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
Bugs and Buttons is a collection of games that helps children learn a variety of skills. This app has games that help with pinch, color sorting, letter recognition, counting, eye hand
coordination and much more. Plus it is a fun and engaging collection of games that kids will enjoy.
It is available here: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bugs-and-buttons/id446031868?mt=8
~Brent- T.E.A.M 4 Kids Occupational Therapist
Fun with Food Class for Picky Eaters and Problem Feeders
Are you struggling to find time to play with food with your picky eater? T.E.A.M. 4 Kids has come up with a solution for you. Enroll your child with feeding difficulties in our Fun with Food Class. The class will focus on creating new and fun experiences with food. Many of the ideas that we have talked about in our feeding blogs will be used to foster a positive experience with new foods. Each week a new theme will be presented and children will get to hear about the new food through books or videos and then create a fun craft using the food. The recipes will also be available to re-create the craft at home during the week. Playing with food is an important step in getting a picky eater to try new foods, therefore, even if your child has not been diagnosed with feeding difficulties, they would benefit from this class. Classes will be every Tuesday @ 9:30 a.m. starting May 31st. Call T.E.A.M. 4 Kids today @ 800-376-3440 to enroll your child as seats are limited and this class is sure to fill up quickly!
Jen Cantu
Speech Pathologist/Feeding Therapist
Understanding Your Child’s Diagnosis
When your child receives a diagnosis questions can (and usually will) begin to flood your brain to ask your doctor. In addition, before you know it you could very easily overwhelm yourself with questions of your own. What do I do? Who do I talk to? What about school? What about their future? What will my family do? How will I personally cope with this? It is important that when we hear a diagnosis, syndrome, or condition we remember what it means and do not give it more power than it deserves – i.e. it is simply that; a diagnosis. It is not a predictor of whether or not your child will be happy, and it is not a sign of bad parenting.
When we hear a diagnosis we may have a natural tendency to think about someone we know who has the diagnosis, or something we have read online or heard in the news. We do not want to fall into this “mind trap” though because a child with a diagnosis is like any other child; they want to play, laugh, smile, love, and be loved. A diagnosis does not take this away from them. Each child is still special and unique with or without a diagnosis, and each child continues to need Love and support from their family so they can continue to grow and learn about the world around them – a diagnosis does not change this.
If your child is diagnosed, feel free to reach out to your therapist and express any concerns you may have. It is in their training and caring nature as therapists that make them good listeners and eager to help. Oftentimes they may be able to give you some insight into the diagnosis in addition to ideas of things you can do at home to carryover and reinforce what is worked on with your child in therapy. Autismspeaks.org offers a family support kit that offers various guides for family members and helps explains the effects Autism may have on different people in the family (parents, siblings, grandparents, friends, etc.) (https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/tool-kits/family-support-tool-kits)
Mike-Occupational Therapy Team
T.E.A.M. 4 Kids Pediatric Therapy Team
Photo Courtesy of: (http://www.bocatc.org/blog/2014/04/)
Pragmatics is often referred to as the social language skills that we use in our communication with others. Pragmatic language skills are important for communicating our thoughts, ideas, feelings and for generating and maintaining a conversation with others. A few examples of pragmatic language skills include:
Pragmatics also includes nonverbal communication, including: tone of voice, facial expressions and body language and proxemics or ‘personal space.’
If you have concerns regarding your child’s social language skills or pragmatics, it is important that you discuss them with your child’s physician to determine if a speech therapy evaluation is warranted.
Michelle, Speech Therapy and Feeding Therapy Team
This week’s App of the Week comes from our Physical Therapy team and is a great pairing with the most recent Physical Therapy Blog Post: Physical Therapy: Appropriate Gross Motor Skills. Super Baby is a video center for infant development to reach gross motor skills and baby milestones, developed by a pediatric physical therapist and pediatric occupational therapist.
“From rolling over to crawling to walking, Super Baby’s videos will help your child reach the key milestones in his/her physical development.” It provides “baby exercise videos to help your child soar through the first year of life. Super Baby has over 40 different videos including clinically proven therapeutic techniques to help your baby be the best baby it can be. Super Baby’s developmental activities give your child a head start towards life long development. Perform the different developmental activities with your child a few times a day to improve their developmental success.”
Enjoy!
13601 N. Litchfield Rd Suite 124 Surprise,
team4kidsaz@gmail.com
800-376-3440
