Family Therapy Charlotte

Child and Family Development is glad to support our neighbors in Charlotte.

This month, our Speech Therapy team partnered with Forest Hill Preschool and completed free screens to children ages 3 and under. 

My Disclaimer...

This blog is going to be for a step by step guide to my child's developmental milestones.  I have a girl, please note that girls typically develop speech milestones faster, especially since her mommy is a pediatric speech therapist, whereas boys typically develop physical milestone faster.  It can be used as a guide for other families, but please keep in mind that all children develop at different rates and should you have any concerns about where your child should be, you should speak to your pediatrician or schedule an appointment with a therapist in our office

Her 5th month...

Well her month began with her decideding that 3 am was a good time to roll over, thankfully we have a monitor and I heard her stirring.  Yes, that is right...in her swaddle, she rolled from her back to her belly and was very angry when she could not get back.  Mommy ran to the rescue, calmed her back down and went back to bed.  Only to hear a strange noise on the monitor, turn it on and watch her do it again.  Why must she practice things at 3 am.  If she is going to stir it is always around 3 in the morning, doesn't she know that mommy only knows one 3 o'clock and it comes when the sun it out, doesn't she understand I have to work?

She sits up with support.  She likes her Bumbo seat and sits for longer times.   She sits and uses both hand to explore toys.  She just doesn't want to go in the car seat anymore, and sometimes we have to force her, but once she is in it she does fine.  She grabs at things on her carseat bar, exersaucer, high chair, etc.  She likes to stand up, with support, I believe because it gives her a better view of what is going on around her, and I think I have mentioned how nosey she is. 

She watches and attends to noises, which can make feeding her kind of difficult, as it is very hard to keep a bottle in her mouth when her head constantly moves.  She actually will look around until she locates where a sound is coming from.  She follows your movement around a room.  She plays peek a boo, and actually appears to look for you when she knows you are hiding and playing it.  The she laughs when you say "boo".  Her laugh/giggling is so cute.  We try to video it, but she does not let us, everytime the camera comes out she just stares at it, despite our efforts by tickling, playing peek-a-boo, silly faces, etc.  She smiles when she sees people she knows and she scrunches her face and studies new/unfamiliar faces before she will smile at them.  I love seeing her little personality develop.

Speaking of her not liking things on her fingers, when preparing her Easter Cards I attempted to paint her hand to do handprints on the cards, and she really did not like her hand messy.  I should also mention that when she was a newborn, we tried to stick her fingers in the clay to make a mold of her hand and ended up having to do her foot b/c she would only fist her hand when we put it in the clay, she cried when we did her foot, but atleast we were able to get it.  She honestly looked like she was trying to wipe the paint off on the high chair.  I feel her pain.  It is hard to try to push the messiness  when I know I would not be happy with that either. 

So speaking of yucky things that I don't like....she is still slinging spit everywhere and sliming everyone who holds her.  Just when I though she had gotten as bad as teething could probably get she kicked it up a notch.  EVERYTHING goes in her mouth.   She does some munching (up and down motion, a pre chewing skill) on toys, shirts, hands, arms, face, etc.  You get too close, prepare to walk away with slobber on you.  She lateralizes her tongue (moves it from side to side) when things are in her mouth.  No teeth yet.  I did find out that my husband got his first tooth when he was 4.5 months, which may explaign some of the chaos. 

The Dr. recommended we start food this month.  We started with single grain rice, mixed with breast milk.  Mmmmm yummy...no really... it looks like paste and sticks to things like paste and this mommy has texture issues and does not like to be messy.  I know it is good for her to get messy though, so I try to let her face keep the yuckiness on it, but she is not so sure about it, especially when it is on her fingers.  She did well for a week with rice, but when we introduced oatmeal started getting mad everytime we brought a spoon near her, so we are took a couple day break and tried again.  We started back with rice and it appears to be going well again.  Maybe she just doesn't like oatmeal?  I guess only time will tell.

So now my favorite part.  She is doing more and more babbling.  She will oh and ah and put some m, k, g sounds in there as well.  She starts as soon as we wake her and does it on and off all day.  I love it and encourage it by talking back to her as much as I can. 

I am sure I have forgotten something remarkable that occurred this month, but stay tuned for Month 6....

The Autism Society has been celebrating National Autism Awareness Month since the 1970s. The United States recognizes April as a special opportunity for everyone to educate the public about autism and issues within the autism community. Join them and get involved this month.

One suggestion they have is for supporters to attend Autism Society events.  1Power4Autism is an online tool that makes it easy to mobilize friends and family and help make a difference.

Learn even more by contacting local chapter in Charlotte, Autism Society of Mecklenburg County: www.autismsociety.org

Two members of the Physical Therapy team completed APTA Clinical Instructor training this month.

 Child and Family Development partners with several regional universities to assist graduate students in completing required internships. 

Summer is a great time to complete the Cogmed Working Memory Program. 

Cogmed Working Memory Training is an innovative computer-based program designed for children contending with attention deficit challenges. Easy to implement at home, it is clinically proven to increase a child’s working memory capacity and concentration while building impulse control and complex reasoning skills. Among other advantages, Cogmed Working Memory Training can be the means to better academic and professional performance.

Visit their website, http://www.cogmed.com/, for more information about this state-of-the-art intervention.  A free parent webinar is available.

Last year, Dr.  Joy Granetz became one of a few trained Cogmed Practitioners in our area.   She is currently accepting Cogmed clients for the late spring and summer.   

To find out if this program is right for your child, call Child and Family Development South Charlotte office at 704-541-9080 to schedule an initial appointment.    

My Disclaimer...

This blog is going to be for a step by step guide to my child's developmental milestones  I have a girl, please note that girls typically develop speech milestones faster,not to mention she should since I am a pediatric speech therapist,  whereas boys typically develop physical milestone faster.  It can be used as a guide for other families, but please keep in mind that all children develop at different rates and should you have any concerns about where your child should be, you should speak to your pediatrician or schedule an appointment with a speech, pysical, or occupational therapist in our office.

Her 4th month....

She continues to drool.  No swollen gums, no redness, just chews her hands, chews her dresses, chews my hands, my arm, shoulder, basically anything and everything that she can get in her mouth.  No one really tells you how gross it is to always be slimed by your sweet adorable cute baby.  I really don't want a finger sucker, I am a believer in it is much easier to get rid of a pacifier than it is to get a kid to stop sucking fingers.  She sucks her thumbs all the time.  Does anyone think it would be bad to paint her nails with that bitter stuff they use on older kids?...Just Kidding.

She sits in her Bumbo seat now for short amounts of time, while playing with toys, or waiting on mom and dad to finish eating dinner.  That is some hard work for her.  She sits in her exersaucer...shhhhh don't tell Erin Harkins or Jessica Sapel, Physical Therapists in our south charlotte office.  I only do it for short amounts of time and I have put a book under her feet so her feet fully touch the bottom, I know they have told me it is not good for a baby's hips to be in that position for a long amount of time.

Tummy time is still not her favorite, but she is tolerating it for longer amounts of time, and she does it without a pillow under her.  She is soooo close to rolling over.  I keep swearing that she is going to do it, but then she doesn't.

When on her back, she kicks so much that she can move herself around on a mat, or turn herself completely around in her crib, while swaddled (I believe I have a Houdini, b/c she can certainly get out of a swaddle if she wants to bad enough, especially if her daddy put her in it ;) ).  She can lift her hips up off the floor.

When lying down on the floor or in your arms on her back, she does what I refer to as baby crunches.  She tries to lift herself into a sitting position.  Again, I think this stims from being nosey...kind of hard to be nosey lying down on your back.

Her cooing has changed.  She changes the pitches of her voice now...the cat does NOT like this, the cat's tail is huge when she comes to see what is going on!!  She is beginning to have more sounds...daddy is mad, still no dada.  She talks more when her hand is in her mouth.

Read about each of these suggestions on the Child and Family Development blog this month.

Learn even more by contacting local chapter in Charlotte, Autism Society of Mecklenburg County: www.autismsociety.org

Child and Family Development enjoys collaboration with United Sleep Medicine Center. Our pediatric therapy team often refers to this organization and others in the Charlotte community. 

According to the experts there, disrupted sleep in children can result in:

• behavior or discipline problems
• delayed growth and cognitive development
• ADHD-like behaviors (hyperactivity, aggression, irritability or mood swings)
• poor school performance
• difficulty getting along with peers
• inability to control emotions
• poor sleep habits
• Circadian Rhythm Disorder

The Infant and Child Division offers evaluation and management services.  Visit their website for more information, www.unitedsleepmedicine.com.

Look who's talking about Occupational Therapy!

"Courtney was wonderful and helped my child feel comfortable and also challenged her to reach her goals. My child is motivated here at home to improve so that when we return to Child and Family Development, Courtney will see imporvement."

Clients are talking about Child and Family Development's Administrative Team!

"I was most impressed of how informative and kind the lady was when I called for the first time. She explained everything, took her time and reassured me. Being the first person representing Dr. Granetz, she is an asset."

In my occupational therapy work, a current interest is working with children who have both difficulties with handwriting and visual perceptual skills. I am always looking for new ways to work on skills, while having fun.  One area of visual perception that can be developed through toys and games is figure ground skills. Figure ground skills are the ability to find hidden pictures or objects in a background of other objects. A good practical example of this is trying to find an object in a cluttered drawer or freezer. 

Child and Family Development is accepting new referrals for speech therapy services.  Typically, the first appointment occurs within 1 week of the initial call to our office. 

With diverse expertise, interests and experiences, we are ready to provide a wide range of evaluation and treatment services. Our SLP team includes:

We accept insurance plans including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), Cigna, Medcost, Primary Physician Care (PPC), United Healthcare (UHC), as well as NC Medicaid. 

Visit our website to learn more about our services and therapists and call our office to schedule the initial appointment. 

Greetings!

I am so excited to be a part of the Child and Family Development pediatric therapy team!  I want to take this opportunity to introduce myself. 

I moved to Charlotte from Ohio in 2006, after completing my undergraduate and graduate work at Ohio University in Athens, OH.  Since moving here, I have worked with children ages birth to 15 years in a variety of settings including public schools, private schools, home, daycare, and preschool settings.  I have experience working with children with hearing loss, language disorders/delays, learning disabilitites, Autism, developmental delays, articulation/phonological disorders, apraxia, augmentative communication, and other difficulties. 

Since starting at C&FD, I have been extremely impressed with the quality of services and level of knowledge the therapists display, as well as the love, support and motivation of the families and children that come here.  I am so glad to be a part of this TEAM.

To learn more about me, read my biography on the C&FD website.

Megan Keller, a member of our Occupational Therapy team, continued her professional training this week by attending a course titled ADHD and Processing Disorders: Immediate Evidence-Based Strategies that Work!

The course objectives were to identify core problems in Sensory Processing Disorder and Central Auditory Processing Disorder, provide strategies for inattention and disorganization and demonstrate tools that can be used with adults and children.

Since Megan specializes in treatment of children and adolescents with autism and sensory processing difficulties, this course was well suited to her work at Child and Family Development.   

When I, as an occupational therapist, evaluate handwriting, I often further evaluate visual perceptual skills. These are the skills that allow you or your child to understand what it is that they are seeing and interpret that information so that it can be used. Visual perception is not as simple as it may sound, and is broken down into a number of categories. These areas are both necessary for handwriting, as well other functions of our everyday lives and include:

This week, a representative of A Special Needs Plan shared an exciting endeavor with the Child and Family Development team. 

They have published a guidebook to special needs planning called The Family Advocate™ that is designed to educate families on what they need to do to secure their loved one’s future.

Their team wants to give this book to at least one million people, so we are spreading the word too.

Here’s how to learn more about this:

• Call: 800-SN9-8610
• Email: info@specialneedsplan.com
• Visit: www.aspecialneedsplan.com or www.specialneedsknowledge.org

Arthrogryposis

Cerebral Palsy

Developmental Delay

Down syndrome

Gross Motor Coordination

Torticollis

Child and Family Development is accepting new referrals for physical therapy services.  Typically, the first appointment occurs within 1 week of the initial call to our office.  Our experienced PT team includes:

We accept insurance plans including Aetna, Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS), Cigna, Medcost, Primary Physician Care (PPC), United Healthcare (UHC), as well as NC Medicaid and SC Medicaid. 

Visit our website to learn more about our services and therapists and call our office to schedule the initial appointment.