Author: Gwen

I am a mother of one toddler, but before I became a mom I worked in all things kids. I have a B.S. Early Child Development and a M.Ed. Special Education. I have eight years experience of working directly with children with special needs, as well as, an additional six working with typically developing children. I also grew up with a sibling that is bipolar and am currently helping my four-year old niece navigate through Arizona services to get help for a speech delay and ADHD. This site is published as additional information only and is not meant to serve as a plan for any specific child. Please find a developmental pediatrician in your area to get help tailored for your child. Enjoy;)

Fun Free Toddler Apps: for iPhones and iPads

June 18, 20121 Comment

As summer is here and vacations are sure to be a worry if you have a little one in tow, here’s a list of fun free toddler apps that will keep your children entertained while challenging them to learn something too.

9 Free Toddler Apps to keep your little one busy learning…

Play Phone

This definitely has some annoying glitches, but we have also gone through phases where it was my sons favorite. He loves the function of personalization.

Giraffe’s Matching Zoo

There is I believe a paid version where you don’t have to deal with the annoying ads, but my child has fully learned to navigate the free version. It has great sounds to go with the cards, so it is more of a multisensory memory experience.

Animal Sounds for Baby

Admittedly this is for the younger child but I sometimes still here my two year old playing with it. There are some other cute baby ones made by Fischer-price.

Little Writer

This is a cute app to develop some pre-writing skills.

My First Wood Puzzles: Dinosaurs

This is super fun for a little boy or a dinosaur loving girl. It incorporates the alphabet with science all while working on fine motor skills.

Jake’s Never Land Pirate School

Nothing keeps m son as busy as an app he can also watch on television. This one is FREE and it has lots of fun inside of it from cruising a ship to playing music.

Counting Ants

This is a cute app that incorporates numbers and foreign languages. It has multiple animals and multiple modes of transportation so there is lots to keep your kids attention.

Preschool Games

This has tons of ways to learn and play. It is full of customizable options. It helps kids expand there vocabulary and learn all about animals.

Hello Crayons

This app is great for the budding artist. It is pretty straight forward for just coloring but it has lots of mediums and colors to choose from to keep your little artist hard at work.

Adaptive Behavior and Behavior Scales: Truly Defining a Child

June 14, 2012June 12, 2012Leave a comment

Adaptive behavior means that the behavior or “anything that an organism does involving action and response to stimulation” (Merriam-Webster, 2006) is adaptive or “modification of an organism or its parts that makes it more fit for existence under the conditions of its environment” (Merriam-Webster, 2006).

In other words…Adaptive behavior is the ability to adjust to one’s environment in order to prosper. Adaptive behaviors include: communication, self-help skills, socialization, and motor skills. Communication can be broke down into receptive, expressive, and written. It is something that may be quantified in order to place a student in education, define services needed, or determine the future of a child. With so much riding on how a child’s adaptive behavior is perceived, how is it truly determined. There are behavior scales that are normally rated by many people in the child’s life. The more the better it can give a more well rounded picture of the individual, but still problems arise as all people might not have a shared view.

Problems with Defining Adaptive Behavior:

It is hard to define adaptive behavior using words outside of adaptive and behavior
It is hard to specifically test adaptive behavior as it is a very broad picture that occurs in a variety of environments with a variety of different ingredients.
Tests Directly reflect the biases of the individuals filing them out

How to Correctly Asses Adaptive Behavior

Do lots of behavior scales from multiple individuals
If any scale is way off talk about it as a team and if possible get another person in a similar relationship with the child to fill one out. Then check for discrepancies and consistencies
Remember we all act differently in different environments. There is very likely going to be some discrepancies.

Intellectual Disability and Defining Intelligence

June 12, 2012Leave a comment

Intellectual Disability has historical been defined as an IQ under 70, but where does the 70 arrive from. The following addresses issues surrounding the meaning and measurement of intelligence. It identifies issues and proposes solutions.

Defining Intellectual Disability

Intelligence means “the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations : the skilled use of reason (2) : the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests): mental acuteness” (Merriam-Webster, 2006). This means in order to arrive at any number a persons brain is challenged to remember things, to code things, to build things, and in general to manipulate things. Intelligence comes in a wide range of areas, which leads us directly to some of the problems with defining intelligence.

Intelligence Meaning Issues:

Finding a universal definition. There are so many variations of intelligence. Are the correct one’s being tested?
How to test. Each individual is different. Some are great with the two person environment, yet others might need something else to show their true potential.
Does test accommodate the child’s abilities/disabilities? Some people have a hard time fully expressing any of the great things going on in their mind.
Is the definition reliable enough to be used for children’s placement. Just how accurate of a picture are we getting?

Possible Solutions:

Intelligence should be defined in a more universal manor
Tests should be used as an aide with other information collected on the child
More than one test in each domain using different mediums should used

Getting Baby to Sleep Through the Night

June 8, 20122 Comments

Need some keys on getting baby to sleep through the night. My child was a horrid sleeper. One day someone asked me if he was colic because he was tired (everyone in the house was), and I thought that’s it we need to fix this. I read multiple books, but these were some keys that saved us:

Keep a journal of their sleep habits and vow to never regress (particularly important with night feedings)
Set a goal (what would make you happy- the books suggested 12 hours of crib time at night but we are more of 10-11 hours).

Now how to reach your goal of getting baby to sleep through the night…

if your child wakes up lets say three times and drinks 5 oz. of a bottle or 5 minutes breast milk keep that same amount then cut them off. 3 nights is key for this approach as it then develops a habit. On the third night cut it by 0.5 oz. or 30 seconds to 1 minute. Keep that three nights then cut it again. It is heart breaking to be stern, but after some sleep and sanity, I would do it again in a heart beat. It’s up to how fast you want to do it. If you want to target one thing at a time (like only getting up three times then two or if you want to rip the whole band-aide off and just do it all at once. I truly believe it helped my child be a better baby and me a better mommy. Naps still aren’t great for us but as he’s learned to love his crib he’s happy chilling up there for two hours at his designated time even if there is no sleeping going on.

Early Intervention: A National Crisis of Making the First Five Count

May 16, 2012Leave a comment

A Child With Needs

Early child development from a mom and professional.