Halloween at Rock!

Please feel free to wear your Halloween costume to therapy during the week of October 26th-30th for some Halloween fun with the Rock Therapy staff!  Wear your own costume -OR- dress for one of our themes:

Monday:  Pajama Day

Tuesday: Cowboy/Western clothes

Wednesday: Sports Day -- wear a jersey or your favorite team's gear!

Thursday: Orange & Black

Friday: Costume Day!

Preparing for Halloween!

Hello All!  Elizabeth here with a few tips to help you and your child prepare for a wonderful Halloween experience. 

Halloween is an exciting time. With excitement comes unpredictability.  I don’t know about you, but that’s not my favorite thing in the world.  I like to anticipate how my costume will work, the routine of trick-or-treating, and set realistic expectations for Halloween-themed events.

I recommend practicing wearing a costume for a few minutes at a time.  Increase wearing time over a few days so that your child feels comfortable and you have time to make any adjustments (like removing itchy tags, etc.) before the big event.  This is especially true if the costume includes a mask.

You may want to practice dressing up to so that your child feels comfortable seeing you in costume and understands that familiar people will look different on Halloween.

In my experience, grandparents and neighbors would love to help your child practice the trick-or-treating routine.  Depending on your child’s comfort separating from you, you can help her walk to the door, knock, say ‘trick-or-treat’, accept a treat, say ‘thank you’, and walk away.  Sometimes, the concept of accepting whatever is dropped into the treat bag can be tough. Perhaps letting her know ahead of time that she can trade their loot for a prize at the end or swap for favorite candy with siblings or friends can make it easier to accept a non-preferred option. 

Let’s return to the unpredictable aspects of Halloween.  Halloween is full of surprises.  Some fun and spooky and some just plain scary.  More on that in a moment.  Give your child a rough outline of the events he can expect. If attending a school carnival, talk about what kinds of games and activities there will be and estimate how long you will be there.  Perhaps you’re going trick-or-treating in a different neighborhood, you could drive by in advance, or go for an evening walk to get used to how cold it will be and estimate how many houses you will go to.

Halloween is also a great time to work on language skills. Describing the way houses, characters, and decorations look is encouraged.  Describing the emotions they evoke is even better!  I love to take this as an opportunity to discuss things that are ‘spooky’ versus things that are ‘scary’.  To me, ‘spooky’ includes things like fake spiders and ghosts hanging from trees. Flickering lights and Halloween music are ‘spooky’ to me.  ‘Spooky’ things might be creepy, but fun, and do not make me feel threatened or afraid.  ‘Scary’ can be a different story.  I put haunted houses, life-like animatronic skeletons, and people who are still until you approach and then pounce, in the ‘scary’ category.

Giving your child the language to tell you if she thought something was ‘spooky’ or ‘scary’ before Halloween night can certainly help you avoid a situation where she might feel genuinely afraid and unsafe.  Those kind of feelings tend to linger and can taint memories and future Halloween experiences.  Talk with your child about what to say if she scared.  Reassure her that you are there and she is safe.

Reading books about Halloween is also a fun way to prepare and gives you and your child a chance to connect leading up to this fun holiday.

Popcorn Hands

It's already the middle of the month and Halloween is coming up quickly!  We are getting ready to celebrate by carving pumpkins and making fun Halloween crafts at the clinic.  Another fun thing to do during this season is make Halloween treats!  Below is a quick and easy activity where you can practice a specific speech sound at the same time.    



You will need:

-Popped popcorn
-Candy corn
-Plastic gloves
-String/ribbon

That's it! 

Have your child put one candy corn into each finger of the glove.  After that fill the glove with popcorn.  Then, use some string to tie the top to keep the treats inside.  Some children might just want to skip the last step and eat the treats!  For each piece of candy or popcorn that is placed into the glove your child could practice the speech sound they are currently working on (/p/, /b/, /t/, /s/, etc.).  This activity is a great way to get a lot of practice in a short amount of time.  I hope you all enjoy!  

-Cassee

We're Back!

Rock Therapeutic Services has been growing a lot over the past few months!  Our Maple Valley office is getting busier and busier, and we have a new office in Mercer Island.  With all of these great changes happening, we wanted to bring the blog back to life.

We plan to have frequent posts, with all of our fantastic therapists taking turns posting.  We look forward to sharing our different interests and perspectives with you.  Posts will contain news about family-friendly community events, ideas for home activities to enhance your child's therapy, answers to frequently asked questions about speech and language development, and anything else we want to share.  

For our first post, here are a few upcoming community events that we thought our families might enjoy:

Pacific Science Center: Exploration for All -- Autism Early Open

On the second Saturday of each month, all families affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder are invited to explore Pacific Science Center during a special free morning visit from 8-10 a.m. – before they open to the public. Experience their exhibits without heavy crowds when they have softened general lighting and decreased the noise level and visual stimulation on interactive exhibits wherever possible.  See the link above for upcoming dates and details.

Seattle Children's Hospital: Autism 200 Series

Autism 200 is a series of free 90-minute classes for parents and caregivers of children with autism who wish to better understand this disorder. Faculty from Seattle Children’s and the University of Washington and community providers teach the classes. Each class includes time for questions.

Classes are open to the general public, and there is no need to register in advance to attend. Lectures are held at Seattle Children’s Hospital's main campus in Wright Auditorium.  See the link above for more information.

--Sarah

Story Time at Public Libraries

From the Seattle Children's Hospital Autism Blog:

A new, early learning story time geared towards children ages 10 and under who have a hard time in larger story time groups, are on the autism spectrum, or are sensitive to sensory overload is beginning at two branches of the Seattle Public Library System.  All appropriate ages children are invited to any of the story times, but this story time may be more enjoyable for some children with autism.  Librarians will use preschool-level books, songs and movement during the story times.

Sensory Story Times: 10:15am on Saturdays, 9/7 - 11/23

(alternating between the Columbia City and Greenwood Branches)

Story Times are limited to 15 families.

Registration is required, please call 206 684-4086

Go to www.spl.org/sensorystorytime for more information including the visual story time schedule, links to the songs, and the detailed schedule.

Summer Social Groups 2013!

New for 2013...  We're teaming up with the Occupational Therapists from Maple Valley Pediatric Therapy to offer two different Summer Social Groups:

• Speech & OT Social Group (75 minute sessions, 3 days per week)
• Social Feeding Group (60 minute sessions, 1 day per week)

The groups will consist of 3-4 students plus 1 or 2 peer models and 2 or more instructors!

Please contact us for program details!

425 358-7160

Email

 

Fast Food Tied to Children's Allergies!

A study partially funded by the Asthma and Respiratory Foundation of New Zealand, AstraZeneca New Zealand and the Auckland Medical Research Foundation has found that Children and Teens who eat fast foods multiple times a week are at an increased risk for sever asthma, rhinoconjuctivitis and eczema!

The researchers gathered symptom prevalence data on types of food intake and symptom prevalence of asthma, rhinoconjunctivitis, wheezing, and eczema from 319,196 teens, ages 13 and 14, from 51 countries, and 181,631 children, ages 6 and 7, from 31 countries through the third phase of the International Study of asthma and Allergies in Childhood (ISAAC).

Fruit!
Fruit consumption at least once or twice a week was associated with a significant protective effect against the aforementioned conditions among children and teens.

Consumption of eggs, fruit, meat, and milk three or more times a week also showed a protective effect among the conditions.