ERCO September 2009 Updates

How to Register

Access the CCR online registration through the CCR home page at http://www.ccr.gov. Under the “New CCR Users” section, click on “Start New Registration.” You must have a Data Universal Numbering System (DUNS) Number in order to begin the registration process.

Create a User Account. See the CCR User Account Guide for more information.

Complete and submit the online registration. If you already have the necessary information on hand (see below), the online registration takes approximately one hour to complete, depending upon the size and complexity of your business or organization. Once the CCR user completes the registration, it will take one to two business days to process.

Should you have questions about registering with CCR, please visit www.ccr.gov or contact the Federal Service Desk at (866)-606-8220. As always, if you need any other assistance with the federal stimulus, please do not hesitate to contact us at Recovery@ode.state.oh.us.
OSTW application deadline is Oct. 16
Mid-level educators who are planning to apply for the 2009-2010 Ohio Schools to Watch (OSTW) designation have until Oct. 16 to complete the application. This is the sixth year of the process to identify and promote high-performing schools serving Ohio students in grades five through nine. To date, 17 Ohio middle-grade schools have received the OSTW designation for academic excellence, developmental responsiveness, social equity and organizational structures and processes. For more information, including the OSTW application and videos of previously designated schools, click here and search keyword: OSTW.

Nominations open now for awards for outstanding youth development efforts
ODE’s Safe and Drug-Free Schools program will present the annual Asset Builder Awards to recognize individuals and groups for outstanding efforts to establish relationships, remove barriers to learning and develop positive character traits among youth.

Oct. 23 is the deadline for nominations, which will be evaluated based on efforts made to support the 40 Developmental Assets identified by the Search Institute. The five categories for awards are: district; school building; individual (adult); student/student group; and business or community organization that partners with a school or district. Winners will be recognized on Nov. 19, the second day of the 2009 Ohio Prevention and Education Conference (OPEC) in Columbus.

Award recipients will receive free one-day conference admission. The nomination form, the Search Institute assets and information about the OPEC conference are available by clicking here and searching keywords: Asset Builder.

ODE offers workshops on school health assessment tools
ODE is offering three workshops to teach school staff how to use self-assessment tools related to school health and to health and physical education curricula. School wellness teams, health educators, physical educators, curriculum coordinators, school nurses, guidance counselors and administrators will benefit from the sessions.

Monday, Oct. 26 9 a.m. – 1 p.m.
Health Education Curriculum Analysis Tool (HECAT)
Registration fee: $15

Monday, Nov. 2 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
School Health Index (SHI)
Registration fee: $20

Friday, Nov. 6 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Physical Education Health Analysis Tool (PECAT)
Registration fee: $20

Each session will be held at the State Library of Ohio, 274 E. First Ave. in Columbus and is limited to 50 participants. Food and instructional materials are included in registration fees for each workshop. For more information and registration instructions, click here. For more information, contact Sandra Hood toll-free at (800) 808-6325.

Note: You also may find this document online at http://education.ohio.gov by searching keywords: EdConnection. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions about this weekly e-mail or would like to be added to the mailing list, please feel free to contact me at superintendent@ode.state.oh.us.

The Career Center

The links to the right are "live" and reflect all open jobs with PediaStaff. To further narrow your search by state use the drop down menus on the search page to select a specific state. If a particular search is returning no hits it is Girl possible that we do not currently have openings
for you in that state.

If any of your information (geographic, population or setting preference) has changed since we've last spoken, please let us know. See an opening that interests you? Just apply to that job and one of our staff will contact you right away.

Remember, one of the things that makes PediaStaff unique is that we will actively "market" your skills to prospective employers of pediatric and school based therapists, so if you don't see a position that interests you make sure you let us know what you are looking for.

Speech Language Pathologist and SLPA Jobs

Occupational Therapist and COTA Jobs

Physical Therapist and PTA Jobs

School Psychologist Jobs

Speech Language Pathology Corner

Cooperative Themed Speech Therapy Games and Activities; Part 1 of 3
by: Don D'Amore M.A. CCC-SLP
Speech and Language Therapy sessions that are designed to be fun and interesting tend to have the happy result of the young clients becoming eager participants each week! More session goals can be realized when the client is enthusiastic to partake in the activities. The key for the clinician is to be able to engage their clients in a wide variety of enjoyable activities that can also be meaningfully applied to most therapy goals.

This series highlights a collection of simple and fun activities that can take place in most therapy sessions. Little or no cost is involved. The activities are mostly general in theme so that a variety of different therapy work can be applied. The eagerness to participate in the enjoyable session activities can be a fun motivator to move the client through whatever therapy goal based work is presented. (Please note: These are possible suggestions only! As always, all therapy activities and goals are entirely at the discretion of a qualified Speech Language Pathologist, based on the unique needs and abilities of their individual clients.)
Read More

Occupational Therapy Corner

Practical Ideas to Stimulate Figure - Ground Skills
Melanie Lambert, OTR/L
"I can't find it!" the child cries in frustration.
"Look carefully. It is right under your nose." you respond.

This scenario may sound familiar if you have ever worked with a child who has difficulties with Figure Ground perception. Our environment constantly bombards us with a wealth of visual information. The ability to screen out irrelevant visual material in order to concentrate on the important stimulus is a key skill for any child to remain attentive and organized within the classroom situation. A simple instruction such as "Find the teddy bear in the toy box" or "Look for a picture of a house in your book" can be quite overwhelming for a child who struggles with this aspect of visual perception.

Children with Figure Ground weaknesses may have difficulty learning when there are too many words or images on the the pages they must look at. They may seem inattentive and unable to keep their place when reading or completing number work. Scanning from one word to the next in a smooth manner will be challenging. Difficulties may also be experienced in drawing a straight line between boundaries, completing a maze, looking up places on a map or looking up words in a dictionary. They may be slow in copying from the board, constantly loose their place or omit certain sections. Understanding pictures may be confusing because they can't differentiate the outlines from the background.

Here are some practical ideas to help stimulate the development of Figure Ground skills as well as tips that can be used in the classroom.

Read More

Focus on Bilingualism

But We Wish To Speak Our Language In The Home

by Alejandro Brice, Ph.D, CCC-SLP, Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP & Roanne Brice, Ph.D., CCC-SLP
"My husband and I adopted twin sons a little over two years ago. They were 8 months old when we brought them home from their native country Cambodia, where the only language they had been exposed to was Khmer. My husband and I are both Hispanic in culture, language and heritage. Even though we live in the Southern USA [name changed] we speak Spanish at home and with our Hispanic friends as well as, of course, family. We have always wanted to raise our children to be bilingual since that has been both of our experiences. We know that the speech delay they have is very understandable given that they are boys, twins and have been exposed to several languages. A number of English-speaking friends and professionals have suggested changing to English only at home."

"A few mothers of bilingual children have formed a website and we exchange information we learn out in the 'real world' of raising our own bilingual children. The question is, a few 'professionals', have asked that some parents stop the second language at home to develop the English or whatever the community language is. What is the standard advice? Why do we get this question so often? This really goes against our instincts to not speak our own language to our children."
Read More

Q&A: Ask the Expert: What is Selective Mutism

By: Joleen Fernald, SLP, Brianne Phillips OTR/L and Chantel Dionne, OTR/L
Selective mutism (SM), formerly called elective mutism, is defined as a disorder of childhood characterized by an inability to speak in certain settings (e.g. at school, in public places) despite speaking in other settings (e.g. at home with family). SM is associated with anxiety and may be an extreme form of social phobia according to researchers and clinicians who are familiar with the disorder (Black & Uhde, 1995; Dow et al., 1995, Dummit et al., 1997, Kristensen, 2001; Leonard & Dow, 1995).

The fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, referred to by clinicians as the DSM-IV, (APA,1994) recognized that the social anxiety and avoidance characteristic of social phobia may be associated with SM, and thus, both diagnoses may be given. More than 90% of children with SM also meet the diagnostic criteria for social anxiety disorder, now termed social phobia (Black et al., 1996).

Diagnosis of other comorbid anxiety disorders are also commonly diagnosed with SM and social phobia (Biedel & Turner, 1998). The name change from "elective" to "selective mutism" in DSM-IV deemphasized the oppositional behavior connotation that a child elected not to speak and rather emphasized the characteristic of the disorder, that there are select environments in which speaking does not occur (APA, 1994). The term selective mutism is consistent with new etiological theories that focus on anxiety issues (Dow et al., 1995).
Read More

Pediatric Therapy Corner - Bonus Article!

Benefits of an Active Classroom - by Margaret Rice LPT
Most people are already aware of the physical benefits of exercise such as strengthening of the heart and lungs, preventing weight gain, healthy bones, good posture and more. Although, many are not aware of the potential brain boosting benefits of physical activity with regards to school performance. Teachers, administrators and other school staff can be wary about losing instructional time to take activity breaks. The statistics are showing that children are spending more time in a sedentary mode at school and at home. For example, recent statistics show that preschoolers spend their time performing sedentary activities 89% of the day, 8% of the day performing light physical activity and only 3% of the day doing moderately vigorous physical activity 1. As school based therapists, we can educate school staff by providing them with evidence based research to back up our suggestions to increase physical activity time during the school day. To convince school staff to infuse the day with more physical activity time, try informing staff on the additional benefits such as cognition, memory, concentration, moods, behaviors and obesity.

Physical Activity and Cognition
One of the greatest brain gains of exercise is the ability for physical activity to improve actual brain function helping nerve cells to multiply, creating more connections for learning (2,3). Research has shown that an increase in physical activity has a significant positive effect on cognition especially for early elementary and middle school students (4) . Students who exhibit fitness achievement have increased odds of passing state English and math tests (5). As an added bonus, being physically fit as a child may make you smarter for longer as you grow old (6).

Read More

Therapy Marketplace - Featured Organizations and Authors

Don D'Amore, MS. CCC-SLP and SpeechPage.com

Special Thanks to Don D'Amore and SpeechPage.com Publishing Company for contributing this month's Speech Therapy Corner article.

A professionally packaged product line of laminated, colorful and fun Speech and Language Therapy Materials are available directly through SpeechPage.com at a reasonable cost. They even offer a fun set of therapy game boards based on cooperative themes similar to what Don has written about. Please visit their website at http://www.speechpage.com

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Margaret Rice, LPT and Your Therapy Source

Special Thanks to Margaret Rice, LPT, and Your Therapy Source for providing this month's Bonus Article.

Margaret Rice PT, has authored two books on pediatric group therapy - 25 Instant Sensory Motor Group Activities and Sensory Motor Group Activities from A to Z

Please support our contributing authors and visit Your Therapy Source, Inc.. Your online resource for special needs and pediatric therapy publications. Visit http://www.YourTherapySource.com for free downloads, newsletter and to view a full list of titles.

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Melanie Lambert, OTR/L- Visual Learning for Life

Special Thanks to Melanie Lambert of Visual Learning for Life for this month's Occupational Therapy Corner article.

Melanie Lambert, an Occupational Therapist, is the brainchild and creator of Visual Learning For Life and its Worksheet Database. She is currently based in London and works part time in a pediatric private practice. The Worksheet Database continues to grow and Melanie is successfully developing and maximising the contents of the site to give users a complete toolkit in the pursuit of improving and enhancing children's visual perception.

Visual Learning for Life provides parents, teachers and professionals with a unique and easily accessible tool to help empower children who struggle with reading, spelling, handwriting and maths due to visual perceptual problems. Our website offers an extensive database of over 1200 worksheets.

Please support our contributing authors and visit Visual Learning for Life
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Joleen Fernald, CCC-SLP, Brianne Philipps, OTR/L, and Chantel Dionne MS, OTR/L, Easter Seals of New Hampshire The Family Place, and the Selective Mutism Group

Joleen Fernald, CCC-SLP is currently a PhD student studying infant mental health and developmental disabilities with Dr. Stanley Greenspan. She has a special interest in the social emotional development of young children. As a speech-language pathologist, Joleen works with children with a variety of communication disorders. She has partnered with Easter Seals NH to begin an assessment and treatment clinic specifically for selective mutism, a social communication anxiety disorder and is currently the Chair of the Selective Mutism Group, a non-profit organization specializing in the advocacy of Selective Mutism awareness. Joleen enjoys public speaking and has presented nationally on the topics of childhood apraxia of speech and selective mutism. To learn more about Selective Mutism visit the SMG website at http://www.selectivemutismgroup.org

Ms. Fernald is presenting for the Speech Pathologists and Audiologists in the Louisiana Schools conference on October 8th, 2009 (http://www.spals.org/conferences.htm) She is also presenting with Dr. Kristen Eastman, Secretary of SMG, for ASHA on October 27th, 2009

Brianne Philipps OTR/L is a licensed occupational therapist working in the field of pediatrics. She graduated from the University of New Hampshire and since then has worked in a variety of pediatric settings including early supports and services, schools, and outpatient clinics. Bri uses a holistic approach in working with children and families, drawing from different theories of practice. She has a strong foundation in Sensory Integration and is certified in the Therapeutic Listening Program. Bri facilitates Kid Connect and coordinates the Camp Connect program for children on the Autism Spectrum. She is a Certified Pediatric Yoga Instructor, participates in the Aquatic Therapy program, and is an evaluator for The Selective Mutism Clinic.

Chantel Dionne MS, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist working for Easter Seals New Hampshire. She completed her Master's degree in Occupational Therapy at the University of New England in Biddeford, Maine. She has experience working with diverse populations including children and adults in a rehabilitation setting, large preschool based setting, and center based early intervention. As an occupational therapist, she currently practices as a family centered pediatric clinician and works to facilitate social communication groups for children with various abilities. She has assisted with groups geared towards social communication anxiety disorders. She holds certifications in Pediatric Yoga and Therapeutic Listening. She enjoys diversity in her work, including aquatic therapy and volunteering with an adaptive ski program.

Please support our contributing authors and visit Easter Seals of New Hampshire, the Family Place, and the Selective Mutism Group
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Alejandro Brice, Ph.D., CCC-SLP University of South Florida St. Petersburg
Ellen Kester, Ph.D., CCC-SLP Bilinguistics, Inc.

Many thanks to Ellen Kester and Alejandro Brice for providing this article for this month's Focus on Bilingualism column.

Dr. Alejandro E. Brice is an Associate Professor at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg in Secondary/ESOL Education. His research has focused on issues of transference or interference between two languages in the areas of phonetics, phonology, semantics, and pragmatics related to speech-language pathology. In addition, his clinical expertise relates to the appropriate assessment and treatment of Spanish-English speaking students and clients. Please visit his website at http://www.stpete.usf.edu/coe/brice.htm or reach him by email at aebrice@mail.usf.edu

Dr. Roanne G. Brice is the Assistant to the Chair for the Department of Child, Family and Community Sciences at the University of Central Florida. Her research interests have focused on language and beginning literacy skills in bilingual children and students with disorders/disabilities. In addition to teaching at the university level, Dr. Brice has been an itinerant and self-contained classroom speech-language pathologist as well as a general education classroom teacher. She may be reached at robrice@mail.ucf.edu

Dr. Ellen Kester is a Founder and President of Bilinquistics, Inc. http://www.bilinguistics.com. She earned her Ph.D. in Communication Sciences and Disorders from The University of Texas at Austin. She earned her Master's degree in Speech-Language Pathology and her Bachelor's degree in Spanish at The University of Texas at Austin. She has provided bilingual Spanish/English speech-language services in schools, hospitals, and early intervention settings. Her research focus is on the acquisition of semantic language skills in bilingual children, with emphasis on assessment practices for the bilingual population. She has performed workshops and training seminars, and has presented at conferences both nationally and internationally. Dr. Kester teaches courses in language development, assessment and intervention of language disorders, early childhood intervention, and measurement at The University of Texas at Austin. She can be reached at
ellen.kester@bilinguistics.com

The PediaStaff Website - is "Not Just for Job Searching Anymore"

If you haven't been to the our website lately you are in for a treat. Not only have we completely redesigned it and added a whole lot of great information about our company, services and philosophy but we are stuffing it jam packed with fantastic pediatric and school based therapy resources for you and your staff to use everyday.

There you will find links to resources, organizations and websites on topics in pediatric speech, occupational and physical therapy including dozens of articles and videos. Topics are organized by therapy discipline and include Stuttering, Bilingualism, Autism, Down Syndrome, Pediatric Stroke, Oral Motor Issues, Speech Language Delay and much more. All articles and videos are resident on our site. No abstracts, no fees.

We hope you enjoy it! It is still very much a work in progress, but we think there is enough there to suggest that you check it out at your earliest convenience.

Visit our Resources Pages

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Whose IDEA Is This? Update Sept. 2009