Parents Magazine Articles by Barbara Smith

My child development articles in Parents Magazine....


Does Your Child Need Early Intervention?  
http://www.parents.com/toddlers-preschoolers/development/problems/early-intervention/



Could Your Child Have a Learning Disability?
http://www.parents.com/kids/development/learning-disabilities/learning-disability/



What is Speech therapy?
http://www.parents.com/kids/development/learning-disabilities/speech-therapy/


What Is Occupational Therapy?  
http://www.parents.com/kids/development/learning-disabilities/occupational-therapy/


What Is Hippotherapy?
http://www.parents.com/kids/development/learning-disabilities/hippotherapy

Vibrating Activity Board

I love seeing how activities evolve....... First I decided to make a deep pressure sensory pillow out of a cat bed (never used with animals).  Its quite heavy because there is a bag of sand sewn to the bottom. Some people like to hold it on their laps, but the people pictured here did not, so it is on the tray or table. 

I sewed socks filled with sand and placed a massager and electric toothbrush inside the cat bed. I knew that some of my clients would enjoy shaking the socks and I was able to give brief deep pressure input by placing the socks over their arms or hands until they removed them. These are clients with severe tactile defensiveness and avoid touching and grasping in general. The person grasping the toothbrush typically has his hands in his mouth , so I was very pleased that he engaged in touching, grasping and having the socks placed on top of his hands for several minutes.

I work with another young lady who did not like the socks or anything touching her but she did like the vibration.  She typically has her arms flexed and pressed against her chest with hands fisted.  She has been working on pushing some soft cushiony objects shown above (they are yellow) off a board. They are attached with Velcro. The staff first did this activity holding the yellow tray at an angle and it was a bit awkward. I wanted my client to raise her arms reaching at eye level so I put Velcro on the cardboard and used that instead of the yellow tray. The picture shows how I made this with the black Velcro circles. I colored with green marker  to create a bit of color contrast with the yellow objects. 

It was pretty easy and fast to make the easel, but I ran out of contact paper so it doesn't look great. However, the exciting part is that I figured out that if I jam the electric toothbrush through the cardboard, the entire activity vibrates while removing the yellow cushions. My client loved it!!!! 

Motivational Activities.....



A big thank-you to the wonderful participants in Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina who attended my seminar.......

Motivational Activities Using Everyday Materials for Children with Special Needs..... 

and an extra thank-you to the lady who shared 2 boxes of donuts....(that was a first at one of my seminars, so very appreciated the thought...)   I have to say that although I loved the people, I didn't love the pollen, puffy eyes..... and vision that was so blurry, I could barely read the computer or power point screen.... However, I think that I still looked decent.... good thing, since the seminar was videotaped for future sales by these friendly techies....                        I realize that I have an obsession with making effective, therapeutic activities and also bringing them along to share on the show and tell tables. So there's all kinds of interesting sounds as materials are passed around and the therapists seem to enjoy themselves as much as my students and clients do!                               It was a lot of fun, even though travel is exhausting. So although nothing is scheduled at this time, I hope to do it again soon...