The SMILE Center

11/28/2024

Happy Thanksgiving! 🍁

We’re especially thankful for all SMILE parents. Wishing you moments of joy, laughter, and togetherness with your little ones. You deserve all the gratitude for the amazing work you do every day. 🦃❤️

11/23/2023

Wishing you a warm Thanksgiving celebration with your family! We are so grateful for all of our SMILE kids, past and present, and the opportunity to work with such amazing families. Thank you for allowing us to be a part of your circle.
All our love,
SMILE

08/11/2023

Sensory integration is one of the main focuses at The SMILE Center where we help our kiddos organize sensory information from both their body and the environment and use this information to adapt and complete tasks across environments. The auditory system is a critical link in sensory integration, connecting our body to the environment through the sounds we hear. Hearing is passive, happening mindlessly throughout our day, however, listening is an active process that requires active attention and encompasses the whole brain and body. Listening is a continuous process involving engagement (what is that sound?), interaction (what does that sound mean to me?), and discrimination (should I listen more closely or move away from that sound?).

Many of our SMILE OTs are trained in Therapeutic Listening (TL). This program involves listening to specially recorded and enhanced music, on headphones, in OT sessions, and in a home program, created between the family and the child’s therapist. Some of the skills which can be influenced by a therapeutic listening program include attention, regulation, postural control, bilateral integration, spatial processing, and more. We have a full blog post on the website today to share more information about Therapeutic Listening - follow the link to learn more, and contact your child's OT if you think that TL may be beneficial for them!

Contributed by SMILE Senior OT, Jayme Petronchak. Thanks Jayme!

07/21/2023

Vertical Surface Play!!

Moving kids’ play up from the floor to upright, in a vertical position, has a TON of benefits. Make it even more fun for kids by using household surfaces, not typically used for play, such as the refrigerator, walls of the bathtub, and windows as the stage for play. By modifying the play environment with this one change you are also changing the muscles that are activated in the body. When children work on a vertical surface they increase wrist extension, elbow and shoulder stability, and improve upright posture. While playing upright, they are using more of their core muscles and also targeting weight shifting, bilateral integration, midline crossing, visual skills, and spatial awareness. Here are several play ideas on a vertical surface to try at home. Try the activities in different positions like standing, kneeling or sitting on a therapy ball for an added challenge.

Shaving cream play in the bathtub
Building with magnetic tiles on the refrigerator
Painting on an easel
Suction toys play on the windows
Tape a coloring sheet to a wall for your little artists
Washing a car outside
Using chalk on an outdoor wall
Using removable stickers or dry erase markers on windows and mirrors

Have any other ideas for vertical play? Share them in the comments below!

07/14/2023

One of our favorite pieces of equipment to use in physical therapy at SMILE is our indoor playground!! This large therapy tool has a ladder on one side, rock wall on the other side, and a large playground slide down the middle. For toddlers and school aged children, physical therapy can help to work on some of the key gross motor skills that help children play independently and safely on playground equipment at parks and schools. One of the areas of development that play key parts in playground navigation include functional strength in a child’s arms, trunk, and legs which allow them to push and pull themselves up ladders and rock walls and keep themselves upright while sliding down slides. Another component is bilateral coordination, which is a child’s ability to utilize the right and left sides of their body differently at the same time, such as shifting their weight onto their right leg while lifting their left leg to the next rock on the rock wall. SMILE’s playground set also allows our physical therapists the opportunity to work on body and safety awareness with each child, to help them be as safe and independent as possible while on raised surfaces during gross motor play outside of therapy. If your child could use help building their playground gross motor skills, talk to one of their therapists to see if a PT evaluation would be beneficial.