Blog
Back-to-School Support from FOCUS Therapy
It’s a new school year, which means a new routine – and all of us at FOCUS Therapy recognize the transition this year is especially significant because it’s the longest so many of our kids have been away from school for any one stretch. For some, this school year and all the milestones that go with it are going to continue to look much different.
School officially starts for students in the Lee County School District on Aug. 31st, with one of four instruction model options. The Fort Myers News-Press reports most will do so at half capacity. Desks will be spaced-out. Certain hallways and stairwells will be designated one-way. Classroom changes will be staggered and lunches will be served in classrooms to prevent large gatherings of students at any one place on campus. Approximately 58 percent of students are learning virtually, with 39 percent signing up for Lee Home Connect and 19 percent for Lee Virtual School.
Our dedicated team of therapists and staffers is SO excited to hear all about your first days back to school. Because this new year is going to mean many changes and everyone will be quite busy, we wanted to send out some friendly reminders to help families as they navigate through these challenges.
FOCUS Fort Myers Pediatric Physical Therapists Dedicated to Top Quality Treatment of Sports Injuries
"It's not whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get up." -Vince Lombardi, late American football coach and executive in the National Football League (NFL)
Our Fort Myers pediatric physical therapists know how important sports are to children's development, physical fitness and mental health. That's why we are committed to providing they highest quality care for children who have suffered sports injuries. We understand that while they may get knocked down, it's essential not just to their recovery but their overall well-being that they get back up - and the sooner, the better.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 2.6 million children are treated in hospital emergency departments annually for sports and recreation-related injuries. Recently, one of those was 14-year-old Jett, a local baseball and basketball player in Fort Myers. He suffered a knee injury during one of his practices that sidelined him completely. Emergency department doctors referred him to physical therapy. But his mother, who just happens to be FOCUS Therapy's owner and founder, wasn't going to take him to just any Fort Myers pediatric physical therapists.
"I knew that a physical therapist who mostly sees adults wouldn't necessarily be attuned to the unique needs of a developing athlete," said Jennifer Voltz-Ronco. "But our physical therapists at FOCUS would."
As a speech-language pathologist, Voltz-Ronco knows a thing or two about providing therapy to kids. So when the need arose for physical therapy for her own son, she trusted the team she put in place.
Pediatric Physical Therapist Julie O'Conner virtually oversaw Jett's evaluation and first session with Physical Therapist Assistant Tabitha Baxter. Voltz-Ronco said the experience - as a patient parent rather than provider - was invaluable. She noted that it was great to see how a physical therapist could work well virtually with an assistant (and noted that not every session with physical therapist assistants must be monitored). She watched how, as a caring, professional team, they worked so well together to provide Jett with the best care.
"We treat all of our patients like family, but experiencing this not just as the owner, but also as a parent was so insightful," she said. "It made me even more confident that I hired the most knowledgeable, loving, super-amazing people."
Dr. O'Conner, who has five years of experience treating children, explained that the goal with treating pediatric sports injuries is not to get an athlete simply to the strength and endurance of their typical peers. She wants them to be at their peak level of performance.
"I want him to get to the point again that he can pivot quickly, change direction and bear as much weight as he did before the training," O'Conner said. "So that this doesn't happen again, and he can get back to playing the sports he loves."
FOCUS offers pediatric physical therapy in Fort Myers and throughout Southwest Florida. Call (239) 313.5049 or Contact Us online.
Additional Resources:
Sports Safety, Key Prevention Tips, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
More Blog Entries:
Fort Myers Physical Therapy Tips & Tricks to Prevent & Reduce Toe-Walking, June 8, 2020, Fort Myers Pediatric Physical Therapists Blog
Speech in Spades: How We Can Use Playing Cards in Speech Therapy
The FOCUS speech therapy team is flush with great ideas when it comes to using a deck of playing cards to get your child talking.
Card-playing is a popular past time because decks are small, portable and offer endless possibilities. Our speech therapists love cards too because they can be used during sessions (or at home) as a “communication temptation” for our patients. A communication temptation is any type of motivation we use to get kids engaged, talking and practicing the various skills we’re working on in speech therapy.
In addition to classic card games for kids (think Go Fish, Gin Rummy and Crazy Eights), it’s fun to make up games directly tailored to the skills of the children with whom we’re working. Here, we’ll outline some examples. Feel free to try them out yourself or make up your own!
New FOCUS Drop-Off & Pick-Up Policy Due to COVID-19 Concern
Attention FOCUS Families: Effective immediately and until further notice, the FOCUS Therapy waiting room will be closed.
We are updating our pickup and drop-off procedures in response to parent concern and the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Florida.
Rather than entering the facility to check-in and pick up, we ask that parents and patients remain in their vehicles.
Upon arrival, parents should text the FOCUS Office cell phone – (239) 322-2810 – and provide the patient’s name, therapist’s name and make/model of the vehicle. Your therapist will then come out to the vehicle to retrieve your child. When your child’s therapy session is finished, your FOCUS therapist will escort your child to your vehicle in the parking lot.
Closing our waiting room for the time being is an action we take out of an abundance of caution in addition to numerous existing precautions and vigorous cleaning policies.
Heavy Work: What It Is & Why Our Occupational Therapists Often Highly Recommend It
Many of the children we treat at FOCUS have some sensory processing issues. These are difficulties organizing and responding to information that is “read” through the senses. Some kids are undersensitive (sensory seeking), some are oversensitive (sensory avoiding) – and some are both, depending on the sense and stimuli. When a child has trouble managing sensory input, it can have a significant impact on learning and everyday life. One of the things our Fort Myers occupational therapists frequently recommend to help children with sensory processing issues is called “heavy work.”
Heavy work is a strategy we use in therapy and recommend to parents to target a sense called proprioception, with the ultimate aim of:
- Improving attention and focus.
- Decreasing defensiveness.
- Helping to calm/regulate.
Heavy work can actually benefit all children, not just those with sensory processing difficulty. Our occupational therapists have found it especially helpful to have kids do heavy work just before or at the very beginning of our sessions.
How Fort Myers ABA Therapy Prepares Kids for Classroom Success
The end of this school year looked a lot different for many kids. When it came to distance learning, children with special needs and their families faced significant challenges. We expect many children have experienced some degree of regression, but it’s likely especially true for children on the autism spectrum. This was one of the reasons it was so important for our Fort Myers ABA therapy team to reopen our doors as soon as possible once it was safe in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We know how vital these services are to so many children and families. Now, we are actively working to make up on lost ground, in many cases focusing on skills that will help our FOCUS patients prepare for what may be a difficult transition back to school in the fall.
Although many of our ABA therapy patients are in individualized programs that involve 20-to-40-hours-a-week of 1:1 support with a registered behavior technician (RBT), it’s important to underscore the fact that the ultimate goal is usually to reduce that level of support as the patient grows increasingly independent. With consistent, early intervention therapy and the right amount of planning, the use of ABA principles can help kids successfully transition into a more typical classroom.
The principles and practices our Fort Myers ABA therapy team implements can reinforce the sort of behaviors that will help your child with autism thrive in school – whether that’s this fall or sometime later in the future.
Fort Myers Physical Therapy Tips & Tricks to Prevent & Reduce Toe-Walking
Toe walking is a pattern of walking wherein a child walks on the balls of their feet, with no contact between their heels and the ground. As our Fort Myers physical therapy team can explain, it’s common among children who are learning to walk, but most kids outgrow it after age 2, when they assume the typical heel-to-toe gait.
However, when toe walking persists beyond that, it could be a sign of an underlying medical condition, such as cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy or a spinal cord abnormality. (Children with autism spectrum disorder and related conditions often toe walk more frequently, but there isn’t any direct link between the two conditions. There is some speculation that it’s related to sensory issues.) Sometimes, the causes are idiopathic, meaning we don’t know why it happens.
In any case, regardless of the cause, toe walking can result in complications. Children who spend a lot of time on their toes can develop stiffness, tightening and pain in their Achilles tendon and calf. In turn, this can lead to poor range of motion in the ankle, which is going to have a snowball effect. This can be treated by our Fort Myers physical therapy and occupational therapy teams.
Causes and Treatment of Speech Impairment in Children With Down Syndrome
Speech impairment is a common challenge for children with Down syndrome. This is one of the many issues our Fort Myers speech therapists address for our Down syndrome patients at FOCUS Therapy. We encourage any parent whose child has been recently diagnosed to contact our office to set up an evaluation for speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy and possibly ABA therapy. The earlier we are able to intervene, the better the long-term progress and prognosis.
Speech is the ability one has to vocally communicate by articulating sounds and using language.
To understand why children with Down syndrome struggle in this regard – and how we can help treat it – we first need to break down some of the observable symptom clusters affecting multiple body systems that are common among children with this diagnosis.
Kids’ Chores = Occupational Therapy Practice!
There are many established benefits to giving children regular household chores. From an occupational therapy perspective, this holds especially true for children with special needs.
Some of the known upsides include:
- Establishing routine. Having chores on a set schedule can help reduce anxiety, improve focus and even avoid meltdowns. Many kids on the autism spectrum, for example, feel more secure when they know what to expect next. Chores assigned at the same time each day or day of the week or after certain activities can make for smoother transitions. Visual schedules can help with this too.
- Teaching valuable life skills. This includes learning the task itself but also responsibility. Children with developmental delays and other conditions may need more practice with certain things and sometimes modifications are necessary, but never assume they can’t just because of their diagnosis. Talk to your occupational therapist if you have questions.
- Contributing to the family. No matter what a child’s abilities, there are always ways to help out. It also gives children confidence and a sense of accomplishment.
- Development of fine and gross motor skills and sensory integration. Chores require use of either big muscle groups (gross motor skills) or careful hand-eye coordination and finger manipulation (fine motor skills). These are things our Fort Myers occupational therapy team is probably working on with your child. Chores are a good way to practice and reinforce those skills.
Parents: Get Involved in Your Child’s Speech Therapy Progress!
In our many years of collective experience as speech-language pathologists, our FOCUS team has amassed lots tools to help us address children’s speech and language problems. We have loads of interactive games, cool crafts, brightly-colored books, fun toys and the technology that made us one of the first providers of online speech therapy for kids in Fort Myers (even prior to the pandemic). We also glean a lot of insight working with other professionals in a multi-disciplinary clinic.
But the most powerful tool we have? Parents!
Parent involvement in a child’s speech therapy is so, so important. Those who are committed to our process and make efforts to use our strategies at home are going to see their children make more significant, faster strides. That’s our personal experience, but there’s a lot of research to back us up on this.
We get it, though: Easier said than done. Parents these days are pulled in a thousand directions at once. This is only compounded if your child has been diagnosed with a developmental delay or disorder. There are appointments for doctors, specialists, therapies and school programs – on top of the everyday demands of work and other commitments.
It can be very tempting to simply rely on your speech therapy team to”fix” the speech problems. It’s true that we do (as we sometimes joke) “have ways of making you talk.” We bring to the table proven clinical strategies to help improve your child’s communication skills. But at the end of the day, parents are the rock star reinforcements.