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Occupational Therapy Improved Everyday Tasks in Children with Autism

The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published research on the effects of occupational therapy with a sensory integration approach or behavioral therapy on the ability to complete everyday tasks in children with autism.  In a randomized study, 32 children (ages 4-8), were assigned to an OT-SI group (occupational therapy sensory integration group) or a […]

3 Free Tools for Video Conferencing

 Have you ever considered using your webcam on your computer to have a meeting?  Perhaps you have a parent that you would like to show some exercises to in person but they are working during the school day.  Maybe you want to discuss therapeutic techniques or hot topics with other professionals.    If you just one […]

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Research: Children Are Significantly Less Fit than Decades Ago

Photo by Chucka_NC on Flicker Creative Commons License The American Heart Association presented research on 50 studies on running fitness between 1964 and 2010 that involved more than 25 million kids, ages 9 to 17, in 28 countries. Most of the studies measured cardiovascular endurance by how far kids could run in a set time […]

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5 Tips on Tackling Big Goals

At times, all children need some help to achieve big goals.  Whether it be a lofty IEP goal that you inherited, a large project the student needs to complete or a complex motor skill often times it is easier to break it up into smaller, more manageable chunks.  Teachers call it scaffolding and therapists sometimes […]

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Hippotherapy and Children with Autism

The American Journal of Occupational Therapy published a pilot study on 6 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who participated in 45 minute hippotherapy sessions for 12 weeks.  To determine pre and post intervention scores the following were used: the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales–II, the Child Activity Card Sort, force plates and a video motion […]

Active Prospective Control Necessary for Sensorimotor Learning

Recent research studied 36 adults with no history of motor or neurological impairments were assigned to one of three groups – active (participant actively guides movement), passive (therapist or robot guides movement) or control group.  This study used haptic tracking for the passive movement.  The results indicated the following: no effective learning with passive movement […]