March 2013
1 post
On giving advice . . .
There are so many resources out there for parents these days, most very well meaning, giving advice on how to parent, how to play, how to raise your child. And yes, this is one of them. However, I hope that the perspective I bring is clear in stating that there is no one RIGHT WAY. Everyone has their opinions, which are of course colored by their experience. And that is natural.
Every...
January 2013
1 post
One size doesn't fit, all the time, in every case.
So often, families are connected with services, based on the age of the child (you must be in EI if you are under 3, or in school services if over 3), and not the needs of the child and family at the time. The difficulty is that limited resources (insurance, state funding, etc) are available, and if they are being used by one program that is not meeting the needs of the child and family at the...
October 2012
2 posts
Learning
It is amazing to watch children learn. I often say you can see the wheels turning or the smoke coming out of their ears as they process things. But we forget that learning happens all the time. Development doesn’t just happen. And mistakes are critical. Without them, we never learn what not to do.
As parents, we think, “well, the child is six months old now, they should be able...
What to expect when you are expecting your child...
I have had several conversations recently with parents whose children are not yet walking. They range from laid back to panicked with everything in between.
The laid back parents feel their child is lazy and will eventually get there. Yes, but.
The parents who are panicking are concerned that their child isn’t hitting the milestones just as they were told they should. Yes, but.
I...
January 2012
1 post
Let's Take a Walk, or Roll, or Stroll
I am frequently asked to see children who are not walking. And then asked “When will they walk?” Pediatric therapists will tell you this is often the first question parents will ask, even if the child is 4 months old. And I understand their concern. We are a society that values mobility, and doing things on time.
Because we had determined that children in the US often walk...
October 2011
3 posts
Thoughts on Babies Thinking
I was having a discussion with my students the other day, and I asked if it was important to evaluate thinking and learning skills in an infant. When I got a few “no” responses, I knew I had to regroup. And the more I thought, the more I realized, we don’t give infants credit for the amount of thinking and learning they are doing right from the very start.
Now, infants are not...
Why am I writing?
Below is the original introduction to the booklet I wrote 8 years ago. Although it is in revisions, and I hope to publish it soon, very little has changed. So I thought I would post the intro here as well.
Enjoy!
Introduction
There is nothing I find more exciting than watching infants grow and change, exploring and learning new skills, often with many bumps along the way. The joy they show...
To Crawl or Not to Crawl
This is probably one of the most frequent questions I get from families. ”Does my child have to crawl before he/she walks?” Usually, it comes right after, “when will my child walk?” And we all know people who are happy to tell us that they never crawled, their children never crawled, their cousin never crawled, and they are fine. Yes, This is true and supports the fact...
July 2011
1 post
Tip-Toe through . . . Life
I receive a great number of referrals and phone calls to work with children who walk on their toes. These are not children with a diagnosis, like cerebral palsy, where the stiffness causes the toe walking. These are just children who are up on their toes and no one knows why.
The Mayo clinic has a web site, that comes up quickly on a google search for idiopathic toe walking,...
June 2011
3 posts
Plagiocephaly
Plagiocephaly is defined as a deformation in head shape, not resulting from premature closing of the bones in the head. A neurosurgeon I was priviledged to work with once told me that he no longer needed to use imaging, such as an MRI, to distinguish between deformational plagiocephaly and craniosynostosis. He just looked at the shape of the head. If it looked like a parallelogram, it was most...
rkrebs asked: Hi Beth,
I just graduated from JCTC PTA Program. I had talked with Debbie Hatfield and she said that you do some pediatric courses through out the year. I would be interested in attending one of them, but I didn't know where to find information about when or where they are being held. If you could get me any type of information I would really appreciate it!
I just graduated from JCTC PTA Program. I had talked with Debbie Hatfield and she said that you do some pediatric courses through out the year. I would be interested in attending one of them, but I didn't know where to find information about when or where they are being held. If you could get me any type of information I would really appreciate it!
Torticollis
Torticollis is defined as a tightening of the sternocleidomastoid muscle on either side of the neck, causing a decrease in the movement of the neck in several ways. The tight muscle causes decreased turning to the same side and decreased head tilting to the opposite side. Therefore, a left torticollis produces the inability to turn to the left while looking up, and the inability to tilt the...
May 2011
3 posts
Let's Talk About Stuff, Baby!
In the late 90’s, we had the back to sleep campaign, due to evidence that tummy sleeping in infants was correlated to a higher rate of SIDS. This research continues to be debated, and this is not the time or place. There is research that shows that lack of tummy time is correlating with delays in development in otherwise typical children. This link with tummy time will be described in a...
What to Expect
I thought I would start this blog series with some comments on the “What to Expect” type of books that everyone reads when they are pregnant, or later, when they realize that the baby didn’t come with instructions (yes, this was me).
Books like
or
or everyone’s favorite
are often given to expectant parents as a guide to pregnancy and the first year of life....
And We're Off!
I decided to start a blog here to parallel the revision of a book I wrote as part of my doctoral work when my daughter was little. I will use posts to discuss child development in all areas, how we as caregivers can encourage development, and what can get in the way. Keep in mind that while there is some literature to back this up, the postings are my interpretation and opinion.
If you have...
