ERI is very happy to announce additional dates for:
The Zones of Regulation A Framework to Foster Self-Regulation and Emotional Control®
November 15th, 2017 – Framingham, MA
December 7, 2017 – Iselin, NJ
Leah Kuypers
December 7, 2017 – Iselin, NJ
Leah Kuypers
Life is 10% what happens to us and 90% how we react to it. -Charles Swindoll
Self-regulation is something everyone continually works on, whether we are cognizant of it or not. We all encounter trying circumstances that test our limits from time to time. If we are able to recognize when we are becoming less regulated, we are able to do something about it to feel better and get ourselves to a better place. This comes naturally for some, but for others it is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced. This is the goal of The Zones of Regulation (or Zones for short).
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Self-regulation is something everyone continually works on, whether we are cognizant of it or not. We all encounter trying circumstances that test our limits from time to time. If we are able to recognize when we are becoming less regulated, we are able to do something about it to feel better and get ourselves to a better place. This comes naturally for some, but for others it is a skill that needs to be taught and practiced. This is the goal of The Zones of Regulation (or Zones for short).
The Zones of Regulation® presentation provides teachers, therapists and parents with hands-on knowledge on the nature of self-regulation and strategies for improving self-regulation and emotional control in individuals of all ages. The presentation addresses topics such as: the brains involvement, typical development, sensory processing, emotional regulation, and executive functioning. Audience participants will learn an explicit, stair-stepped method and tools to guide students in utilizing The Zones framework across situations and environments to regulate sensory needs, impulses, and emotional states to social demands.
Leah Kuypers has practiced as an OT/autism specialist in school and clinical settings, specializing in self-regulation and social learning, and has worked with students of all ages and challenges, including anxiety, ADHD, and ASD. Leah created The Zones of Regulation, a framework designed to teach self-regulation, and is author of the book by the same name (2011, Social Thinking Publishing). In addition to working with students, she provides trainings and consultation to parents and professionals, and offers workshops on the Zones to groups across the country. She often presents with Michelle Garcia Winner.
Please click here for full course description, to download a brochure or to register
Looking for your Clinical Expertise – Clinical Challenge Posted in ERI's Pediatric Gait Discussion Group
Clinical Question from Holly Leigh:
For the past month I have been seeing a 13 year old who has a pretty typical gait of spastic diplegia; crouch+toe walking who is about 12 weeks out from bilateral femoral derotation osteotomy. Prior to surgery he played basketball and ran track (his mile speed is about 8 minutes, and his longest distance has been 8 miles in about an hour per his report). He used bilateral floor reaction AFOs most of the time but not when running because he kept breaking them (carbon fiber). He has progressed well and has learned how to find a neutral position at the pelvis, spine, hips, and extend knees fully while standing, but simply cannot shift weight onto his heels. He has very poor gastroc/soleus strength. He also has quite a bit of knee pain with terminal knee extension. Not at first, but as the session progresses and he spends more time weight bearing on extended knees instead of crouched knees, his pain gradually increases to unbearable. Taping has helped some.
Wondering if anyone has advice for helping him figure out the weight shift, or does he have so much strength to build that I’m expecting him to learn this sooner than he is able?
And any advice for the knee pain? He says that his knees have never been this straight before, so I almost wonder if after 13 years of crouch there is a structural issue causing pain in extension.
Please offer your suggestions and thoughts.
Please Click Here to Respond in our Facebook discussion group
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ERI's Professional Partners, the National Association of Neonatal Therapists, Send Invitation for Abstracts for their National Conference
Call For Abstracts: NANT 8
By Sue Ludwig
The theme for NANT 8 is Intensive Caring: The Opportunity In Every Moment.
How does that theme relate to you and your abstract submission?
Think about it this way:
By definition, your NICU provides intensive care. Your unit expertly uses all of its resources to save the lives of premature and/or medically complex newborns.
And that’s just the beginning.
In a multitude of ways, you also provide intensive caring – the myriad of actions that exemplify how much you CARE about each and every thing you do…the things that endear families to you for decades to come. (Author and NICU mom Kelley French gave us many fabulous examples of this during her keynote at NANT 7. If you did not attend, read her book Juniper and you’ll understand.)
I would argue that in order to provide intensive caring, a professional must first have expert knowledge about how to interact with the fragile, nonverbal patients we serve. For example, how one handles an infant that is 24 weeks PMA depends highly on her knowledge of his brain and sensory system development as well as his diagnoses and ever-changing array of medical interventions and support.
But it’s much more than that. (And that’s a lot to begin with!)
It’s the unspoken things- the things you may not even count as tasks, or realize that you do over and over again each day. It’s the way you spend 2 extra minutes ensuring baby Emma isn’t lying on any tubes or lines that will exert pressure on her fragile skin for the next few hours. It’s the way you empower parents as you talk them slowly through their first diaper change even while you’re behind schedule. It’s the realization that how YOU are able to help baby Adam learn to eat matters little compared to how you’re able to support Adam’s mom through the complexities of oral feeding in the NICU. It’s the reason you would want THAT nurse or THAT therapist to care for your baby if he was in the NICU. It is the why and how behind every action and interaction.
The thing is, it is possible to provide intensive care without intensive caring. But in that scenario, much of the art of your work is lost.
We believe that truly excellent healthcare includes both concepts, seamlessly intertwined. We believe that our highest clinical aspirations involve not only neonatal therapy specific knowledge and skill, but the self-awareness and commitment to deliver intensive caring in each moment – knowing that moments truly build on moments in our population.
And one last thing:
We go one step further and believe that intensive caring includes how we treat each other and ourselves. It’s hard to provide intensive caring while your coworkers throw you under the bus, while you berate yourself for previous clinical mistakes, or after the not-so-great argument you had at home this morning that lingers heavily in your mind.
It all matters because you bring it with you everywhere you go. Who you are and what you know at the precise moment you put your hands on a 2-pound person matters. It matters to them, to their development, to their families, and to you.
You continue to work in the NICU because you have been touched by the bigger mission at hand – the lifetime scope of your work, the strange combination of adrenaline, birth, loss, joy, grief, connection, isolation, and medical complexity. But most people do not choose to work somewhere quite so all-encompassing. You do choose it. You are committed to staying in the vortex of intensive caring.
We want to help you do that well (with sanity), to the best of your ability, and with the latest and most relevant evidence, practices, and resources.
As a speaker, contribute to your colleagues’ power to provide intensive caring to enrich the experience they deliver to patients and families in every moment.
We invite you to submit an abstract for NANT 8. Any discipline (or parent) with relevant content may submit.
*Submissions accepted for oral presentation, poster presentation, and pre-conference.
**Click here to submit an abstract.
We can’t wait to hear what Intensive Caring means to you. The committee is looking forward to reviewing your submissions!
Thoughts With All Those Affected By Hurricane Harvey
Our heartfelt thoughts are with all our hosting partners, including Texas Children’s Hospital, River Kids Pediatric, Med Care Pediatric and our wonderful community of therapists affected by Hurricane Harvey.
Please stay safe everyone!
]]>Speaker Spotlight – Rona Alexander PhD, CCC-SLP, BCS-S, C/NDT
Rona Alexander is a speech-language pathologist specializing in the assessment and treatment of oral motor, feeding/swallowing, and respiratory-phonatory function in infants and children with neuromuscular involvement. She is a longtime, well respected member of the Education Resources (ERI) faculty, teaching for us for more than 15 years. Dr. Alexander is a qualified speech instructor in Neuro-Developmental Treatment, delivering expert clinical knowledge and a personable instructive style through her basic pediatric and advanced NDT courses. She is an accomplished author; a co-author of the book, Normal Development of Functional Motor Skills: The First Year of Life, and co-developer of The ABCs of Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing. She also has served as a member of the ASHA Steering Committee for Special Interest Division 13: Swallowing and Swallowing Disorders. Dr. Alexander maintains a private practice, provides consultation services and conducts workshops on oral motor, feeding/swallowing, and respiratory coordination development, assessment and treatment.
Rona Alexander SLP – specializing in the assessment and treatment of oral-motor, feeding/swallowing, and respiratory-phonatory function[/caption]
“The best course I’ve been to, all information I can use on Monday when I get back to work! Any pediatric SLP should take this course.” -Melissa Eck, SLP
“Excellent workshop. Huge amount of update – even for a therapist with 40 yrs of pediatric experience! Able to cue in to current philosophies and treatment regimes for immediate affect on the treatments I do in the medically fragile setting. Thank you.” – Cynthia Johnson, OT
“It is a genuine privilege to learn and be taught by Rona Alexander, a master clinician in her field.” Diane Soohoo,OT
“Rona was absolutely outstanding. She has a rich experience and complex understanding of oral motor, feeding and swallowing that is hard to find. throughout her presentation she provided invaluable precious nuggets of information to help all pediatric therapists.” Rebecca Pokluda,OT
Rona’s popular course:
Assessment and Treatment of Children with Oral Motor, Feeding/Swallowing and Respiratory Function Challenges: Children with Neuromuscular Involvement
This course delivers clinically relevant assessment and treatment strategies. A special emphasis is on postural alignment and control as well as on sensory factors that can influence a childs feeding and swallowing. Effective treatment strategies to improve cheeks/lips, tongue, jaw and rib cage function will be highlighted.
September 15-17, 2017 – Johnston, IA
October 6-8, 2017 – Valhalla, NY
March 9-11, 2018 – TBA
April 13-15, 2018 – TBA
June 22-24, 2018 – TBA
October 5-7, 2018 – Houston, TX
November 30 – December 2, 2018 – Tulsa, OK
Watch for new dates and venues being added very soon!
Please click here for detailed course information, CEU information, to download a brochure and to register