teachmetotalk.com’s Christmas Therapy Guide is now for sale!

by Laura Mize from Teach Me To Talk:

I’m launching a brand new feature here on teachmetotalk.com with the release of our very first Therapy Guide just in time for Christmas.

What’s a Therapy Guide?

teachmetotalk.com’s Therapy Guide consists of two components for helping you learn to work with a young child with a language delay or disorder.

First you’ll receive access to an instructive video. In this 50 minute video I’ll walk you through many, many ideas for using 6 different toys and activities based on holiday themes. I’ll teach you exactly what to say to engage a toddler or young preschooler, target new play and cognitive skills, and teach new language skills. I’ll discuss and demonstrate several activities for each toy providing practical application tips to increase your effectiveness and make sure you know what you’re doing!

You’ll also get a comprehensive written treatment plan (This one is 16 pages!) to pair with the activities demonstrated on the video. In the written guide you’ll find a list of suggested goals, materials, instructions, and strategies to make this a productive learning opportunity for both the child and you! Each activity lists 5 to 10 goals for targeting social, cognitive, both receptive and expressive language, and perhaps even speech intelligibility skills in very young children.

This information is appropriate for use by speech-language pathologists, committed parents and grandparents, occupational and developmental therapists, early intervention and preschool teachers, and other professionals who work with toddlers with language delays and developmental concerns.

Like several of my other projects, the Christmas Therapy Guide is written in a homework format and may be copied and shared with families during sessions. It’s a fantastic parent and caregiver training tool for SLPs and other therapists who work in early intervention.

The Christmas Therapy Guide is $19.99.

To purchase now, select Christmas Therapy Guide from the product list by going to www.shop.teachmetotalk.com. PayPal is a payment option.

Down Syndrome, Sleep Problems Linked

from azpm.org:

Research under way at the University of Arizona is revealing a connection between quality of sleep and the learning and memory functions in children with Down Syndrome.

"It's well known that children with Down Syndrome are vulnerable to developing sleep apnea which results in pauses in breathing," UA psychology student Jennifer Breslin says. Breslin has been conducting a study looking at children with Down Syndrome and the occurrence of sleep apnea.

"if we can demonstrate that kids with poor sleep have poor cognitive outcomes, we can make a case for intervention and ultimately improving their behavior and learning ability," she says. "If we could give these kids a better quality of life, that would be awesome."

Cognitive Development and Down Syndrome: Age-Related Change

from aaiddjournals.org:

Cognitive Development and Down Syndrome: Age-Related Change on the Stanford-Binet Test (Fourth Edition)

A study in the May issue of the American Journal on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities by researchers affiliated with the University of Queensland (Australia) examined Stanford-Binet test performance by a large group of individuals with Down syndrome.  Authors report that the performance of the study sample on Stanford-Binet subtests measuring crystallized abilities (the ability to use skills, knowledge, and experience)  tended to plateau early in adulthood, whereas the test of fluid ability (the capacity to think logically and solve problems in novel situations, independent of acquired knowledge) continued to increase beyond the age of 30.  Authors note that the trend they observed is in opposition to the general population in which fluid abilities typically peak in early adulthood while crystallized abilities continue to increase. (full text available at no cost with member subscription to AJIDD)

Growth models for subtests of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale, 4th edition (R. L. Thorndike, E. P. Hagen, & J. M. Sattler, 1986a, 1986b) were developed for individuals with Down syndrome. Models were based on the assessments of 208 individuals who participated in longitudinal and cross-sectional research between 1987 and 2004. Variation in performance among individuals was large and significant across all subtests except Memory for Sentences. Scores on the Memory for Sentences subtest remained low between ages 4 to 30 years. Greatest variation was found on the Pattern Analysis subtest, where scores continued to rise into adulthood. Turning points for scores on the Vocabulary and Comprehension subtests appeared premature relative to normative patterns of development. The authors discuss development at the subdomain level and analyze both individual and group trajectories.

Diagnosing Dementia In Adults With Down Syndrome

from ivanhoe.com:

A unique brain scanner is used to allow the assessment of amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles- the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease- in adults with Down syndrome. This finding may offer a new clinical tool to help diagnose dementia in adults with Down syndrome.

Adults with this disorder develop Alzheimer's-like plaque and tangle deposits early, often before the age of 40. Previously, the only way to physically detect these abnormal proteins in this population was through an autopsy.

Over the last decade, methods for identifying and imaging the neuropathology of Alzheimer's disease in living patients have been developed. UCLA researchers have created a chemical marker called FDDNP that binds to both plaque and tangle deposits, which can then be viewed through a positron emission tomography (PET) brain scan, providing a "window into the brain." Using this method, researchers are able to pinpoint where in the brain these abnormal protein deposits are accumulating.

"Early detection can also lead to earlier interventions and treatments, often before symptoms begin."
For this study, researchers intravenously administered FDDNP and then performed PET brain scans on 19 non-demented adults with Down syndrome (average age 37), 10 healthy controls (average age 43) and 10 patients with Alzheimer's disease (average age 66).

The results showed significantly higher binding levels of FDDNP in participants with Down syndrome in all brain regions, when compared to healthy controls. Compared with Alzheimer's disease patients, subjects with Down syndrome showed significantly higher binding levels in the parietal and frontal regions — areas involved in memory, behavior and reasoning.

"The higher level of plaques and tangles may be reflecting the early and extensive accumulation of these deposits seen in individuals with Down syndrome," Dr. Small said.

The researchers also discovered significant associations between increased age in those with Down syndrome and higher FDDNP binding values in the parietal, lateral temporal and frontal regions.

"This is one of the first times we've been able to visualize the neuropathology occurring in the living brains of adults with Down syndrome," study author Dr. Jorge R. Barrio, a professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA who holds UCLA's Plott Chair in Gerontology, was quoted as saying.

"The age-related patterns and regional distribution of the plaques and tangles were consistent with the types of deposits that could only be identified previously through an autopsy."
The areas of accumulation were consistent with earlier autopsy study findings, which had shown that while plaque and tangle pathologies are the same in both Down syndrome and Alzheimer's disease, the deposit patterns are different.

Autopsy studies have also shown that all adults with Down syndrome eventually develop these accumulations of amyloid plaques and tau tangles. But rather than experiencing memory decline and other cognitive losses, as is common with Alzheimer's, aging Down syndrome patients tend to develop behavioral problems.

"We found that the behavioral changes in the subjects with Down syndrome correlated with neurological changes in related areas of the brain consistent with the level of FDDNP binding levels to the abnormal proteins," Dr. Small said.