You tube

We are excited to upload our first video to youtube. It has definitely been interesting working out how to use all the cool software out there. The great thing about video is we can watch children blossom from the time they come in until they leave with a whole new set of skills to go home and practice with. This particular little sweet heart is a little girl named Emma, with a benign brain tumor in her hypothalamus. She is blind and very brave! It is incredible to see the spunk and life in this little girl and her family. Mom is an amazing person who is upbeat and embraces every opportunity to live life to the fullest. I am always inspired by families like these. It makes my job so worthwhile. This is when the passion for what we do takes over - it is not a job it is a love and that is why we do it!
These are my thoughts on just one of our brave little girls who lights up the room with her presence!

Summer

Blogging is definitely new to me, so I have to practice this, the more you blog , the easier is gets - so I hear. We are on our way to California - driving across country in an RV with three children and a 3G card. Thank heavens for 3G! It is amazing how much thinking you can do whilst driving. I have written a column for Around Town Publishing on sensory integration which will be published in July - look out for it. As I wrote, I was trying to condense the amount of information I am trying to convey into 400 words. We have so much information out there now that it is definitely challenging imparting such important information, but that's OK because I have another 5 columns to go! I am very grateful for the opportunity to speak out on important issues related to Autism, Sensory Integration and Learning Disabilities. I truly believe that the more we learn, the more we can help families figure out how to put all the pieces of the puzzle together.
Yesterday whilst packing, I was watching Oprah with one eye. I had to put all my packing on hold when I watched a little boy who was not supposed to live, walk out on stage and explain to Oprah how many pairs of legs he had. After him came the little girl with Mermaid syndrome and after her, the young boy who watched his mother drown as Hurricane Katrina violently shook up his life. As the river of tears streamed down my face ( and Oprah's and Celine Dion's'), I reassured once again why I became an occupational therapist and opened my own practise - to make as many changes as I could and help as many families as I can live healthy, successful lives! The more I watched, the more ideas came to me - having non-profit organizations to fund therapies, working with families from rural areas, low income and overseas countries that don't have this technology. Then there is the intensive programming that we can do for those families who can afford premium therapy - helping them access resources that can improve their families lives and help others too.

So many ideas, but it takes a village and I am grateful to all the therapists at Children's Therapy Works who put their heart and soul into every child they work with.

I look forward to great things in the future!
Shelley

Social Skills groups

Children's Therapy Works is very excited to announce our Social Skills Programs. These are comprehensive programs that are interactive and encourage children to participate in typical activities such as going to the grocery store and asking for an item, ordering from a restaurant or just playing with a friend.

For more information call: 770-754-0085

How time flies

I am amazed at how quickly time flies, learning to blog has taken on a whole new meaning for me. When I first started "blogging" I figured that it had to be educational in nature, then realized that it has to be interesting. Well here we go. This morning on the NBC's Today Show with Matt Lauer, there was a segment on how furniture can hurt our children. As many as 15 000 children get hurt every year. I found that quite amazing that there was an entire segment on this information. It is very important to know, and as parents we have all had that happen in some where in the house. But did you know that 15% of children under the age of 18 have some kind of learning disability. Many of them un diagnosed; leaving parents and children at a loss of how to be most successful in learning. We don't hear alot about this information and yet it is affecting so many families that the numbers are frightening.

There are so many programs available to us today that can truly improve children and teenagers learning ability. I am often as frustrated as parents get when we can see that a child has excellent potential but needs a slightly different way of absorbing the information. Computer technology can be very useful too, we see many new programs flooding the market but how do you know what to look for in a program? Lets have that discussion tomorrow.

Have a great day :)