We are so excited to have such amazing staff, interns, and students to work with all year long. Our community keeps growing with talented, creative, and caring people. It is such a gift to know all these amazing women (some pictured, some not). Our staff kicked off the joyful season with a little karaoke.
This is a little late coming but we wanted to WELCOME James Frances. That’s right, Tricia, our wonderful OT here at STN had another boy. He was born November 25th at 3:58am. He weighed in at 8-pounds, 13-ounces and was 21.5 inches long. Congratulations to the whole family! We hope they enjoy the time off from therapy to love and cuddle this beautiful wee one.
Social Thinking’s creator, Michelle Garcia Winner presented in Tacoma today on the basics of Social Thinking. We’ve been using her concepts loosely in clinic for a while now and it is definitely always good to hear the info first hand from its creator. Michelle is a great presenter and keeps the listener interested, even with a crowd of 600!
She gave great information on social cognition, levels of social development, and prognosis for each level of function. She suggests that our “highest level” children are actually at highest risk. This is because they don’t understand the nuance of social interactions and therefore are more prone to bullying and isolation. Difficulties with nuance can appear as a hidden disability.
The other “ah-ha” moment I took away is that neurotypicals are wired to have social cognition. Much like infants aren’t taught to crawl or walk, they innately learn to attend to others needs and thoughts early on in life. Learning social skills is not learned by modeling naturally. Her image of the Social Thinking/Social Learning Tree seems a good compliment with the sensory processing pyramid. In both models you need to have a solid foundation of underlying skills. For social thinking the skills at the base (roots) are joint attention, theory of mind, reciprocity/sharing, and general cognition/language. The top levels are represented by leaves and are specific discrete skills. Garcia-Winner reported, “Stay out of the leaves.” Here is the graphic image of the tree below. You can find more on social thinking at their website: www.socialthinking.com. 
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he Alaska Way Viaduct will be closed from October 21-31. Please take some time to plan an alternative route to the clinic. Let us know if we can help.
click here for more information from the Seattle Department of Tranportation
We are just finishing up with another Alert Crew, a program based on the How Does Your Engine Run curriculum but tailored to each individual group session. These groups are designed for children who have already experienced occupational therapy with a sensory integration focus for at least 3-months. Kids discover tools to help keep them focused and attentive and learn about ways to keep their engines running “just right”. With peer feedback this group builds upon previous learned skills and takes them to the next level of self-regulation. Ideal for 7-12 year-olds.
Please call the office at 206-763-0352 to find out more information or fill out our online contact form.
Groups always forming so call today! 
Session 1: Monday, July 11 through Friday, July 29, 2011
Session 2: Monday, August 8 through Friday, August 26, 2011
Seattle Therapy Network will offer 2 sessions of Helper Hands Camp this summer. Helper Hands Camp is a constraint induced therapy program that offers rehabilitation therapy for children with limited function on one side of their body (hemiplegia).
This research-based program provides intensive training and skill building on the affected extremities while the non-affected arm is constrained in a long-arm cast.
Helper Hands Camp is designed for a maximum of 5 children per session to ensure individualized programming and attention. We organize our campers into developmental age groups to include preschool, school age, and pre-teens. Our camp runs from 9:30 – 12:30 Monday through Friday for a 3- week duration.
We are happy to work with you and your insurance company to attain the best coverage.
Camp Activities Include:
* Arts & Crafts
* Music
* Sports
* Dance
* Video Games
* Yoga
* Cooking
* Gardening
* Dress-Up
* Theme Days
* Swimming
* Circus Arts
* Community Outings
We are now accepting reservations for both sessions.
Call now to reserve your spot! 206.763.0352
Sign up for Kids’ Club this summer!
June 28-August 4th
Tuesdays and Thursdays at Seattle Therapy Network
Contact Jennifer Coons, MEd @ 360-870-9707
Kids’ Club is for preschool and kindergarten age children who need support in developing peer relationships, solving problems with peers, and being a self-advocate.
The focus of these facilitated playgroups is to promote positive social interactions between peers. During each session we will use research-based methods, positive behavior support and explicit instruction to teach friendship skills, social communication skills and self-regulation strategies.
We will provide meaningful opportunities for children to work together and practice their play skills through social games, art, science and cooking projects
Jennifer Coons Bell, M.Ed. is excited to teach Kids Club and looks forward to meeting and collaborating with new families this summer. During the school year, she is a special education preschool teacher and extended day teacher (ABA intervention for children with autism) for Seattle Public Schools.
Jennifer worked for nine years as a special education instructional assistant for Seattle Public Schools before earning her graduate degree and teaching certificate in early childhood special education. It was this experience – working with exceptional children and skilled and dedicated teachers- that shaped who she is as a teacher and advocate for children with special needs and their families.
During her Master’s program Jennifer worked for two years as an assistant teacher at the Experimental Education Unit (EEU) at the University of Washington. Her focus was on children with autism and other behavioral and social challenges. Additional experience comes from co-teaching social skills groups and working with children and their families in a home-based program using methods of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).
Our Alert Crew made these last week. We had a great time designed our personalized engine meters. Now we can quickly identify whether our engines are running HIGH, READY, or LOW.
This is by far my new favorite game. I was just cruising around Wallingford Center, where one of my favorite toy Izilla Toys has their second shop. I always leave with a little somethign and on this day, I was in the market for a new game. Jude recommended this awesome (and easily adapted) game. It has eight cute little wooden pigs with cute little pink felt ears. The object is to race to build a piggy tower against an opponent with a matching color card. The pigs have different shaped heads. Here’s what sold me: the directions say that you have to stack them by holding the pigs by the ears only. This is totally a great game for practicing those pincer grasp skills while having total fun! Pig Pig Hooray!
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Very cool article on WebMD about a study out of UCLA indicating that individuals with autism has significantly different gene expression in the temporal and frontal lobes of the brain than neurotypicals. Read the full article here: