and Treating Visual Processing, Visual Perception and Visual-Motor Deficits”?  Well, we have some great news – we’re offering a second date for the popular LIVE webinar! Join Melissa Gerber OTD, OTR/L for this three-part course taking place July 13, 14 and 15 beginning each evening at 6:30 pm EST.

Explore visual anatomy, functional assessment, and treatment in children and adults. Neurological insults such a stroke and TBIs can have a profound effect on visual skills, perception and processing. Additionally, 60-80% of children with learning disabilities have undiagnosed vision problems because vision is more than just visual acuity. As therapists, we may be the first to pick up on these deficits. Treatments, strategies, and tools to improve visual deficits will be stressed.

This course will arm therapists working in school-based settings, acute care, rehab, and LTC facilities with intervention tools and strategies to promote functional independence. Case studies and labs will be used to solidify learning and cement clinical reasoning. A “mock” telehealth session will be provided to show how to incorporate these skills in a virtual setting and will include resources for coaching parents and caregivers.

Upon completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • Analyze the visual system and gain the skills needed to assess it, in order to better identify visual issues that students/clients present with.
  • Discuss the visual systems role in sensory processing and how it impacts a student/client functionally across all areas (PT, SLP, Special Education).
  • Identify various visual issues associated with differential diagnosis and provide therapists with strategies to use the next day in their setting.
  • Identify when to treat, remediate or refer for visual issues and how to best share that information with the team.
  • Identify the differences between a visual processing issue and a visual deficits and its functional impact on the client’s daily activities.
  • Show participants what a telehealth session may look like and how to set one up for you and your client to work on visual processing, visual perception and visual motor skills

 

Complete all three Sessions for 10 Contact Hours (1.0 CEUs)
July 13 – 6:30 to 10 pm EST
July 14 – 6:30 to 10 pm EST
July 15 – 6:30 to 9:30 pm EST

Registration includes access to both sessions, and handouts.

Space is limited and expected to fill quickly so please register early “Functionally Assessing and Treating Visual Processing, Visual Perception and Visual-Motor Deficits”

Attention Therapists Working in the NICU, Register For “Tools and Strategies for Developmental Care of Special Populations in the NICU” – ERI’s New Live Webinar

Therapists working in the NICU will not want to miss the new LIVE webinar “Tools and Strategies for Developmental Care of Special Populations in the NICU”. This exceptional, problem-based course is taught by Lisa Kleinz, MA, SLP/L who has worked in level 3 NICUs for over 20 years and served as a Developmental Care Specialist working with staff and families to create change. This beginner-intermediate course will focus on developmental care and therapeutic interventions in the NICU, the infant’s experience in the NICU, and how the neonatal therapist can best support these infants from the beginning. Participants will learn how to provide developmental support, optimize outcomes, reduce parental stress, provide cue-based feeding, and provide collaborative developmental care through implementing best practices on their unit. Special populations will include the very low birth weight infant, the late preterm, the long term NICU infant, and the infant with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.

 Participants will learn to:

  • Incorporate developmental core measures and therapeutic strategies into the therapist’s role, in the areas of handling, positioning, feeding, the environment, pain, and sleep from the earliest gestational age
  • Develop strategies for implementing cue-based feeding in the NICU – learn how to choose a program that is best for your unit. Will include video learning.
  • Identify key elements that the feeding specialist needs to know about breastfeeding in the NICU
  • Develop strategies for increased involvement and support in your NICU
  • Apply developmental care and neuroprotection into your practice with the very low birth weight infant, the late preterm, and infants with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome

The webinar will take place over four sessions:

Monday, July 13, 2020 6:00pm-9:30pm  EST
Monday, July 20, 2020 6:00pm-9:30pm EST
Monday, July 27, 2020 6:00pm-9:30pm EST
Monday, August 3, 2020 6:00pm-9:30pm EST

Complete all 4 Sessions for 14 Contact Hours (1.4 CEUs). Space is limited. Register today for “Tools and Strategies for Developmental Care of Special Populations in the NICU.”