Fetal Alcohol Syndrome – How Early Intervention Can Help

Children with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome often present with sensory or motor issues from infancy.

Education Resources  Inc offers this 3 day live, hands-on course:
“Contemporary NDT Treatment of the Baby and Young Child”
Suzanne Davis Bombria, PT, C/NDT
which will teach you to identify these sensory-motor issues, analyze function, and develop treatment strategies for the infant and toddler.

Jan Mc Elroy, PhD, PT, PCS, C/NDT similarly presents a three day, live, hands-on course which focuses on infants who are born preterm and who may present with global developmental delay. You will learn to identify and treat insufficient and atypical movement components seen in infancy that can interfere with the development of functional activities and the development of coordination. This course covers the respiratory, visual, medical and physical challenges to effectively formulate treatment techniques to meet the needs of these infants.

Infants Born Preterm: Identifying and Addressing Their Special Needs in Early Infancy to Support Development

We would like to share this article:

Therapy helps a child with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder
JILL DALY
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – September 25. 2017

“………..therapists lately have seen more mothers using both alcohol and other substances in pregnancy. Treating drug-addicted babies has gotten a lot of attention, …..but the word about alcohol exposure isn’t getting out”.

“Early intervention can help with sleep disturbances, not gaining weight and feeding problems, and age-related typical milestones, such as crawling, walking and using the early sounds of language”.

“An occupational therapist can help the family overcome sensory-processing disorders………..They have a hypersensitivity to sound, to light, to touch, taste, smells.” 

“Although the brain is still developing up to the age of 25,………….much can be done before the age of 3”.

Please read the full article here: 
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/health/2017/09/25/Therapy-for-a-child-with-fetal-alcohol-spectrum-disorder/stories/201709260002

 

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Reflex Integration in the Schools

GUEST BLOGGER: Kathryn Biel

 

While performing the BOT-2, I ask a child to stand in tandem on my tape line. As the child attempts this skill, I immediately notice her arms internally rotating as her feet are internally rotating. She seems unable to move her legs without her arms following suit. I’ll do a little more testing, but that one thing sends up a red-flag warning—there’s an unintegrated Moro reflex.

Does it matter? Should I focus on it? Do I even mention it? Is it a school-based issue?

Let me look at this child a bit more: intelligent, emotional, impulsive, self-directed and strong-willed. Having difficulty with outbursts in school. The Moro reflex acts as a baby’s primitive fight/flight reaction and is typically replaced by the adult startle reflex by four months old. If a child experiences a retained Moro reflex beyond 4 months, she may become over sensitive and over reactive to sensory stimulus resulting in poor impulse control, sensory overload, anxiety and emotions and social immaturity. Some additional signs of a retained Moro reflex are motion sickness, poor balance, poor coordination, easily distracted, unable to adapt well to change, and mood swings.

So yes, it does appear this is impacting education. I’ve evaluated children who literally fall out of their seat in class due to an unintegrated Moro. A retained STNR (Symmetrical Tonic Neck Reflex) will impact a child’s ability to work in a desk, remaining seated while looking at the board and then down at the paper (i.e., copying information).  On the other hand, ask a roomful of adults to perform the starfish exercise (the exercise to integrate the Moro). Many will not be able to do it, which indicates that they are not fully integrated. Yet they are fully-functioning adults. Therefore, the presence of a retained reflex may not always impact education.

Assuming it is determined that the reflex is impacting education, the next issue is how to implement a reflex-integration program. Evidence shows that with daily performance of the exercises, reflexes can be integrated in about 6 weeks. However, caseloads and schedules don’t allow for a daily program, which requires creative thinking. Often I reach out to parents, have them come in, and teach them the exercises. Ideally, the program is done at home with homework. We all know it’s not an ideal world.

However, it makes no sense to me to pull a child for a 30-minute session and do integration exercises for at least half of the session, especially when the efficacy of doing the exercises one to two times a week is questionable. What else can we do? How can we help with this? Is there evidence to support these program?

To continue the discussion about retained reflexes, check out Janine Wiskind’s

Reflex Integration: Is it Relevant to my School-Based Practice

at the Eighteenth Annual Therapies in the School Conference.

~Kathryn Biel, PT, DPT

 

 

 

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Speaker Spotlight – Karen Jacobs EdD, OTR/L, CPE, FAOTA

 

ERI Faculty Memeber Karen Jacobs Karen Jacobs EdD, OTR/L, CPE, FAOTA[/caption]

ERI is honored to welcome Karen Jacobs as a new faculty member, and thrilled that she will be speaking at this year’s annual conference:

Therapies in the School
November 16-17, 2017 – Framingham, MA

Karen Jacobs is a clinical professor of occupational therapy and the program director of the distance education post-professional occupational therapy programs at Boston University. She has expertise in the development and instruction of on-line graduate courses. In addition to being an occupational therapist, Jacobs is also a certified professional ergonomist (CPE). She has a private practice in ergonomics.

Jacobs earned her BA at Washington University in St. Louis, her MS at Boston University, and her doctoral degree at the University of Massachusetts.

Dr. Jacob’s research examines the interface between the environment and human capabilities. In particular, she examines the individual factors and environmental demands associated with increased risk of functional limitations among populations of university and middle school–aged students, particularly in notebook computing, backpack use, and games such as WiiFit. Most recently, she is co-developing, with Dr. Nancy Baker at the University of Pittsburgh, the Telerehabilitation Computer Ergonomics System (tele-CES) for computer users with arthritis. The tele-CES is a remote systematic ergonomics program aimed a substantially reducing work disability among workers with any type of arthritis.

Jacobs is the founding editor-in-chief of the international, interdisciplinary peer reviewed journal WORK: A Journal of Prevention, Assessment and Rehabilitation, which celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2010.

Jacobs is a past president and vice-president of the American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA). She is a 2005 recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Akureyri in Akureyri, Iceland; the 2009 recipient of the Award of Merit from the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists (CAOT); and recipient of the Award of Merit from the American Occupational Therapy Association in 2003.

Karen’s dynamic session at Therapies in the School 2017:

Using the iPad and Apps as Cognitive Support Technology in the Classroom
This hands-on workshop will discuss the iPad and Apps as cognitive support technology that can be used effectively in the classroom. Participants will use case studies to facilitate the selection of appropriate Apps to address cognitive challenges. 

Please click here for a brochure and detailed information

 

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Faculty Member Beth McManus Publishes Research: Therapy Use for Children With Developmental Conditions: Analysis of Colorado Medicaid Data

 

We would like to share this research report authored by:
McManus, Beth M. PT, MPH, ScD; Rapport, Mary Jane PT, DPT, PhD; Richardson, Zachary MA; Lindrooth, Richard PhD
published in:
Pediatric Physical Therapy: July 2017 – Volume 29 – Issue 3 – p 192–198

Study Purpose: To examine therapy use and spending for Medicaid-enrolled infants and toddlers with developmental conditions.

Methods: Sample infants and toddlers had a diagnosis (eg, cerebral palsy) or developmental delay (DD). Colorado Children’s Medicaid administrative outpatient therapy claims (2006-2008) were used to estimate differences, by condition type and number of comorbid chronic conditions (CCCs), of any physical therapy (PT)/occupational therapy (OT) and Medicaid PT/OT spending.

Results: The sample included 20 959 children. Children with at least 2 CCCs had higher odds of PT/OT than children with no CCC. Children with DD had 12-fold higher odds of having any PT/OT compared with children with diagnosis. Children with a DD and 2 CCCs had the highest PT/OT spending.

Conclusions: Medicaid PT/OT use and spending are higher for children with more CCCs and those with DD because children with DD receive more specialized PT/OT.

Click here for access to the full article

Beth McManus is taking a break from teaching for a while to spend time with her family, but we are honored that she will be teaching 2 more dates for us this year, and we want to make sure that you don’t miss them:

Advanced Clinical Practice in the NICU
October 6-7, 2017 – Indianapolis, IN
November 3-4, 2017 – San Leandro, CA

Click here for full course details, CEU information, to download a brochure, and for registration information.

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ERI is Joining our Professional Partners NANT to Celebrate Neonatal Therapists Everywhere

Internatioanl neonatal therapist weekWe would like to honor all our community of Neonatal Therapists and join NANT (National Association of Neonatal Therapists) to celebrate your dedication to premature and sick infants and their families and to acknowledge the work you do to improve your patients outcomes.

If you are a NANT member you will already be receiving the special Member-Only gifts and new resources in honor of your work and your week!

We ask you to look out for a special gift from ERI. To be Announced! 🙂

Join our Mailing List Here
To receive notifications about NICU specific CEU courses near you

Join NANT here

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