This past week I took my daughter to our local library in search of books appropriate for summertime and gardening. She attends a childcare program two days a week and they have been talking all about planting and eating vegetables over the last few days. I thought this would be a fun way to support what they are learning in the classroom, as well ...

Today I am delighted to share the ''Good Eater Secrets'' of a fellow speech-language pathologist and mom of two young boys who contacted me through the blog. Her name is Natalie and she lives and works outside of San Diego, CA. Her children are ages 6 and 3, and she says that both were quite picky as babies, but with patience and some creative ...

  Our young clients with ASD aren't really so difficult when it comes to lesson plans for therapy and fulfilling benchmarks and outcomes. In fact, they're very easy. Look at my list of Top Five Necessities and you'll see that the first four are ''get it and you'll have it'' kind of things. 1.    ...

Why not get the school year started off with a special, personal note from YOU to the parents of your most challenging students.   Dear Parents,             As speech/language pathologist (SLP) at (name of school) Elementary School, I look forward to working with (child's first ...

A few weeks ago we had a visit from Greener Partners, which isthe local farm that comes to visit our students about once a month. I wanted toshare with you the most recent recipe they made with us because it was sodelicious, and the kids really enjoyed both making it and eating it. Sunflowerseeds are the main foundation of this yummy treat and are ...

This week is the second part of my interview with Helen Vadala, MS, OTL, an occupational therapist working and supervising in both the homecare and preschool settings in Delaware County in Pennsylvania. Our discussion continues as we look at the recent changes in homecare and how budget cuts are affecting early intervention, as well as ...

This week's activity was so much fun to do at school and it really got the kids both talking and tasting! We pretended that we were at an ice cream shop. The children had the opportunity to choose the flavor of ice cream, sauce and sprinkles that they wanted to complete their own order. I created various pictures to match the items we had ...

Last week I introduced my new direction plans for the blog and shared my own personal and professional motivations for creating this unique feature. This week, I would like to share why I feel a food-based blog is so important and necessary for our discipline and the children that we treat.What we eat is so important. It is vital for our health ...

Today's post marks exactly 2 years to the week that I began writing the Early Intervention blog for ADVANCE magazine. To celebrate our 2 year anniversary, I would like to share with all the readers the exciting new feature that will now be a part of the Early Intervention Blog! As many of you long-time readers may know, I have often written ...

This week's post is a continuation of the last, which was prompted by a reader letter asking for ''tricks'' to ''getting through to parents [of picky eaters. For so many parents, feeding their ''picky eater'' is a daunting task. Hopefully the following suggestions will be as helpful for others as they have been for me and many of the families ...