New brochures

The OT department shared a wonderful resource entitled, "Tummy Time Tool." It has great colored pictures for parents with activities to use to help position, carry, hold and play with their babes! Check it out! (I did try and contact the publisher to ask permission to print and didn't get a response.)

We are also developing resource packets for licensed childcare centers. More on that as the printing progresses.

AEPS update

I was not able to add the AEPS documents to basecamp for everyone to access. I guess it violates copyright to do so. Can you check and see if you have a binder in your office with all the printed forms? If not, and you would like a binder, let me know and I can provide one.

Some were interested in checking into the AEPSI (online version). There is a 30 day free trial and I encourage you to check it out! I've had one team approach me with interest in the online license. I'm quite sure that we can use dept. funds to purchase some license ($10 per child). It would make sense to start with children who have a 25% delay and are under or near 2 years of age, so that we could gather a minimum of a year's data before they'd leave the system. Many of the other AEAs have already purchased online licenses and speak highly of the ease of the system.

AEPS training

Please remember to bring your spiral AEPS books (Monday) that you received at the May training in Des Moines. It will be helpful if you could consider yourself as a table leader since you are familiar with the book and have had 2 days of training. Some of the information will be repetitive, however, don't we need to hear something 7 times to fully embrace it? I'm suspecting that some of us attended the May training and haven't looked at the materials since, thus a good review is needed.

We have the entire OT/PT department coming, most of the SLPs that have a 0-3 assignment, most of the hearing/vision folks, and even some triad/dyad folks who want to learn more about preschool age children. The training will be NEW information for them and I'm hopeful that better teaming and better decisions will be made for children by this opportunity to learn together. Bring your positive attitude!

Technology Dept plan

So what is the focus of our professional development work within the dept? Attached you will find the plan that describes the data, teaching/learning opportunities, and the collaboration/implementation for increasing our use of technology in our work. It's exciting to note that an I- Pad and 2 flip video cameras have been ordered for our dept.

There is also an opportunity to register through AVATAR for credit,
lic. renewal ($30) or Drake grad credit ($70)for this work. You can view the syllabus and grading rubric by searching for 6857 Technology: Sharing Knowledge and Supporting Relationships. Registration closes on Monday, Sept. 26, the day of our department meeting, so please register ASAP.