What Factors Influence Return To Work After a Motor Vehicle Accident?

Motor vehicle accidents are a common cause of brain injury in teens and adults. A common concern of patients who have experienced a brain injury is th...

The Cognitive Benefits of Interacting With Nature

Time and time again, we are reminded it is important to take time to get outside. Not only is spending time good for maintaining physical health, but ...

7 Myths about Dyslexia

With dyslexia being labeled as a learning disability, there are many misconceptions and myths about dyslexia. With recent research, there is more info...

How Does Dyslexia Impact Learning Strategies and Study Approaches in Post-secondary Students?

Dyslexia is a lifelong learning disability. Often diagnosed in childhood, children with dyslexia have substantial difficulty with reading in compariso...

What is a Dyslexic Brain?

Dyslexia is classified as a learning disability that affects an individual’s ability to read, spell, write, and speak. It is often known for causing...

[Video] What to do When Your Child is Diagnosed as “Fine”

Parents take their children for assessments when their child is thought to have a learning disability. Too often, children are diagnosed as "fine". Th...

School-Based Telepractice for Occupational Therapy

Administrating and supplying occupational therapy services within a school system is challenging. There are a lot of barriers to overcome that inhibit...

Do I Say, “Special Needs” or “Disability”?

This is a question that gets asked often.  These terms have felt for years to be interchangeable, but are they?  The answer to that is, no.  ...

What is an Intellectual Disability?

Before diving deep into what is an intellectual disability, it is best to explain what it is not. Intellectual disabilities are not mental illnesses, ...

5 Things to Know About ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is more than just a behavior problem. Research has unveiled that genetic, environmental, and neuropsyc...

Why Mary Ann assigns Home Exercises

Mary Ann has a voluminous amount of information to share for SLPs who work with TBI patients. In this mini segment, she discusses how and why she uses...

How Do SLPs help MVA Patients

SLPs are involved in the recovery process of clients with different medical conditions. In acquired brain injury through a motor vehicle accident, dam...

Can Intensive Speech & Language Therapy Improve Language in Aphasia Patients Post-Stroke?

Aphasia commonly occurs after someone experiences a stroke. When a closed head injury occurs in the left hemisphere, a person may lose the ability to ...

7 Myths about Dyslexia

With dyslexia being labeled as a learning disability, there are many misconceptions and myths about dyslexia. With recent research, there is more info...

5 Ways SLPs can Help Their Clients Improve Language Skills Over the Holidays

Holidays may mean a break from formal therapy sessions, but you can help your clients build their language skills even over the holiday season. Here a...

Why Word Retrieval Therapy Helps Dementia

Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) is a gradual loss of language ability associated with dementia. There are 3 variants of PPA that impact speech and l...

The Cognitive Connection Between Executive Functions and Language Skills

Language is one of the ways we communicate. It is one that when it is lost it is greatly missed. Kyra's background and work with executive function sk...

Common Cognitive Disorders of Language

Language is a complex cognitive skill that involves many regions of the brain. Stroke, brain injury, disease, developmental disabilities, and aging ca...

From Grunts to Words, How Language Works Explained by Gifs

Language is a cognitive skill that we all use to communicate and interact with the world around us. Words are connected in meaningful patterns to form...

How to Improve Language Skills

We use language every day to communicate thoughts, feelings, and ideas. When the ability to produce or comprehend language is lost, people find the...

3 Kinds of Therapists Who Work With Language

Language is what helps us express ourselves and understand the world around us. When the language section of our brain gets injured, it can cause a lo...

The Complexity of Language

Language is a cognitive skill that binds people together. Language allows people to communicate complex thoughts and emotions with one another. While ...

The Complex Skill of Language

What is Language? While many complex definitions exist, language is the way that people communicate. In a language, words are connected in me...

The Importance of Praise in Parenting a Child with ADHD

Many experts including Dr. William Dodson estimate that children with ADHD on average receive 20,000 more negative messages than other children. The importance of giving praise can’t be overestimated. Kids with ADHD need our feedback to be motivating, inspiring, and loving. Think about praise as an underused condiment in the recipe of parenting. Take it off the shelf and pepper it into everything you do. Here are some examples of how to incorporate more specific, targeted praise for your child.

Expert Advice – ADHD + TBI ?

Natalie is back with some expert advice about how to work with patients who have both ADHD and a TBI. If you love this video you MUST check out her entire interview found in the expert interviews today!

Which ‘working’ components of working memory aren’t working in youth with ADHD?

Working memory is a complex cognitive function that consists of three skills: reordering, updating, and dual processing incoming information. Clinical providers and researchers are trying to better understand which working components of working memory aren’t working in youth with ADHD, as youth with ADHD are likely to struggle academically and socially. A research study by Fosco et. al (2020) revealed that children with ADHD struggle most with reordering information, but not dual processing. In this article, we discuss which working components of working memory aren’t working in youth with ADHD.

The Benefits of Swimming for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder may not get enough physical activity in their daily lives. Many physical activities that children at young ages engage in are team sports, such as soccer. Children with autism spectrum disorder may have difficulty handling competitiveness, learning strategies to participate effectively, and communicating and socializing with their peers. These difficulties can cause children with an autism spectrum disorder to avoid these kinds of activities and, in turn, not get enough physical activity. Parents of children with autism spectrum disorder diagnosis often seek ways to get their child involved in a somewhat social physical activity. One activity that is conducive to children, even with developmental disabilities, is swimming. Swimming is an activity that can be done individually and in groups, making it an accessible activity for children with autism spectrum disorder as swimming is not dependent on learning specific game strategies and communicating heavily with other group participants. One study examined the efficacy of a group aquatic exercise program on a child with an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis’s fitness and swimming skills. This blog post discusses the effectiveness of a group aquatic exercise program on fitness and swimming skills for children with an autism spectrum disorder.

Natalie Mackenzie – BIS Services

Brain injuries are complex injuries. Heather Condello and her team of occupational therapists at Complex Injury Rehab - The Brain, Spine & Mental Health Clinic understand that. Heather and Ayushi, one of Heather's skilled OTs, sit down with Dustin and discuss how they approach brain injury. HOw they have redefined occupational therapy to help their clients get back on track and resume the occupations that bring them joy - both in their homes and remotely.

[Video] TEDTalk – Failing at Normal: An ADHD Success Story

Jessica McCabe is an adult who struggled with ADHD as a child into her adulthood. After battling the impacts of ADHD in her own life, she became an ADHD educator to help people living with ADHD as well as parents, friends, teachers, and other peers understand what ADHD is and how to help. Jessica has an active YouTube channel called HowtoADHD which she runs with the help of her husband who also has ADHD.

How Does ADHD Impact Friendships in Children?

ADHD impacts people throughout their lifespan. For children, ADHD can cause a child to have difficulty focusing during class, keeping track of assignments and their due dates, blurt out responses to questions before they have been completed, and talk excessively. ADHD can also impact children’s peer relationships. Children diagnosed with ADHD may engage in behaviors such as complaining, not following rules for activities, and not paying attention to peers in social settings. Despite pharmaceutical, behavioral, or combined therapeutic interventions, researchers have found that children with ADHD continue to struggle with peer relationships despite reported improvement of ADHD symptoms (Hoza, Gerdes, et al., 2005). In this blog post, we discuss 3 ways ADHD impacts friendships in children.

5 Things to Know About ADHD

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is more than just a behavior problem. Research has unveiled that genetic, environmental, and neuropsychological factors impact behaviors associated with the disorder. Here are the 5 most important things to know about ADHD.

[Video] TEDTalk – The World Needs All Kinds of Minds

Temple Grandin was diagnosed with autism as a child. In this Ted Talk, she explains how her brain works. Her visual processing helps her solve problems that a neurotypical brain cannot. She explains why we need different types of thinkers and how to encourage them. Understanding how different types of brains work is critical to better serve patients who may have gifts of their own. 

[Video] TEDTalk – Why Everything You know About Autism is Wrong

At the age of 25, Jac den Houting was diagnosed with autism. While many parents of children worry when their child is diagnosed with autism, Jac describes it as the best thing to ever happen to her. In this talk, Jac discusses how the concepts of neurodiversity, the social model of disability, and the double empathy problem connect with her personal experience. As an activist, Jac wants to challenge and help people reshape the way they think about autism. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

Autism and The Brain

For years, caregivers and loved ones of someone with autism have been searching for an understanding as to why. Why does their child or loved why, function the way they do. Until recently, researchers and clinicians only had theories. With the advancements of modern imaging, researchers and clinicians now have scientific evidence to back up their theories. With the growing body of research available on autism, here are 3 things we’ve found to be most important to know about autism and the brain: