Could your child have Obstructive Sleep Apnea?

There are many reasons why a child might be easily distracted, fidgety, restless, and have a hard time focusing.  One of those reasons could be lack of adequate rest.  The Center for Disease Control suggests 11-12 hours of sleep per day for preschoolers and at least 10 hours a day for school-aged children.  

What if a child is having trouble sleeping, and displaying issues like snoring more than half the time while sleeping, “heavy” or loud breathing, occasional bed-wetting, and a pause in breathing (especially those lasting for 10 seconds or more) while sleeping?  According to the National Sleep Foundation, sleep-related breathing disorders occur in 2-20% of children and directly impact their health and well-being.  Look for some of these signs during waking hours: forward head posture, dark circles under the eyes, heavy breathing, excessive daytime sleepiness, poor attention span and cognitive skills, and waking un-refreshed in the morning.

Imagine startling awake with your heart pounding with adrenaline!  This is a sad reality for many with Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), a disorder which reduces or stops airflow to the lungs during deep relaxed sleep stages.  This lack of airflow can reduce oxygen saturation in the bloodstream, interrupt sleep, and could contribute to other issues related to heart health, obesity, diabetes, behavioral disorders and more.  OSA is characterized by the muscles of the throat and tongue relaxing and collapsing the airway.  Studies suggest that as many of 25% of children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity may have symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea and behavior problems can be the result of chronic fragmented sleep.  Enlarged tonsils or need for orthodontic treatment, are a couple causal considerations.

As parents and caregivers, we play a crucial role in helping to provide important clues and information to our children’s health care providers, which enables them to give the best and most informed care to our kids. If you have noticed any symptoms that appear to be a breathing or sleep disorder, please bring it up with your child’s provider, much can be done to ensure that children can get the rest they need to grow and learn.  In particular, orthodontic expansion treatment has been shown in some cases to be a treatment for OSA and can make surgical correction, such as adenotonsillectomy, unnecessary.  Kids definitely need their sleep, so bring up any concerns right away with his or her health care provider!

It's Summer Reading Time!

Summer is upon us!  That wonderful time when days are long and bright, and children are set free from the classroom routine.  Keeping children's reading skills up over the school break can be fun, especially if they are signed up with your library's summer reading program. 

If you are in Everett, this year's theme is "Dig into Reading".  There is a lot of useful information about the program at this link, click HERE for a PDF of all the free events planned. The library is focusing on making it a positive learning experience, which we think is great!  There is even an "Adult Summer Reading Challenge" where you can lead by example while earning prizes and being entered to win one of four grand prizes. 

Enjoy your summer! 

We like "Through Edina's Eyes"; a blog focused on child development

It's always a pleasure whenever we find a kindred spirit when it comes to enthusiasm for child development.  We are adding a link on our sidebar to Colorado-based Dr. Lynn Hellenstein's site,  click "Blog" on her website to reach "Through Edina's Eyes" or click HERE.  You will find useful information about health, child development for special-needs and typically developing kids, and a focus on vision. 

Dr. Hellenstein

Here is some information from Dr. Hellenstein's website:

Children go through distinct periods of development as they move from infants to toddlers to grade-schoolers to young adults. During each of these stages, multiple changes in the development of the brain take place.

When your child starts walking on his or her own, it opens up a whole new world of freedom. Exploration of the environment is your child’s mission. Language development also takes major leaps. Your child learns words which turn into sentences.

By the end of 24 months (2 years), many children are able to:

• Have approximately 200 words in vocabulary
• Speak in small sentences
• Show some independence, including defiance
• Imitate motor movements like dance, gestures, etc.
• Run
• Use stairs independently
• Kick a ball
• Build a 6 cube tower with blocks
• Start coloring
• “Pretend” read (look at pictures and babble-like reading)
• Have interest in potty training

Ways to Encourage Development:

• Baby-proof your house. Bumps, bruises, eye injuries & other serious injuries can occur as your baby begins to physically explore the environment. Keep cabinets that contain cleaning supplies or dangerous objects locked. Put barriers in front of stairwells.
• Provide plenty of playtime, including playing alone, with peers and with their parents
• Have plenty of SAFE objects and toys that can be pulled apart
• Use building blocks, puzzles and balls of all shapes and sizes to play with to boost fine motor skills
• Read or tell stories to stimulate your child’s ability to visualize and pave the way for learning and reading
• Listen to music and play with musical toys
• Provide tools for drawing, cutting and other artistic activities (crayons, markers, safe scissors, paint, clay, etc.)
• Get your child outside as much as possible, even in the colder weather. Well-chosen outdoor play games can provide for plenty of fun, exploration, education and physical development.
• With all the electronic media available (computers, tablets, TV, movies, etc.), electronic input for children of this age should be limited to no more than 2 hours per day (including educational programs).

Research shows that the key to healthy child development is the amount of time children spend time with their parents, having fun and learning at the same time.

Enjoy, and have a wonderful Christmas and holiday season, from all of us at Clear Speech, Inc. 

 

 

Worldwide Day of Play

What would cause Nickelodeon’s TV networks and website to plan to go off the air and offline for 3 hours on September 24th, 2011? The answer is: Worldwide Day of Play (WWDOP). It’s all part of a campaign to get kids and families up and active featuring an all-day event in Washington DC and over 4,000 other locations around the world.

First Lady Michelle Obama has joined the effort by encouraging kids to get active an hour a day, earn the Presidential Active Lifestyle Award (PALA), and to celebrate WWDOP on September 24th. For information to sign up for the PALA program click HERE.

Even if you are not able to participate in this particular event, are there ways the children in your life could become more active? Physical activity is an important part of a child's overall growth and development.

Social Groups at Clear Speech, Inc.

Have you ever paused to consider social interaction and the enormous role it plays in our everyday lives? From childhood to adulthood we have social interaction as we play, work, and cooperate with others. The ability to interact socially enhances the richness of our lives and even, in part, determines some of our success.

While children can pick up social skills naturally from their environment, many children can make tremendous strides in this area in a social group setting, where the foundation can be laid and put into practice by trained, caring facilitators. Social groups can be especially beneficial for Children with developmental delays, physical disabilities, autism, or other diagnoses such as ADHD or ADD

At Clear Speech Inc., we have had the privilege of watching the growth and bonding of five of our children in our first social group, which began last fall. Clear Speech founder, Lorioux Loup, enthusiastically says of this group, “These kids are excited to see each other [at each meeting]…I love it!” She credits Clear Speech’s Gabriela, Wendy, and Cristy for facilitating the group in a natural setting filled with teachable moments, while focusing on music, literature, and art.

Want more information about social groups at Clear Speech, Inc? We are currently forming new groups, click HERE for contact information. We seek to place children in groups where they will benefit the most, with consideration to their age and abilities. We feature smaller group sizes for an excellent ratio of trained facilitators to clients. Come join the fun while working on necessary foundational social skills, after all, as Lorioux says, “We’re all here, and everybody needs a friend!”

Boredom Busters

Seattle Children's Hospital's website has some ideas for keeping kid's minds active while on road trips. Games include singing, storytelling, and even a "Quiet Game". Click HERE to go to the Boredom Busters article.

The Culture of Play

“Play is the highest form of research.” - Albert Einstein

How many of us have heard older folks reminiscing about “the good old days”? An elderly gentleman I knew used to like to say of the days of his youth, “those were gentler times”; when he had that faraway look in his eyes, among other things, he may have been remembering the play and adventures of his childhood. From personal experience, as a child thirty-plus years ago, we didn’t have much of the technology of today or even a schedule when we weren’t in school. We often used to roam the nearby woods with the neighborhood kids. We had games of hide-n-seek, tag, and many child-directed play adventures, even including an imaginary wedding under the leafy forest canopy; contrasted to the high-tech, heavily scheduled lives of many of today’s cell-phone-carrying, internet-savvy kids, it was practically a different world. Some have voiced concerns that the culture of play could be vanishing in the United States.

So what about play? Experts define play as a game or activity initiated and directed by children. According to Tina Bruce, Professor at London Metropolitan University:

“It is becoming increasingly clear through research on the brain, as well as in other areas of study, that childhood needs play. Play acts as a forward feed mechanism into courageous, creative, rigorous thinking in adulthood.”

The belief in the importance of play for children is gathering support as groups such as Play for Tomorrow, KaBoom, and the US Play Coalition are being established to educate parents, caregivers, and schools, and to foster the culture of play for today’s children.

A recent New York Times article by Hilary Stout sums it up, “An important part of the movement is teaching children themselves how to play. The average 3-year-old can pick up and iPhone and expertly scroll through the menu of apps, but how many 7-year-olds can organize a kickball game with the neighborhood kids?” A booklet offered by one play organization suggests, “Climb on the couch with your friends and pretend you are sailing on a ship to a distant land…lay a toy on the floor and figure out how to build a bridge going over the toy with blocks…make paper doll cutouts from old newspapers and magazines…let your imagination fly.”

Consider how we as parents, educators, or caregivers might set the stage for our children to play with their peers while letting them direct the games, set the rules, and enter into the culture of play. They’ll be learning and creating special memories that they may one day look back on and call “the good old days”.

For more on this topic, click HERE for the New York Times Article “Effort to Restore Children’s Play Gains Momentum”.