Autism Awareness Month began on Sunday, April 1. My son Doug's birthday is April 1. The fifth annual World Autism Awareness Day was April 2. World Autism Awareness Day ''aims to increase people's awareness about people, especially children, with autism. The day often features educational events for teachers, health care workers and parents, as ...

Happy spring! This week is ''R'' week at our school, and one of the themes the children are learning about is the rainforest. Tropical Ice Cream is a fabulously delicious recipe that the occupational therapist at our school created. The dish turned out to be a fun, educational and wonderful sensory experience for even our pickiest of ...

Welcome to ''B'' week at our school, where the focus has been on beans, beads, bears and the color brown! For our speech and language group lesson this week, we made our own very round and very delicious ''Brown Bear'' face. I developed the idea after I Googled ''bear recipes for kids'' and a polar bear recipe came up! It requires a rice ...

Schools are closed this week and little ones are home for the holidays! Today's post includes some new ideas to keep them occupied as well as some flashbacks to posts from the past! If you're staying in for New Years Eve this year with your little ones, why not plan out a fun, kid-friendly dinner that they can both help you make and ...

At the preschool where I work, we teach about the three holidays of Hanukkah, Kwanza and Christmas during the month of December. As you may or may not know, each holiday has various foods that are an important part of the core celebration, just as turkey is a key part of any traditional Thanksgiving meal. Last December I shared two ...

Last week, I began discussing deficits in memory, orientation, attention, reasoning and problem solving that directly impact a patient's ability to participate in meals safely and efficiently for adequate PO intake. This is the second part of that discussion. Attention Strategies Eliminate radios, televisions and extraneous ...

As Thanksgiving and Christmas approach, I realize that many families and caregivers, as well as staff, struggle to include the elderly patient with swallowing or cognitive-communication impairments in the holiday celebrations. If Mom or Dad have swallowing or memory deficits, it definitely impacts the celebration. It's awkward to talk ...

Today I have two fun activities that can be easily incorporated into your Thanksgiving curriculum sessions! OUR THANKSGIVING TABLE First is a language-based lesson that talks all about ''What We Eat On Thanksgiving Day!'' Using boardmaker pictures, I put together a sentence strip that reads, ''I EAT ____ ON THANKSGIVING DAY,'' and ...

A good relationship with the dietary manager can make your life as a SLP so much easier! Throughout my day, I probably have five to ten interactions with dietary staff -- from requesting trial meals for diet texture analysis, to updating diet texture or liquid consistency, to correcting errors during meals -- and the outcome and tone of ...

Here is a timeless fall treat that is both half healthy (made with apples!) and is easy to make in a classroom therapy setting! Enjoy! Ingredients: Apples 1 14 oz bag of caramels 1 tablespoon of water Spray butter for greasing Foods for dipping (e.g., crushed Oreos, crushed M&M's, etc.) You will ...