Helping your child reach their greatest potential
Phone: 800-376-3440
13601 N. Litchfield Rd Suite 124 Surprise, AZ 85379
In the Uptown Alley Plaza on Litchfield and Waddell
Looking for some take-home activities for your child? Kids’ pages offers a variety learning materials. You will find coloring pages, flashcards, nursery rhymes, games, stories, puzzles and more! This website is a great tool to help build and support your child’s learning. CLICK HERE FOR WWW.KIDS-PAGE.COM
Happy learning! ~Chelsea-Speech Therapy Team
What is a Developmental Preschool?
A developmental preschool is an inclusive school program for children that have a diagnosed disability.
Who attends?
Any child that has been screened and evaluated through their district's preschool and diagnosed with a disability is eligible for services. Developmental preschools are free if your child qualifies and if room is available. Check your local school district for more information and how to sign your child up for a screening.
Where are they?
Developmental Preschools are provided in most districts. Here are two links to a couple of districts and their developmental preschools.
Dysart Elementary School District:
https://www.dysart.org/Sites/Default.aspx?pgID=126
Litchfield Elementary School District:
http://www.lesd.k12.az.us/departments.cfm?subpage=1280137
When do you start?
Between 2 years 9 months and 3 years of age
Why should my child attend?
Developmental preschools give children an opportunity to learn skills that are beneficial to early development. If
you feel your child may not be typically developing, check out this link below.
https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002456.htm
* Always discuss with your child’s pediatrician or therapist about any questions or concerns you might have about your child.
~Chelsea- Speech Therapy Team
If your child presents with three or more of the following symptoms, make an appointment for an occupational therapy evaluation:
The above symptoms are indications of a retained Moro reflex. The Moro reflex is a baby’s primitive fight/flight reaction and is typically integrated and replaced by the adult startle reflex by 4 months old.
A retained Moro Reflex is 1 of 6 primitive reflexes treated by the occupational therapy and physical therapy team at Team 4 Kids.
What are Primitive Reflexes?
Primitive reflexes are automatic movements that originate from the central nervous system. These reflexes are required for survival and development while the child is in the womb and for the first few months after birth. With typical development, the nervous system matures and naturally replaces the primitive reflexes (survival reflexes) with postural reflexes (reflexes required for balance, coordination, and sensory motor development). Retained primitive reflexes can lead to developmental delays related to ADHD, sensory processing disorder, autism, and many other learning disabilities.
As stated in Susan Hyland’s Optimizing Neurological Development, Primitive Reflexes web page, Retention of primitive reflexes can be caused by a variety of factors including but not limited to: traumatic birth, birth by cesarean section, falls, traumas, lack of tummy time, delayed or lack of creeping or crawling, chronic ear infections, head trauma and vertebral subluxations.
See link below for more information on Primitive Reflexes:
http://suehyland.co.uk/ond/primitive-reflexes/ptimising Neurological Development
~ Melissa, Occupational Therapy Team ~
This week’s app is recommended from our Occupational Therapy Team – The app is called: Letter Writer.
In our last Occupational Therapy blog post we spoke about a multi-sensory approach to learning letters. Our app of the week is GREAT practice for this. This app allows children to use their finger or stylus to form letters. The app provides visual input of a fish following the tracing finger or stylus. It also provides auditory input of calming music and kinesthetic feedback with the movement of the hand. Hope you will enjoy this app using a sensorimotor approach to learning letters.
As always, feel free to share with friends and family who could benefit from this app!
Tactile input is an effective way to teach drawing and writing skills. The tactile system allows for “feeling” the various strokes and flow of movement. This helps children to integrate sensory and motor aspects of writing. It has been suggested that playing classical music softly while learning new motor systems (such as learning the stroke of a letter) will help in committing the movement to long-term memory. Recruiting as many of the sensory systems as possible to learn a new activity is especially helpful to the child with a learning disability.
Here are examples of sensory motor activities to assist your child with letter formation:
1. Write the letter on a whiteboard or butcher block paper on the wall very large. The child writes the letter in the air very large; provide assistance with hand over hand if necessary. Try several times with the eyes open, repeat with the eyes closed, and again with the eyes open. Then have the child trace the large letter on the whiteboard or butcher block paper.
2. Form letters in various sensory mediums to include cornmeal, sand, beans, lentils, rice, popcorn, etc.
3. Draw letters in shaving cream on tabletop, mirror or aluminum foil. If the child is tactile defensive or has sensory concerns, place shaving cream and paint mixture in a plastic bag and form the letters over the plastic bag.
4. Use glue or lotion or squirt the letter on a mirror, or aluminum foil. Let the glue dry and use later to trace the feel of the letter on the texture it provides.
5. Use glue to form a letter and place yarn over it while wet. When dry, the child can trace the letter.
6. Use a sandpaper letter to run finger over for tracing, or place paper over a sheet of sandpaper and form a letter on the paper.
7. Make a letter out of pipe cleaners, string, playdough or clay. Trace over it with the child’s finger.
8. Finger paint letters or trace over a letter using finger paint.
9. Squirt the letter with a squeeze bottle in the sand or on the ground.
10. Use a hole punch to punch around a bold letter on construction paper.
11. Use a flashlight to trace the letter on whiteboard or letter written on butcher block paper on the wall. This is also a good visual tracking activity.
12. Form letters on the carpet while weight bearing on both knees and one hand, or while in prone position and propped on elbows.
As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!
Jan, Occupational Therapy Team
13601 N. Litchfield Rd Suite 124 Surprise,
team4kidsaz@gmail.com
800-376-3440
