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FOCUS POCUS Trunk-Or-Treat Pics!
Thank you SO much to all our FOCUS therapists & staffers for going all out to make it wicked awesome and all of the FOCUS patients & families who joined us in their eerie-sistible costumes! If you took your own pics/videos, we’d love for you to share them with us on our FOCUS Facebook page! Have a Happy Halloween, everyone! 
Join FOCUS Therapy for FOCUS POCUS Trunk-or-Treat!
FOCUS Therapy in Fort Myers is hosting its first ever FOCUS POCUS Trunk-or-Treat event of socially-distanced Halloween fun for all our patients & families!
We’re welcoming everyone to dress up, bring a treat bag and join us for games, candy, prizes and more!
Our Southwest Florida speech, occupational, physical and ABA therapists are committed to providing enriching experiences for our young patients while encouraging the kind of inclusion we want to see at all events. That’s why we’re opening our FOCUS POCUS Trunk-or-Treat fun to our patients as well as their siblings and family.
From 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29th, FOCUS Therapy staffers and therapists will park their decorated vehicles a full vehicle-length apart in the parking lot outside our clinic, 4997 Royal Gulf Circle, Fort Myers, FL 33996. Parents will be encouraged to park to the west end of the office plaza, and we’ll have a carefully directed flow of trunk-or-treaters, with only one family allowed in front of a vehicle at a time.
“Halloween and trick-or-treat are such special events that kids look forward to all year long,” said FOCUS Therapy owner/founder Jennifer Voltz-Ronco. “We know a lot of families this year may be wary of the traditional door-to-door trick-or-treating, but we don’t want anyone to miss out on the fun. It’s also great for our kiddos with disabilities and delays who could use some practice before venturing out door-to-door over the weekend.”
Some of our therapists will have fun, engaging activities and games at their “trunk stop” for children to play and engage, while still remaining socially-distanced.
“For many of our patients, traditional trick-or-treat can be tough anyway, whether because of sensory issues, language deficits or physical challenges,” Voltz-Ronco explained. “Trunk-or-treat events in general have sort of always been the perfect opportunity to allow for both tradition and accessibility. And now this year, as families with children of all abilities in our community are expressing concern about safe trick-or-treating, our team is excited to be involved in making that happen for them.”
For more information, contact FOCUS Therapy at (239) 313-5049 or e-mail [email protected].
Fort Myers OT Tips: When Your Child HATES Haircuts
One of the most important things we do as pediatric occupational therapists is help educate, support and strategize with parents to give kids all the tools they need to be more fully involved in the activities of daily living. Haircuts are a part of that – but a lot of kids extremely dislike them. There is ample research to support what many parents of children with autism already know: More than 96 percent of kids with ASD report hyper- and hypo-sensitivities to certain stimuli. That can make something seemingly simple like getting a haircut an overwhelming experience. Our Fort Myers OT team has tips to help you before your child’s next trip to the clippers.
Choosing the Right Occupational Therapist for Your Child
If your child’s pediatrician has referred your child to occupational therapy, probably one of the first things you’ll do is hop on Google and search “Fort Myers occupational therapist.” FOCUS is often one of the first search results you’ll see, but we know you have dozens of choices.
So how do you choose the occupational therapist who is right for your child? Our OT team has some tips.
Stuttering: What It Is, When to Seek Help and How Our Fort Myers Speech Therapists Treat It
Many children, when they are young and learning to talk, develop a stutter. Their brains are processing thousands of new sounds and words in the first years of their lives (aptly named a “language explosion”). As our Fort Myers speech therapists can explain, their vocabulary “explodes,” but the brain’s neural pathways are still catching up, and may have difficulty coordinating. This can be a factor in stuttering.
Sometimes, kids struggle with repetition of syllables, sounds and words. Others’ sounds are prolonged and some have so-called “blocks,” or speech interruptions. Some speculate there is a genetic component involved. No matter the specific type of stutter or the underlying reason, our Fort Myers speech therapists can help treat it.
Different Types of Stuttering
Stuttering is what’s known as a “fluency disorder.” As noted by the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA), someone who has a fluency disorder knows what they want to say, but has difficulty speaking in a way that is flowing, or fluid. They might say parts of the word or a whole word repeatedly. There might be an awkward pause between words. That’s stuttering, which is only one type of fluency disorder. There’s also “cluttering,” where one speaks rapidly and their words run together. Or they might say “um” with great frequency.
What Teletherapy Taught Me: A FOCUS Parent’s Perspective
By Rachel Revehl, FOCUS Therapy Parent
Earlier this year, prior to the pandemic, one of our son’s speech therapists from FOCUS approached me with what seemed at the time an absurd idea: Would we consider allowing him to do some of his speech therapy sessions via teletherapy? He’d be a great candidate, she said. She also thought it might help us with our busy schedule.
That last part was tempting, but…
“Um, thanks,” I replied. “But, I just don’t think that would work for him.”
Seriously, how could it? He would NEVER sit for a full session without a therapist physically in front of him, I thought.
Why FOCUS Therapy Celebrates With “Therapy Graduation” Ceremonies
FOCUS Therapy in Fort Myers is ALL about celebrating milestones big and small. We know just how hard these kids work – whether it’s speech therapy, occupational therapy, ABA therapy or physical therapy. We also know how hard their therapists and families work, too. When a child meets all the objectives of their plan of care – that is a huge success that deserves special recognition!
We’ve always held therapy graduations for kids, but we’ve been thinking more about their importance lately, not only because we’ve held several in the past few weeks, but also because we know so many kids in our community have missed important rites of passage like these in recent months. It was a real loss to them and their families. It drives home the point that whether you’re 8 or 18 or 80, a graduation is a very significant appreciation of one’s personal achievements and hard work. It’s also a gift to their family and others who have supported them along the way. When a child starts therapy, it’s often as much a journey for their family and therapy team as it is for them.
“Therapy is a commitment for the parents and the child,” explained FOCUS Therapy Owner and Founder Jennifer Voltz-Ronco. “They have to attend a certain amount of times per week, they need to show up, they need to give it their best. If it’s going to be effective, parents need to be on-board to ensure consistency and carryover. The kids work hard, the families work hard – and the therapists work so hard too! So when a child gets to the point that they’ve met all their goals and therapy is no longer necessary, I have always felt it is SO important to celebrate that victory.”
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!