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PLAY Pen Article
Welcome To Holland
The classic article by Emily Perl Kingsley about becoming the parent of a child with a disability. Read it. You'll be glad you did.
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Speech Language Therapy: Beginning Assentive Communication Tip
By: Renata Bursten, Dragonfly Staff
Here is a tip for children with Cerebral Palsy and other conditions that can affect speech. Try placing two pictures of the two toys that are attached to the switch tops. By pairing the real object with the two dimensional picture, you help your child learn that flat pictures are symbols of the real thing. This is fun way to master an important first step towards using assentive communication and computers.
Welcome to Dragonfly USA.
PLAY Tip
Crystal Drop Ball: Sensory Integration and Balance
Try sitting the child cross-legged on a ball. Hold their hips firmly, and slowly roll the ball from the center out in the forward directions on a gentle angle.
Watch to see how (and if) the child compensates for the new angle of their trunk. We want to see the chin tip back towards level with the floor. This signifies the understanding that "upright" is not always determined by the position of the hips relative to the floor, but rather is cued by the relation of the inner ears to the floor.
Prompt the child to "sit up straight" both with verbal and demonstrative cues. Once the rolling forward is mastered, work on backwards, side-to-side, and in a gentle circular motion. The see-through ball adds extra fun!