Summer 2020 Newsletter
Teletherapy Success
We want to give a huge thank you to all the clients and families who made the quick transition with us to teletherapy in March. While the format was new for all of us, it has been a big success! Our participating clients have continued to make great progress on their goals. We are so appreciative of our caregivers’ efforts to get kids signed into Zoom, gather materials for sessions, and help kids stay on track during their therapy.
Our therapists have been extra creative with activities. Here are some of the things we have done:
Used a virtual spinner to select activities
Played online games like Snakes and Ladders
Used YouTube videos to read books aloud
Used Boom Cards for interactive learning and practice
Opened “surprise eggs” and described the items inside
Used virtual backgrounds to incorporate special interests and spur conversation
Outdoor scavenger hunts
Riding bikes and rollerblading
Heavy lifting with household items like kitty litter and milk jugs
Playing basketball
Handwriting with chalk and other condiments like ketchup
It has been lots of fun for the kids to share their toys, pets, bedrooms, and backyards with us too.
We plan to continue to utilize teletherapy until it is safe for our clinic to be open at full capacity—we are all looking forward to when that can happen! This experience has provided insight into the benefits of teletherapy and we will continue to use this format in some circumstances even after the clinic fully opens. These benefits include:
Allows clients to access services when they have limited transportation/transportation challenges
Clients have the option to receive services at home when a sibling/parent is sick
It can be used on inclement weather days when parents are not comfortable driving into the clinic
It can allow for better family carry over by having parents/siblings helping to facilitate therapy
Allows for increased access to skills, such as learning to ride a bike, use a scooter or rollerblading
Continuing Education
Our therapists have been busy with continuing education courses over the past few months, especially taking courses pertaining to implementation of teletherapy.
Jessica Parades completed: Play with a Purpose: Effective Play-Based Therapy & Early Child Development
Brittany Ahlskog completed: Creating and Adapting Therapy Materials for Telepractice, Telepractice: Getting Started, Teletherapy: Tips to Keep Young Children Engaged, and How to Know What Works: Evidence for Telepractice and Beyond
Sarah Hetz completed: Warp Speech Download: Essential Information to Jumpstart Your Teletherapy Practice, Creating and Adapting Therapy Materials for Telepractice, The Speech-Language Pathologist’s Role in Trauma-Informed Care, and Journey into Eye Gaze for Communication
Becka Haensel completed: Psychological Health First Aid for COVID-19
Katy, Becka, Lindsey and Veronica completed Module 1 and 2 of Ayres Sensory Integration Certificate course.
Outdoor Fun Close to Home
Send your children on an outdoor scavenger hunt in your backyard. Discuss the sounds, colors, shapes, sizes, textures and observations made during the hunt. Have a list of items for them to fine and take a picture of such as: Ant, green leaf, brown leaf, sticks, smooth rock, a worm, a lady bug, puddle of water, ant hill, flower, and a clover.
Set up a “senses” scavenger hunt, have your children hunt for things they can see (a bird in a tree, a bug, spider web, animal footprint), things they can touch (muddy rock, crunchy leaf, moss on a tree/rock, something sticky), things they can hear (a stick breaking, bee buzzing, grasshopper/cricket, splashing water) and things they can smell (blooming flowers, fresh cut grass, a muddy rock, tree bark)
Other options for outdoor fun include hikes, star gazing, building forts, catching bugs, water play, setting up a mud kitchen, planting flowers, having a picnic, feeding ducks, camping in your own yard.
Rainy Day Activities
Set up an indoor scavenger hunt on a rainy day! Have your children hunt through your house to find objects. Encourage them to use different modes of transportation while searching for each item (frog jumps, bunny hops, crab walk, bear walks, army crawling, running, slow motion walking, walking sideways, and walking backwards). Ideas for scavenger hunt items include: a toy with wheels, book, pair of matching socks, 4 similar items, something soft, a toy small enough to fit in your palm, something round, a book with numbers, 5 Legos, a photo, a mirror, a movie, and a stuffed animal. Challenge the kids by making the items more specific, for example 4 green toys, a book with the first letter of their name in the title, a toy with 3 different colors on it.
Set up and indoor or outdoor obstacle course using simple house hold items
use paper plates, pillows or cushions as stepping stones
use socks to make a ladder to jump through (jump forward, backward, sideways)
set up kitchen chairs to crawl under or over
use plastic cups as cones (run to and from, run around, weave through)
lay blankets out to log roll and somersault across
running up and down staircases
Clinic Closures
We will be closed Friday July 3rd in observance of Independence Day.
We will be closed Monday September 7th in observance of Labor Day.