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THE TREATMENT AND LEARNING CENTERS
A MESSAGE FROM THE
DIRECTOR OF CLINICAL PROGRAMS Welcome to the Summer 2022 Edition of Kids Making Strides! With another challenging school year behind us, we are hoping to enjoy some warm summer breezes, poolside afternoons and days filled with relaxation. We need to unplug and find the things that will energize us while enjoying family and friends. TLC’s outpatient departments continue to support our families throughout the summer – and beyond. Our Speech-Language and Occupational Therapy camps run from late June through mid-August and all seven weeks are fully enrolled with two morning and two afternoon camps all summer. Our individual therapies and evaluations continue in these two programs as well as in our Testing, Tutoring and Counseling department. Please read on to learn more about some informative tips from our outpatient staff.
Brigid Baker, OTR/L Brigid Baker, OTR/L Director of Clinical Programs The Treatment and Learning Centers
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DEVELOPMENT OF PLAY SKILLS TLC'S OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY DEPARTMENT Occupational Therapists take play seriously. Play is fun and is an intrinsic part of childhood. Children learn through play and play to learn. It is their childhood occupation. We have all heard the expression “time flies when you are having fun!” When a child is engaged with an activity that is fun, it can motivate them to repeat the activity or experiment with variations of the activity. Through play, children learn about themselves, their bodies, and their feelings. They learn to connect with others around them. Through active hands-on play, children will develop their motor and movement skills, problem-solving and cognitive skills, language, social and emotional skills. The best play engages children at their developmental level, allowing them to learn without realizing that they are learning. It can be helpful to know a little about how a child develops play skills and what is expected at each age. Here is a brief overview on the development of play.
0-12 MONTHS
SENSORY PLAY AND EXPLORATION Provide opportunities for sensory awareness, different body positions like tummy time and opportunities for infants to manipulate objects with their hands and mouths. Great toys for this age are activity mats, nesting cups, teething rings, rattles and soft toys.
12-24 MONTHS
CAUSE AND EFFECT, OBJECT PLAY, FAMILIAR THEMES AND PARALLEL PLAY Provide opportunities to play with real and toy objects for cause and effect or with familiar themes like eating, drinking, bed and bath times. Toys for this age are shape sorters, blocks, musical instruments, balls, cooking sets, dolls, cars and trucks and sand box toys.
24-36 MONTHS
IMAGINATIVE PLAY, ASSOCIATIVE PLAY, ACTIVE PLAY, SIMPLE CRAFTS Provide opportunities for imaginary play to include extended themes, construction to build familiar places like home or a farm. Toys include dress up clothes/accessories, crafts with finger paints and cardboard, toy tea sets, ride-on toys, construction toys and simple puzzles.
3-5 YEARS
COOPERATIVE IMAGINARY PLAY INCLUDING UNFAMILIAR PLAY AND OBJECT SUBSTITUTION Play includes peer cooperation in pretend play and simple board games. Imagination extends beyond familiar themes and can include materials like blankets, boxes and containers. Toys include costumes, water-play tools, art supplies, beads.
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THE TREATMENT AND LEARNING CENTERS
“UNPLUGGED” TLC'S TESTING, TUTORING, AND COUNSELING DEPARTMENT Screens themselves are not inherently bad. Social media and online gaming provide a platform for children, pre-teens, and teens to socialize with others, create their own identity, and learn about their world. However, there are consequences to an unlimited screen time policy. Recent studies show the devastating mental health impact that social media can have on children and adolescents, on top of other issues such as misinformation, social division, and invasion of privacy. Online, children often take a major hit to their selfesteem, developing negative self-images as compared to their peers. By the age of 13, 80% of girls say they have downloaded a feature in their Apps (TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram) that creates a visual alteration to their physical appearance on screen (Grizzle, 2021). Given the anonymity in virtual gaming platforms and livestream gaming, children are granted more freedom to engage in negative social behaviors (cyberbullying, taglines, bantering, cursing) than they would exercise if they were in person with peers.
Exposure to negative commentary without critical self reflection can be harmful and toxic for children’s capacity to relate in healthy and adaptive ways. A study by the Mayo Clinic found that children who spent five days off electronic devices were better at recognizing facial emotions and non-verbal cues as compared to a control sample of children that lived life normally (Ayuob, 2021). Screen time is defined as any time spent on an electronic device (TV, computer, video gaming device, iPad, online device) that is outside of school or work purposes. As caregivers, it will serve them well in making recreational “screen time” something that children earn and look forward to in small doses, rather than expect. Outside of screen time that is needed for school or homework, The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Heart Association, and other medical organizations recommend that children under the age of two are discouraged from screens altogether, and that children/teens under eighteen,
should have no more than one to two hours of screens a day. The CDC (Center for Disease Control & Prevention) estimated that children spend time in front of a screen/entertainment media at rates of: ages 8-10 (6 hours a day), 11-14 (9 hours a day), and 15-18 (7 hours a day) while more than half of these hours could be substituted with physical activity, social activities, and encouraging screens to be left out of the bedroom to help create healthier relationships to screens and social media (CDC, 2018). While this may be unfeasible for many families, creating screen time limits that are developmentally appropriate for children/teens will go a long way. Today, many apps are available to monitor exactly what your child views and for how long, as well as enforce “downtime” on an electronic device such as: Net Nanny, Bark, Mama Bear, or McAfee Safe Family (Habib, 2021). If monitoring online activity, inform your child. Internet safety should be a consistent part of family communication,
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and children often like that their parents want to be involved in their lives. Be involved in social media use (link a parent account with a child account). To work towards a healthy balance, try these simple substitutes to revolutionize how you spend time together as a family, “unplugged.” Children Twelve and Under: Proximity: Allow your child to be adjacent to where you are sitting, so that they feel they are not alone. Bring out a puzzle, an age-appropriate book, a brain teaser, paper/pens, etc. and allow your child to explore the material. Chores: Provide an outlet for your child to “pitch in” around the home. Giving your children natural opportunities to use their muscles provides natural endorphin release and builds endurance both physically and mentally. Sensory motor play: Let your children discover the natural fun of making a mess safely. Provide a tabletop space and three or four items to explore (slime, figurines, flour with
THE TREATMENT AND LEARNING CENTERS
water and measuring cups for pouring/stirring). Scavenger hunt: Start a new collection. Challenge your child to walk with you outside to find diverse types of leaves, rocks, sticks, or another item available right outside their door in their natural environment. Boost of energy: Go for a family hike, bike ride, or engage in another team sport together (pass a football, dribble a basketball, pass a soccer ball). Build a fort: Use cushions, pillows, blankets, chairs, etc. Help your child to see their ideas come to life. Let them use tape, clips, string, etc. to engineer their own safe space. Create a garden together: Indoor or outdoor. Discuss the ideal spot/ for planting seeds and collect preferred rocks/stones. Pre-Teens/Teens: Get teens involved: Help your teen explore after school clubs, sport meetups, and realworld activities (local skateboarding park, skating rink, rock-climbing wall). Family game night: Connect over a board game, charades,
or other family favorites. Family outing: Pick one place in the community to explore together (new ice cream spot, outdoor gardens, outdoor concert, new walking path, lake, new restaurant). If you want your children to find something else to do besides watching tv and playing video games, they must see that the adults in their lives are doing the same. Scheduling time that is “screen free” is important for children, teens, and caregivers. Creating this type of family norm, and then sticking to it, will benefit the entire family in many ways. There is no substitute for strong parent-child communication; Check in with your child about their social media and screen time use. Be available to listen to what children are focused on during peer interactions on social media and to explore these themes together. Communicate openness so that children and teenagers will come to you with problems. Robyn Davy, MA, BC-DMT, LCPC-S Counselor, TLC's Testing, Tutoring, and Counseling Department
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RESOURCES “UNPLUGGED” CONSEQUENCES OF AN UNLIMITED SCREEN TIME POLICY Ayuob, M. (2021, May.21). 5 Ways Slimming Screentime is Good for Your Health. https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/featured-topic/5-ways-slimmingscreen-time-is-good-for-your-health Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018, Jan. 29). Screen Time Vs. Lean Time Infographic. https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/multimedia/infographics/getmoving.html Christensen, J. (2021, May.28). Children and screen time: How much is too much? https://www.mayoclinichealthsystem.org/hometown-health/speaking-of-health/children-andscreen-time#:~:text=The%20American%20 Academy%20of%20 Pediatrics, or%20two%20 hours%20a%20day Grizzle, S. (2021, Oct. 29). Effects of Social Media on Teens: Understanding Recent Headlines. https://bgca.org/news-stories/2021/October/effects-of-social-media-on-teens-understandingrecent-headlines?gclid=CjwKCAjw8sCRBhA6EiwA6_IF4bqSwnTSenasDK5TnfXA4ciu4j3fWPgZVi9FwNYDFoAufdukqJ4rhoCBAYQAvD_BwE Habib, Z. (2021, Dec. 21). Best Parental Control Apps and Routers To Monitor Your Child’s Devices and Online Activity. Https://tech-vise.com/best-apps-and-devices-to-monitor-your-kids-onlineactivity/ Mclean; Harvard Medical School Affiliate. (2022, Jan. 21). The Social Dilemma: Social Media and Your Mental Health. https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-mediasaffecting-your-mental-health Minow, N. (2020, Sep.8). The Social Dilemma. https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-socialdilemma-movie-review-2020 Thumbs Down. Speak Up. (2022). Don’t Just Follow Your Kids on Social Media; Lead Them. https://tdsu.org/ Welch, A. (2018, Aug. 6). Health Experts Say Parents need to drastically cut kids screen time. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/parents-need-to-drastically-cut-kids-screen-time-devicesamerican-heart-association/
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SPEECH-LANGUAGE AND OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY CAMPS EXPERIENCE IN PICTURES