http://tdd.risearizona.org Just another Rise Arizona Sites site Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:28:25 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 http://tdd.risearizona.org/2012/01/14/healthy-sleep-habits/ http://tdd.risearizona.org/2012/01/14/healthy-sleep-habits/#comments Sat, 14 Jan 2012 20:31:07 +0000 admin http://tdd.risearizona.org/?p=64 As an early interventionist, I often receive questions regarding infant and early childhood sleep habits. It seems like the moment we become parents, sleep becomes one of the most common things we think and worry about for our child. Developing healthy sleep habits is tricky for any child and may be even more so for a child experiencing any additional challenges. One of my favorite references is “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” by Dr. Marc Weisbluth. Dr. Weissbluth is a pediatrician who focuses his practice and research on children’s sleep habits. He particularly centers on building healthy habits around a child’s natural sleep cycles. I love the book because it encourages parents to become familiar with their child’s sleep signals to prevent becoming overtired and hopefully avoid the dreaded “crying it out” if possible.

I found “Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child” really helpful with my own four children and have worked with several families who found some helpful tips from the book. The pattern the book helps you set up for infants includes a morning, afternoon and small evening nap. It even answers many questions about sleep disturbances in older children. My all-time favorite quote from it is “sleep begets sleep” because who couldn’t use a little more sleep?

]]> http://tdd.risearizona.org/2012/01/14/healthy-sleep-habits/feed/ 3 http://tdd.risearizona.org/2012/01/10/hello-world/ http://tdd.risearizona.org/2012/01/10/hello-world/#comments Tue, 10 Jan 2012 06:28:05 +0000 admin http://tdd.risearizona.org/?p=1 Looking back on when I first started with Rise early Intervention three years ago, it’s amazing to me all the changes and progress we have made with our team conferences. I remember the first team meeting I was a part of. We had 5 therapists on the phone and 1 support coordinator at the office. I listened as the other therapists talked about any of the struggles they were having with their current caseload and eagerly chimed in with information on sensory processing, that included a laundry list of activities that I handed out to every family I saw. Now, years later, we are meeting face to face and more fully using collaborative teaming strategies. Our conversations focus on the parent’s priorities, not the therapist’s. We use family centered language and focus our discussions on supporting the family’s routines as opposed to providing skill specific based therapy to the child. It has been exciting to see our teams transform so much and even more exciting to see how these discussions in the team meetings lead to positive changes in the homes of the families we serve.

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