Health and Development

Summer Slide

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

No more pencils, no more books...

For us in Georgia, it’s the last week of school. While our teachers are trying to get ahead of summer learning loss, only 48% of parents have heard of it. So what is it and should parents honestly worry about it?

Summer learning loss (aka summer slide or summer brain drain) is forgetting key information and/or academic skills previously mastered during the seasonal break. It’s most common in the US and Canada since we have lengthier summer recesses compared to other countries. So, while our kids soak up the sun, sleep in, and go on adventures, their education routine takes a back seat. Studies show that an average student loses 17-34% of their prior year’s academic gains over the summer. Kids who fall behind one summer are likely to widen that gap as more time goes on.

Continue reading →

Things I Learned on Netflix: Babies

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

I enjoy good documentaries and Netflix has an abundance of them out right now. So when I came across the docuseries Babies, I had to check it out for the blog.

Babies explores the new research surrounding child development within the first year of life, following 15 newborns from around the globe. While I’d like to think I’m pretty well informed in this arena, there is still a great deal that I didn’t know and that was quite refreshing. It would be crazy to think that what I learned in grad school about babies 15+ years ago hasn’t been challenged or expanded upon since.

Continue reading →

Course Notes: Early Development and Intervention

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

To round out my CEU courses for the year, I finished with Effective Early Intervention: Innovative Solutions to Build Motor, Balance, and Social-Emotional Skills to Improve Overall Development. While this lecture was geared towards therapists, there is still some great information that parents can use about child development and what early intervention provides.

Continue reading →

Course Notes: SIDS

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

Ever accidentally take a continuing education course that does not apply to your professional license/continuing ed? Yes, me?

Despite this unlucky incident, I still gained a great deal of useful information. A few months ago, I took a CEU course called Infant Positioning Strategies: Progressing Development while Promoting Safe Sleep. While it covered baby development and how positions can cause or reduce certain neck or head conditions, like torticollis or flathead syndrome, I was most intrigued by the topic of SIDS (sudden infant death syndrome). Sounds dark, but the intel presented was too fascinating not to share.

Continue reading →