Does your child: ● Eat the same foods every day? ● Refuses to try or touch new foods? ● Gag at the sight or smell of food? ● Refuse to watch you eat? ● Have difficulty with chewing or swallowing? ● Avoid certain textures? ● Have meltdowns at mealtime? If you answered yes to one...
The tactile sensory system is responsible for interpreting touch, not only in the hands but every inch of your skin. The tactile system helps you to understand various sensations including textures, pressure, temperature, and pain. As an infant, our tactile system is responsible for building the first connection we have with others through the skin...
Most toddlers love to listen to music! It is exciting and keeps their attention. It is also a fun way to teach a variety of new skills, such as fine and gross motor skills, following directions, basic concepts, and new vocabulary. By singing songs with your child, you can help increase their speech and language...
So much of what we learn is gathered from what we see around us. Vision is not as simple as just seeing something in front of us. It begins with the structure of the eye and surrounding muscles. We must then be able to move our eyes to search for the item, understand it’s shape/form/what...
Your doctor says your child has hypotonia or “low tone”, but what exactly does that mean, and how does it affect your child’s development? Hypotonia is a medical term that means decreased muscle tone. Everyone is born with an individualized amount of muscle tone, which is the level of stiffness and tension of a muscle...
As your child gains independence and is learning to complete dressing activities on their own, clothing fasteners may be a tricky and frustrating skill for them to master because they involve many skills. Completing clothing fasteners, such as buttons and zippers, require refined fine motor skills and grasp patterns, visual motor skill and bilateral coordination...
Many families coming into speech therapy evaluations all ask the same few questions… “Is learning two languages at the same time affecting my child’s language development?” or “Should we only stick with one language even though multiple languages are spoken within our home?”. The answer to both of these questions is NO! Bilingual acquisition (i.e.,...
Asking questions is an essential skill for children to learn. Does your child know how to ask simple questions to communicate their wants and needs? Do they use questions to acquire information or promote back and forth conversation? Some children may struggle with expressive language skills and may need assistance when developing the skill of...
When so much of a child’s learning/skill development is created through play, it is important to provide children with toys that will promote their development and provide opportunities to grow. Toys can improve a child’s fine motor and manual dexterity, bilateral coordination, visual-motor integration, sensory processing, gross motor development, and so much more! Here I’ll...
Autism Spectrum Disorder (A Speech-Language Pathologists’ Perspective) As a therapist in pediatric land, it is extremely common to have children on my caseload who demonstrate with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). One of the most difficult conversations I can have with a family is discussing ‘red flags’ for autism, particularly when their own child demonstrates...
Copyright by North Valley Pediatric Therapy. All rights reserved.
Copyright by North Valley Pediatric Therapy. All rights reserved.
