Now that the leftovers in the fridge are all that remain of Thanksgiving 2021, let us not neglect the practice of gratitude for the next 11 months. Why is this important? Developments in research support that gratitude has significant psychological, physical, and social benefits. Gratitude has been linked to reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression, enhanced mood, and increased positive emotions and thoughts. It has also been found to be an effective coping strategy for caregivers or individuals who have experienced a traumatic event or life change. Physical improvements include reduced stress response and pain and improved blood pressure, glycemic control, immune response, and sleep quality. From a neuroscience perspective, gratitude increases the happy brain chemicals, regulates the stress hormones, increases activation of the bliss centers of the brain, and promotes cognitive restructuring. Research also suggests that adopting gratitude practices can promote better communication, empathy, healthier relationships, team dynamics, and workplace efficiency and productivity. Communicating thankfulness to others promotes relationship bonding and connection. With all this evidence, why would we not want to tap into this wellness super power?

Let us strive to cultivate a lifestyle of gratitude all year round with these practical tips:

• Speak with Gratitude: This first starts with you by incorporating gratitude in your self talk. Complement yourself out loud with your strengths that are valuable and meaningful to you. Extend this to others including your loved ones, coworkers, and even physical things that make your life easier. The words you speak are important, so make efforts to align your speech with your gratitude efforts. This will enhance your self image as well as your personal and professional relationships.
• Write a Thank You Letter-  Identify one or a few people who have significantly impacted your life, and write them a letter that explains how they have specifically contributed to your happiness, success, and well being. You can take this a step further and instead invite them out to lunch to thank them in person with quality time and delicious food. 
• Keep a Gratitude Journal– Place a journal on your nightstand in which you list 3 things you are thankful for each morning or evening. Do an experiment and consistently write in your journal each day for 3 weeks straight and then see if you notice a difference in your mood, happiness, stress, and/ or sleep.
• Meditate– One effective strategy to include gratitude in your day is by incorporating it in your practice of meditation, mindfulness, and/ or prayer. Preparing yourself with deep breathing, can improve your ability to focus on what you are grateful for. These practices can be more effective when combined together. 
• Awareness: Actively look for things to be grateful for. Although the difficulties of life demand your attention, choose to see the good. This encourages your ability to be resilient no matter what life throws your way and helps you to see that even in the hardest times there are reasons to smile.

Have you found strategies that help you and your family to keep a focus on gratitude throughout the year? Share with us your strategies and tips below!

Why shouldn’t health literacy start early? Here at KidPT our biggest goal is to empower our families and kiddos to be independent in order to achieve their best lives. Health literacy is one of the building blocks necessary to achieve independence. By having kids understand their body: how it works, how it communicates to them, and how to manage their basic health needs; they will be prepared to be advocates for their health. Ideally, we want our kids to learn how to
live lives in which they prioritize their wellness and have the competence to make smart and informed health decisions in the future. We know from research that we learn best when activities are fun and engaging as our brains are more active. One easy way to start introducing learning about the human body is through story time. Welcome to our health literacy book corner. Below is a list of books for kids of various academic levels that are fun resources that give basic understanding of how our bodies work.

Listening to My Body by Gabi Garcia.
The first line of this book is “My body is my friend.” This sets the stage for the book’s goal to develop a relationship with your body. We meet a boy who teaches the reader how to listen to body sensations and emotions. He also provides strategies on how to manage these sensations and feelings to promote success with everyday activities.

Look inside your body by Louie Stowell
This is an interactive book as it is filled with flaps so that you can see inside the body and look at the different organs and parts. It provides various facts on how the organs work and what they do to all interact together to allow us to function as humans.

Give me back my bones by Kim Norman
This book introduces the reader to the names of the different bones of the body with a story of a skeleton whose bones got scattered through the ocean. It is appropriate for most ages as it includes fun rhymes and pictures.

100 Things to know about the human body by Alex Frith, et al.
This book is sure to feed a love for learning as it provides countless and in depth fun facts related to the human body with stimulating visuals. This is a perfect
book for our curious kiddos who love facts.

Shine-a-light: The human body by Carron Brown and Rachael Saunders
You and your child become explorers of the human body with this book. It is exciting because the reader uncovers hidden features under the skin of the
characters in the book. Shining a light behind the page reveals the bones, nerves, lungs, heart, vascular system, a baby in the womb, and so much more.
You and your little ones will enjoy discovering what is under the skin and how each organ helps us to function.

Little Doctor’s Children Book set: Cardiology, Neurology, and Cell Biology for Babies by Dr Haitham Ahmed

This series of books provides a great introduction to learning about the heart, brain, and the various parts of the cell. It is interactive to promote learning and
understanding. The neurology book is our favorite.

The Fantastic Body: What Makes You Tick & How You Get Sick by Howard Bennett
This is a funny and engaging reference book on everything related to the body. It provides in depth and easy to understand visuals to promote learning and
interest.

Cutie Sue Fights the Germs
Cutie Sue and her brother are sick. She will share with you what she learns about personal hygiene, how to handle doctor visits, and strategies to boost the
immune system and fight being sick. This is a great story to promote wellness and taking care of your body.

We hope you found some fun and interesting books in this list that you can read together with your children. Do you have any favorites to share with us? Comment below!

It can be spooky when it is hard to understand information about your kiddo’s health. October is national health literacy month which advocates for individuals to have the knowledge and access to the information to make informed decisions regarding their health. We believe that knowledge is power, especially when it comes to health. Here are some tips to help optimize your health literacy so that you can make informed health decisions for you and your little ones.

Ask Questions

Always ask clarifying questions to the health professionals that provide care for you and your family. There is no such thing as a “wrong” question, especially if it equips you with knowledge that helps you better understand your health and treatment options. Health care providers have a responsibility to provide education in a way that patients of all backgrounds, cultures, and education levels can understand. If you are more of a visual learner, don’t hesitate to ask for a visual aide that communicates the information.

Do Your Research

It can be intimidating finding reliable information online nowadays. Remember you do not need to do it alone. You can ask your doctor where to start. Good resources usually include sites that end with .gov and most diagnoses have a national association that provides education, research, and local resources. Just remember information you find on the internet can be inaccurate, so discuss the findings of your research with your health care providers so that they can help to weed out what is not helpful.

Community Resources

Often the city or township that you live in will have resources to promote health education. Check out your local library as they not only provide books, but also free access to online databases so that you can search research articles. Often librarians are eager to share their understanding of research and point you in the right direction to helpful resources. Your library is also a great place to start because they can connect you with local agencies and organizations that provide support for your specific concerns or area of interest.

Join Support Groups

Advice from people who have lived in your shoes is priceless. It is impossible to truly understand a situation/ circumstance until you have lived it yourself. Support groups are important as they provide practical advice and tools from people who have experience, affirm that you are not alone, and foster a community that provides support and encouragement to the members. A herd is always more powerful than a lone ranger.

Don’t Panic

Although the process can be frightening and at times overwhelming, it’s important to remember that you are not alone. The full responsibility to diagnose and meet the health needs of your child is not on you.  Although it is good to be informed, don’t put the pressure on yourself to be your child’s health care provider. There is one thing you can do better than anyone else; Love and support your child. In order to do that well you need to take care of yourself. Your emotional stability will be a primary source of strength that they can rely on. Pursue a level of understanding that allows you to follow along in the treatment of your child, advocate for their needs, and breathe.

The school year has kicked off and is already off to a great start! Attending school is such a privilege because our kids are allowed to learn new things from both teachers and peers. One important topic for children to learn about in school and at home is neurodiversity. Neurodiversity is a concept which is inclusive toward conditions like Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia, Sensory Processing Disorder, and other diagnoses. The topic of neurodiversity advocates against stigmatization of those who are neurodiverse and helps to prevent the idealization of the brain and body developing in one specific way. Children need to know that the brain and body can develop in many beautiful and different ways, and that not everyone sees and experiences the world in the same way. 

Through education, children can learn to acknowledge, understand, and respect the differences in themselves and their peers. Many children face different sensory and motor challenges and every child has their own sensory motor strengths, and this is an essential part of life! Teaching kids about neurodiversity promotes understanding and helps to prevent the othering of neurodiverse populations. It also helps kids acknowledge and advocate for themselves or others if access to resources is difficult. It helps them understand that just because someone acts a little differently, moves a little differently, or talks a little differently than they do, that is okay and that they should be celebrated for who they are!

One GREAT way to help teach your child about neurodiversity at home is to provide access to books that talk about it in a way that makes them think about and understand the topic. So, without further ado, here are six children’s books that discuss various topics under the umbrella of neurodiversity so you and your child can learn and grow together:

1. A New Alphabet for Humanity: A Children’s Book of Alphabet Words to Inspire Compassion, Kindness and Positivity by Leesa McGregor

This book utilizes 26 alphabet lessons to nurture social and emotional intelligence among children. It teaches them how to better humanity and work towards a better and brighter future. There are many different topics which are about respecting others, celebrating others, and learning about how to be the best person one can be!

2. All The Way To the Top: How One Girl’s Fight for Americans with Disabilities Changed Everything by Annette Bay Pimentel

This book is about the true story of Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins and her participation in the Capitol Crawl. This book discusses Jennifer’s drive to question America about why public spaces were not accessible to individuals with disabilities. It details HOW her activism helped lead to the formation and passing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which has gone on to benefit SO many Americans to this day (although more spaces and events need to continue to improve their accessibility).

3. The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca

This book is written about Dr. Temple Grandin. Temple was diagnosed with autism at a young age, and faced many challenges growing because many had expectations of her that were not true! No one expected her to talk, let alone become one of the most powerful voices in modern science. Using her powerful and unique mind, she started connecting with animals in a special way. Through this connection and her own perseverance, she became an amazing scientist and inventor, creating revolutionary  improvements for farms around the globe!

4. Meet the Beaker Kids by Shanna Philipson

This is a social-emotional comic book that helps children learn to identify and regulate their behavior in response to outside stimuli. Many kids have trouble controlling how they feel inside in response to things going on around them and need a little support emotionally regulating! This is a great book to teach kids how to be aware of this in themselves and others, how to describe their feelings when they begin to feel overwhelmed, and also for educators interested to understand and support the neurodiverse children in their classroom.

5. Some Brains: A Book Celebrating Neurodiversity by Nelly Thomas

This book helps to celebrate neurodiversity. It begins with the idea that neurodiversity is a normal, essential part of human biodiversity. Without Neurodiversity, we wouldn’t have great minds like Picasso, Einstein, or Greta Thunberg! This book encourages everyone to focus on our strengths and to understand that each brain is unique, which is wonderful!

6. The World Needs Who You Were Made to Be by Joanna Gaines

This book follows a group of children as they each build their own hot-air balloons. It features the kids working together and using their own strengths to create beautiful things. It showcases the fact that we are all different and that the world is a better place when we use our differences and our unique skills to create bright, exciting things as a team!

Do you know what is more fun than learning new school concepts while sitting at a desk…?

Learning while on the MOVE!

Sometimes combining movement with learning helps kids learn faster if they function better while on the go.

This is especially so if your kiddo is a mover and a shaker and loves being active and on the go. Using movement, a strength of theirs, to teach something new may open up the neurological floodgates in new ways. This can give your child access to different and novel pathways in the brain to reinforce concepts as opposed to taking the same traditional and traveled routes!

Learning with movement is also a change from the norm, and even if your kiddo doesn’t always crave movement, any new way of learning is usually more engaging than the same ol’, same ol’! The brain loves novelty, so let’s take advantage of that to build some new connections!

So let’s stand UP and try these fun learning games with us:

1. Combine Sidewalk Chalk, the alphabet, and stepping:
   1. Put each letter of the alphabet in order in rows on the blacktop or sidewalk
   2. Start with one foot on A, step to B, switch feet and step to C, and so on and so on until you reach Z. Make sure you are saying each letter out loud with each step
   3. Looking for an alphabet level up? Mix all the letters up and let your kiddo find them all in order
2. Combine Sidewalk Chalk, Math, and Jumping:
   1. For addition: Put numbers in the order that you see on a traditional calculator (starting with 1, 2, and 3 on the bottom, make 3 rows, then 0 in the middle on a 4th row on the top. Place a (+) sign and an (=) sign next to the numbers at the top (you can also put the numbers from top to bottom if that is easier for your kiddo).
   2. Have your child jump from number to number, trying to add numbers together with the (+) sign before jumping on the (=) and saying what the sum is out loud! 
   3. Have them try with subtraction, or multiplication and division if they are working on these skills in class!
3. Balancing while Reading:
   1. Tape a reading passage to the wall, and have your child stand at a distance where they can see the passage. 
   2. Place both feet together OR stand with one foot on a step stool OR stand with one foot elevated (so you are standing on one foot) – you want your child to be balancing but not falling over, if they are falling over then the balance challenge is too hard and reading will be very, very hard.
   3. While balancing, have your child read the passage out loud and time how long they can hold their balance with a stop watch while reading. Have them try a couple of times with different passages and see if they can beat their balancing time!

Do these kinds of exercises seem tricky for your child?

All of these exercises practice something called “dual tasking” where your child is required to perform a task with their body (a motor task) and their mind (a cognitive task). These kinds of tasks are great to practice with your child because with practice, they make it easier for the body and the mind to work on things at the same time. These kinds of tasks can be very difficult for some kids, especially if their body is taking a lot of their attention away from the cognitive tasks they are being asked to do (like schoolwork).

When does this happen? This happens when balancing and controlling their body is very hard and the child is diverting focus to keeping their body still and in one place. If you feel like your child is spending a lot of energy and focus just keeping their body still and in one place, they may benefit from physical therapy to improve their balance and overall control of their body. Giving a child this kind of control can improve their lives for the better because their brains are free to think, focus, and remember things from school and beyond!

Here are a few red flags that dual tasking is tricky for your child:

• Your child is often falling out of their chair.
• Your child is has a hard time listening to directions while moving at the same time (maybe they miss everything after the first instruction)
• Your child often bumps into things or others

If this sounds like your child, call us at 908-543-4390 to set up a free Discovery Visit with one of our Physical Therapists to see if Physical Therapy would benefit your child!