Activities to Assist Your Child with Buttoning by Sarah Koppenhoefer-Little, OTR/L Kids Place West Pediatric Occupational Therapist The ability to button and manipulate clothing fasteners is a significant self-care skill most parents want their child to learn. This is an important task children need to have independence with dressing. The typical child will learn to…
Understanding Speech Sound Disorders Kids Place West Speech Language Pathologists Speech sound disorders are what the pediatric Speech-Language Pathologist is most well-known for treating. There is the classic case of a child who says “wabbit” instead of rabbit,” or the child who lisps. But what exactly are speech sound disorders? Let’s talk about the basics…
Which Hand Will My Child Use? by Kids Place Occupational Therapists Are you a righty or a lefty? 9 out of 10 of you will be right handed while one of you is either left handed or ambidextrous. Your dominant hand is determined in utero, but it takes several years of motor learning and experience…
Parentese: What Is It and Why You Should Do It By Nicole Overy, MS, CFY-SLP Kids Place West Speech-Language Pathologist When you talk to a baby, you’ll likely use a high-pitched voice, draw out your vowels, and speak with a musical prosody. You’ll probably face the baby directly and use exaggerated facial expressions. This way…
Hand Strength: 5 Fun Activities for Children by Emma Clark, Student OT Childhood is a critical time for the development of intrinsic hand muscles. Without the proper development of these muscles, children will have delayed fine motor skills or fatigue during fine motor activities. Building hand strength in children leads to the development of skills like…
Is My Child Healthy? By Kelsie Noel, DPT Kids Place West Pediatric Physical Therapist America has a growing problem of young children becoming overweight and obese. Recent statistics have placed Arizona as having the fourth highest obesity rate in the country. In 2012, more than one third of children and adolescents were diagnosed as overweight…
Feeding Foundations For Success Parents never intend for their children to eat only junk food and chicken nuggets. However, unfortunately there are many children currently who have an extremely limited food repertoire. Eating is a basic skill most people are not concerned with until they have a child who refuses to eat or only eats…
Save the Spiders Game by Nicole Campbell, PT, DPT Kids Place West Pediatric Physical Therapist Want a fun, balance activity for the fall season? Create a spider web on the ground using tape and place plastic spiders around the edge of the web. Have your child pretend they are the parent spider and they must…
Should I Teach My Child Sign Language? By Katy Gudim (Moakley), M.S, CCC-SLP Kids Place West Speech Language Pathologist If you have a child who is a late talker, late communicator or has a language delay, you may have heard of using sign language as an augmentative or alternative form of communication. Will my child…
What is Torticollis? By Andy Albrecht, DPT Kids Place Central Clinic Manager and Pediatric Physical Therapist Torticollis is a term used to describe a tight neck muscle. Congenital Muscular Torticollis occurs when a neck muscle, often involved is the sternocleidomastoid (SCM), is tight or shortened. This presents with a position of one ear towards the…
