This is a list of courses which are offered at various times and locations. If you would like to request a course for a particular city, please let us know.
(Central) Auditory Processing Disorders: A New Bag of Tricks 
Treatement, technology, and self determination.
This course is designed to deliver practical, readily applicable techniques and tips for those on a caseload identified with (C)APD or Central Auditory Processing Disorders. We will briefly review diagnostics and how that may help drive one to treatment. Also included will be a review of the latest technological advances, incorporating auditory processing goals into an IEP and applications of accomodations/modifications in various school settings.
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21st Century School Based Therapy
Tere Bowen Irish, presenter of the famed “Juggling the Job as a School Therapist” seminar will now present her extended course with continued updates for the school therapist. Let’s finally move from our familiar medical model to an educational model! This seminar is for you if you want to expand your skills as a school based therapist. How do you contribute to the existing curriculum of the classrooms that your students are involved with? When you plan for your student, do you take into consideration the child’s curriculum, state standards and the classroom expectations? Walk away with a bag of tricks to treat the kids from Pre-school through high school on your caseload in or out of the classroom. Learn to apply the exercises of the Drive Thru Menus for Stressbusting and Relaxation, helping student gain strategies for emotional control. By increasing your knowledge base of what educational initiatives often exist within the school systems you work in, you will be better able to haunt the children when you are not there. Make your interventions relevant and applicable by gaining skills to better deal with state and school mandates. Response to Intervention (RTI) tier system, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory, literacy and Positive Behavioral Supports (PBS) are just a few of the initiatives to be discussed. Learn about differentiated instruction and how to compliment it with your involvement in a classroom setting. Experience a creative movement and yoga session to enhance student involvement and comprehension. A round table format discussion model will be utilized to encourage networking, actively problem solving specific caseload or best practice needs. Whether we are new to school based therapy or are a veteran, we all need to feel empowered to gain fresh ideas and new approaches. Feel free to bring an idea/activity to share that others may use to enhance their practice. *Participants need not attend Juggling the Job of the School Therapist to attend this seminar.
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Adult and Pediatric Therapeutic Taping for Improved Alignment and Neuromuscular Re-education
This conference will focus on use of static and dynamic taping techniques to facilitate improved alignment and muscle reeducationfor function. Developmental and adultbiomechanics in relation to treatment will be reviewed. Tapes and interventions used include: rigid strapping tape, Kinesio tape ® , velcro patches with elastic straps, neoprene wraps, and Thera Togs™.
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Closed Chain Manipulation
With a precise understanding of anatomy and biomechanics of the kinetic chain restoration of movement of joints in dysfunction is enhanced. A new technique utilizing specific positioning and patient activation is introduced - "Closed Chain Manipulation". These techniques will allow the therapist to provide the patient with a more powerful manipulation of any articulation with greater ease for the therapist to perform than typical open chain mobilizations, and are safe to employ in either acute or chronic conditions. In this two day seminar the participant will gain increased knowledge of the articulations through their anatomy and biomechanics, followed by specific assessment techniques to identify dysfunctions of the related joint. Closed Chain Manipulation techniques are instructed and practiced which the instructor has found effective in the treatment of altered movement characteristics of the selected articulations. Self care exercises utilizing the fundamental principles of Closed Chain Manipulation are addressed.
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Comprehensive Stuttering Treatment: The Search for the Best Fit
This two day workshop will focus on the assessment and management of stuttering across the lifespan. Topics will cover current research, evaluation protocols, as well as direct and indirect treatment approaches for pediatric and adult clients.
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Empowering Clients to Use Relaxation, Stress Reduction, Movement and Yoga Techniques to Enhance Performance
Whether your caseload is children, adults with mental or physical challenges or the elderly, this course is designed to help empower you and your skill set. Client’s coping skills can vary according to personality, extenuating circumstances, specific diagnosis (and its implications), environmental factors and other issues that may influence their abilities. We strive to meet the treatment needs but hope that the individual will adapt to their challenges in fulfilling their roles optimally. How often are we looking at the whole person versus a reimbursement code for a disability? How can we help them learn and apply strategies to help with self regulation, coping day to day and being active participants in there existing world? Isn’t habituation really the key? Participants will review techniques and a variety of methods to improve attention, focus, the relaxation response and general stress busting ideas. Consideration of sensory processing issues for these populations will be addressed. An experiential overview of basic yoga poses, breathing and visualization techniques and their application to clinical environments will be covered. Confirm how our client’s sensory systems can benefit from a variety of sensory input to affect overall performance and accessing their routine. Recognize how to teach someone on your caseload ways to soothe themselves, relax, and reduce stress to improve their ability to fulfill their roles. Let’s bring back the idea of activity based, client generated interventions to enhance self preservation, self esteem and problem solving skills. Dress comfortably and bring a yoga mat or a beach towel!
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Hands On FEES: Training in the Use of Laryngoscopy to Evaluate and Treat Dysphagia
This workshop will provide speech-language pathologists with knowledge and understanding of use of the Fiberoptic Endoscopic Evaluation of Swallowing (FEES). Participants of the second day of this workshop will receive hands on training for the transnasal passage of the laryngoscope. This hands-on training will prepare them for the process of achieving clinical privileging to pass the laryngoscope in their work setting.
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Integrating Sensory Integration Principles into Speech and Language Therapy Programs
This dynamic two day workshop will provide the clinician with both theoretical and practical information on sensory integration and its impact on behavior and attention, socialization, play skills and oral motor development. A framework to analyze behaviors for their sensory components and provide more appropriate sensory input will be explored. Attention will be given to designing sensory diets and making adaptations to activities and environments to optimize an individual’s performance. Case vignettes will be used to highlight typical difficulties observed in children with sensory integration dysfunction and facilitate problem solving through group processing. Specific intervention concepts and activities will also be presented and practiced in lab format. These concepts will be practical for use in all environments.
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Juggling the Job as a School Therapist
This course is designed to help consulting therapists and teachers to work cooperatively. Participants will explore new perspectives of the inclusion model. School personnel all experience difficulties with scheduling, consulting, and planning for specific students. During this course we will deal with issues such as: the best way to juggle scheduling in and out of the classroom, creative ways of consulting, how the team copes with resistance to change, and finally, methods of increasing efficiency and effectiveness in the least restrictive environment of the classroom. Learn more about executive function, utilizing new strategies that continue long after you leave the classroom. Take away activities and intervention strategies based on classroom curriculum that can be applied when you return to work. Learn to implement YogaKids into treatment. Experiment with different perspectives that will open up new ways of treating children, working with teachers, parents and other professionals. A round table format discussion model will be utilized during part of this seminar to actively problem solve specific caseload needs. Attend this seminar if you truly want to make an impact on your coded child’s experience in their inclusive classroom. Prepare to share concerns, ideas, triumphs and challenges with other colleagues and remember why you got into school system practice to begin with.
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Maximizing Quality of Movement in Infants and Children Using the Medek Approach
This course combines lecture with hands on training. It will introduce the participants to the Medek intervention developed by Ramon Cuevas, a Chilean physical therapist. The participants will learn the theoretical base for Medek, the concepts and assumptions, similarities and differences to other approaches used to develop motor skills in infants and young children with movement disorders. Learning will be enhanced through video clips and demonstration. Participants will practice some exercises to develop head and trunk control, standing and walking with actual children and/or dolls. The main goal is to improve clinical effectiveness.
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Practical Application of Sensory Integration Principles
This dynamic two day workshop will feature both practical and theoretical principles of sensory integration intervention, and present a framework for clinical assessment and ongoing intervention planning. Attention will be given to identifying behaviors indicative of sensory integration dysfunction and understanding how basic sensory integration principles apply to functional performance at home and school. Participants will learn how to design specific sensory diets based on individual sensory needs to facilitate performance in daily life activities. Specific intervention principles will be outlined to address problems in sensory modulation and discrimination, postural and ocular control, and motor planning. Case studies and video analysis will be used to fine tune observations and clinical reasoning skills.
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Problem Solving For Inclusion: Practical, Point Of Performance Ideas For Consulting Therapists And Teachers In The Class
This course is designed to help the consulting therapist and teachers to work cooperatively as a team. By attending this workshop, you will explore new perspectives of the inclusion model. Do you find yourself sometimes overwhelmed by these questions? How can I overlap my IEP objectives with other professionals more efficiently? What is the best way to approach and implement service delivery? Are my intervention strategies carried on when I am not there? How does the team cope with resistance to change? What is the best way to juggle scheduling in and out of the classroom? What are creative ways of consulting? Attend this workshop if you truly want to make an impact on your coded child’s experience in the least restrictive environment in the classroom.
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School Based OT & PT in the 21st Century: Providing Inclusive Services
School based therapy continues grow and evolve across the country. Educational costs, government initiatives, local constraints all dictate the role of the therapist within the context of the school system. Review of the therapist’s role in an inclusive setting and integration of service delivery will help us to work smarter, not harder. This seminar will review educational initiatives that therapists can share with the educators they work with. By increasing our knowledge base and competency in these areas we will be better able to fulfill our role to help our students access their environment. This seminar will provide therapists with different perspectives concerning consultation, direct intervention and collaboration with the entire team. By increasing your awareness of what educational initiatives often exist within the school systems you work in, you will be better able to haunt the students when you are not there. Make your interventions relevant and applicable by gaining skills to better deal with state and school mandates. IDIEA, Response to Intervention (RTI) tier system, Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory, Executive Function, literacy, and Positive Behavioral Supports (PBS) are just a few of the initiatives that will be discussed. Discover how educators are dealing with differentiated instruction and how to compliment and supplement this practice with your involvement in a classroom setting. Experience a session that includes creative movement and yoga that not only enhances student involvement and comprehension but promotes literacy. A round table format discussion model will be utilized to encourage networking, active problem solving, and program planning. Feel free to share an idea/activity that others may use to enhance their practice. Whether you are new to school based therapy or are a veteran, we all need to feel empowered to gain fresh ideas and new approaches. During this course we will deal with issues such as: the best way to juggle scheduling for your students, utilization of the whole school environment, clinical reasoning as to the best arena to treat, creative ways of consulting, your role as part of the team and finally, specific methods of increasing efficiency and effectiveness in the least restrictive environment of the classroom. Attendee’s will walk away with a new perspective of their existing job, novel ways to meet the current challenges and confirmation of the skills you possess that will help you remember why you got into school based practice to begin with!
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State of the Art Dysphagia Intervention
This session will focus on several aspects of variability in the assessment and treatment of dysphagia. The current state of the clinical swallowing assessment will be reviewed along with new developments in assessing dysphagia such as the cough reflex test. The scientific bases for the administration of a number of popular dysphagia treatments such as Deep Pharyngeal Neuromuscular Stimulation, Shaker Exercise and Thermal Stimulation will be reviewed. The speaker will also discuss the value of using slow motion while reviewing videofluoroscopic swallowing evaluations. In addition, the speaker will demonstrate the use of a laryngoscope to complete flexible fibreoptic endoscopic evaluation of the swallow (FEES) and discuss this procedure in-depth.
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TEST Course
SITE TEST
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The Art of Clinical Reasoning in Sensory Integration
This intermediate level course will enhance qualitative observation skills and fine tune clinical reasoning for assessment and intervention. Standardized assessments always need to be supplemented with additional observations, particularly for certain ages and diagnoses. A structured observational assessment tool of sensory modulation and discrimination will be presented with video case vignettes to facilitate observation skills. Practice using this assessment and defining areas for intervention will occur through video observation of children in various settings. On the second day activity analysis of sensory, postural, bilateral motor coordination, projected action sequences, motor planning and competition will be stressed. Adapting each of these areas to find the “just right challenge†within intervention to facilitate goal attainment will be discussed. Strategies for accommodations and intervention activities will be developed using video case studies and small group discussions.
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The Learning Triad: How the Eyes, Hands, and Cognition Impact Writing and Other School Activities
This course will offer an understanding of hand, perceptual and memory development as it relates to the complex process of teaching graphic language skills. Specific attention will be on developmental anatomy and kinesiology of the hand. An evaluation of primary children will be demonstrated followed by activities to address deficit components in preparation for writing skills. The kinesthetic approach for writing lower and upper case letters within motor learning clusters will be demonstrated.
Material in this workshop will be directed for low severity, high incident learning disabled students and their typically developing classmates. Time will not allow for discussion of severely involved students who require more individualized intervention.
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Treatment Tools to Enhance Sensory Integration: Postural, Respiratory, Oral Motor, Auditory and Movement Activities to Support Functional Performance
Ms. Szklut has presented a variety of courses on sensory integration over the last 15 years. In this course she will present important adjunctive treatment techniques to enhance (sensory integration) intervention skills. Through presenting a variety of ideas, activities and handling techniques Ms. Szklut will enrich the understanding of the connections between sensory integration and arousal, internal regulation, eating, posture, motor control and spatial temporal adaptation. Active lab work will be utilized to encourage competency with each intervention area presented. Therapeutic interventions presented will include handling techniques to improve respiratory control and postural development, oral motor interventions to decrease sensory defensiveness and improve discrimination and muscle strength in the mouth and analysis of music and rhythmical activities for use in self regulation and spatial temporal adaptation. Addressing these critical components optimizes the gains in intervention and better meets the needs of the whole child.
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Visually Enhanced Therapy: Identifying, Understanding and Managing Visual, Vestibular, Sensory Processing, Balance, and Dizziness Problems
This seminar is designed to help therapists develop a comprehensive understanding of vision and how vision can impact performance and how vision problems can impact therapy programs. Dr. Appelbaum and Barbara Bassin OTR will discuss how movement and vision difficulties impact treatment options including both compensatory strategies and rehabilitative techniques (vision therapy). Participants will develop increased abilities to understand the nuances of sensory integration & visual-vestibular behavior by greater awareness, knowledge, and perception of the fundamental causes. Hands on experience will provide opportunities for everyone to learn how to administer a reliable and detailed vision screening. A screening protocol that allows therapists to test for the most common vision problems will be presented and a vision screening kit will be made available for purchase. Comprehensive treatment options will be discussed at length so that therapists will learn both compensatory strategies and have knowledge of rehabilitative techniques such as vision therapy. Through hands-on experience, practical, innovative, sequential sensory integration, vestibular, visual activities and exercises will be available for use right away with their clients. This workshop is designed for professionals who are interested in enhancing their clinical skills in assessment and treatment of self-regulation, attention, multisensory and interaction problems in children. The goal of the workshop is to make each participant very much aware about the differences between eyesight & vision and how knowledge of developmental vision concepts, testing protocols, & treatment can greatly enhance balance, movement, performance, efficiency, energy, & outcomes of the children and adults who seek our care and advice.
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