What is a concussion? A concussion is an unpredictable injury to any area of the brain, resulting in immediate or delayed changes in the brain’s chemistry and function. Concussions occur with rapid movement changes or when the head is directly hit. Often seen in playground accidents, falls, motor vehicle collisions (whiplash), and contact sports such...

Mealtime can be a dreaded time of day for many families. Parents, you make foods you know your child won’t touch, knowing the fight that is coming to try new foods, or the alternative, spending extra time to make your child a different meal you know they will eat. The stress that this causes both...

Stuttering Cluttering According to ASHA, stuttering is the disruption in the fluency of verbal expression characterized by involuntary, audible or silent, repetitions or prolongations of sounds of syllables. Types of Stuttering – Developmental- most common; occurs in young children while they are learning language – Neurogenic-caused by neurological disease or damage – Psychogenic- post-childhood following...

Does your child… Have a limited diet? Resist trying new foods? Gag at the site or smell of food? Get upset when presented with new foods? Gag or vomit while eating? Utilizing the SOS steps to eating may be a great tool to help your child with eating!   What are the SOS steps to...

One of the programs offered by North Valley Pediatric Therapy is applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy. The following information is a brief introduction into ABA, including where it originated, principles used, and skills that may be targeted. It is not intended to be a full review of ABA and/or to be used to determine if...

It’s not surprising that parents want their children to be the best that they can be in whatever they do, including sports. Being the best takes time, though. And repetition. Frequent training. Dedication. The list goes on and on. For a skeletally mature adult, the physical nature of high-intensity training is tolerable and the body...

What are Reflexes? Primitive Reflexes are reflexes that develop in the brain stem before birth. They are involuntary reactions that help the baby with positioning in the womb, birthing, breathing, feeding, and gross motor skills. Most of these primitive reflexes go away throughout the first year of life. However, if primitive reflexes persist they can...

We talk a lot about intervention with preschool and primary-age children, but today we are going to be talking in depth about young adults in speech therapy. Specifically, we are focusing on life skills like social, vocational, and communication skills. When we build upon skills for the success of our older clients, we are providing...

Tummy time: an infant activity that many parents dread, but with the right strategies, that does not have to be the case! What is tummy time? It can be defined as time spent laying on an infant’s belly in a horizontal position. For example, when a baby is positioned on their belly while playing on...

A lot of you may have heard of the Munchkin Miracle 360 Cup by now. Labeled as the “miracle cup”, the 360 cup offers a spill proof design; what could possibly be wrong with that? The Miracle 360 Cup may seem like a convenient, mess free way to drink liquids with little ones. But, let...