One word to describe her: happy.

Larkin loves everyone.  She is genuinely interested in people (especially babies) and enjoys getting up close and personal.  She loves to sing, draw, and play pretend.  She has an amazing memory and capacity to learn amazing facts -from music composers to move characters, and fun trivia in between.

Her parents’ dream for her is that she will always hold on to the amazingly joyful and silly spark that she has had since she was born.  She has an impressive array of interests, and her parents hope she can carve out paths of understanding that may not already be laid.  They believe she will show the world her creative side, and fill the voids in society that we may not even know need filled.

For her family, inclusion is seeing others view Larkin in the way that they do.  When individuals and teams hold the capacity for greater understanding of diverse minds and abilities, everyone will be empowered to create significant change.  When individuals are empowered to nurture their gifts and create significant change, nothing is impossible.

Larkin is unstoppable, and will blaze on in her path to changing the world.

By Alyssa Huschen, OTR/L

Daily handwriting practice is necessary for making printing a natural process. The more automatic writing is, the more a child can then focus on WHAT they are writing rather than HOW to write. When participating in e-learning, children may not be practicing handwriting as much as they would be during their typical school day. Choose some of these fun activities to try at home to ensure COVID-19 doesn’t contribute to loss of quality handwriting for your child. Make it a goal to practice handwriting for 5-10 minutes every day. 

• Write letters to friends or family, make up a story, or help write the grocery list.
• Play games like tic-tac-toe (use different letters each time), hang man, or guess what word/letter I’m writing. 
• Practice handwriting with different utensils or materials. Finger paint, write in shaving cream/pudding/flour/sand, use chalk on the sidewalk, write with washable markers on a mirror or window, write on a tablet or magnadoodle, etc. 
• Have your child be the teacher and “teach” you how to write in order to practice verbalizing the correct way to make letters. “Grade” work by circling the best letters or words in order to understand what makes writing legible.
• Print or make up fun sentence starters to complete (i.e. My favorite place to go is… or If I could be an animal, I would be…).
• Play restaurant where your child can prepare simple foods and “sell them” to you. Practice printing by creating a menu to order from.
• Complete mad libs, cross word puzzles, or word scrambles. These can be found online or in activity books.
• Work on number writing by having your child count things around the house and record them (i.e. doors, fans, pictures of them, etc.)
• Complete scavenger hunts. Let your child write down what objects they find based on your clues or let them write down items for you or a sibling to find.  
• Cut pictures out of magazines to make a collage and write about it.
• Search Google or Pinterest for many more fun printables and ideas!

By: Easterseals Central Illinois Therapists

Most of us love the excitement of visiting or getting visits from families and friends.   Right now we are helping to keep everyone healthy by staying at home.  This will not last forever, but while we are stuck at home we can be creative to stay connected with people outside of our home.  We all miss hugs, high fives, and playing with neighbors, cousins, grandparents, kids at school, and other family friends, but there are ways we can still stay connected to our loved ones from home!

• Talk to your child about how there are different ways to visit people we love:  Sometimes we see them in person at their house or our house, sometimes we talk by phone or Facetime.  Right now everybody is practicing visiting with people in new ways, but later we will be able to visit in person again. 

• Schedule time to visit remotely: If your child has a set routine of visiting or spending time with someone regularly (such as a grandparent), work to set up a schedule for a short phone, facetime, or skype session for him to look forward to (this could be daily, weekly…..).  Kids often do well having the structure a designated time gives to their routine.   This also gives parents a specific answer to questions of when they will get to talk to or see _______.
• Written Word: Write email, notes, or letters to each other (notes and letters can be mailed or you can take a picture of the note/message and text it to the intended recipient).  An adult or older sibling can write/type note a young child dictates or they can draw a picture for the person.
• I’m Thinking of you Projects: Child can spend the time they would normally be with the other person making something to give to them when he sees them next (craft, drawing, collage, etc.).
• Do an activity together remotely: When connecting to loved ones by phone, skype, or facetime, it can be great for kids to do activities that they would normally do with that person.  Brainstorm ways to complete some of your daily routines or fun activities at the same time (i.e. bake cookies, make slime, read a book, sing together, watch a show).

• Distant dinner party: Dinner out is a great way to socialize, but you can make dinner in a social experience as well.   Plan and cook the same dinner as family/friends.  You can facetime/skype during the meal for real time conversations or you can take pictures of family and food to share with each other (Food or dessert competition anyone???)
• Take a Virtual Tour together:  There are museums, zoos, and amusement parks offering virtual tours.  These resources can be used for educational purposes but you can also have friends/family take the same tour and discuss what you liked the most, what you could do without, foods you would try….   Here is a resource for virtual tours you can take from the comfort of your own home:   https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/life/travel/a31784720/best-virtual-tours/

On March 16^th Easterseals Central announced that all therapy appointments would be canceled through March 31^st, along with the closing of the Easterseals Learning Academy for that same timeframe and any activity at Timber Pointe Outdoor Center being canceled through the end of April. “The health and safety of our clients and staff always comes first and we are committed to doing our part to mitigate the spread of the COVID-19 virus,” said Steve Thompson, President and CEO of Easterseals Central Illinois. “During this unprecedented time, the families we serve need us now more than ever”.

Stopping face-to-face therapy presents a unique challenge to an organization that employs over 200 people dedicated to helping children with developmental delays, disabilities and other special needs reach their full potential. However, in its 100 years of service the organization has always responded dynamically to meet the needs of the community. This time is no different. In an effort to support its clients and community, Easterseals Central Illinois staff is now dedicated to providing the vital resources that will bridge gaps and help children continue to make progress towards their milestones.

Easterseals therapists, teachers and support staff have been in contact with their clients, assessing needs and providing support over the phone. The therapists are hard at work creating and deploying resources for caregivers to use at home to help children of all abilities navigate their new reality.

Examples include:

• Therapists are reviewing in-home programs with caregivers and providing additional support in the form of visual aids and educational materials
• Assisting families in making daily schedules and social stories.
• Providing calming strategies
• Helping families identify local resources for basic living needs

Easterseals is providing these resources at no cost to the families, and all are available to the general public at eastersealsci.com. Like many businesses and organizations, Easterseals is facing unprecedented financial challenges with the suspension of program services and the cancelation of three vital fundraising events in April.

“As we continue to navigate this unchartered territory, we need the support of Central Illinois now more than ever” said Steve Thompson, “We will never stop supporting families who need us, and we hope the community will do the same”. 

Created By:Kelsey Lutes, MS CCC-SLP

Think about the different senses and label

What do you see at the child’s level?
Label what you see with simple language.
1-2 words: tree, flowers, car, dog. Look doggie!

What do you hear?
Crunchy leaves, birds (tweet tweet), dog barking
(woof woof), cars (beep beep), airplane (ffffff)

What can you smell?
Smell flower

What can you touch?
Touch the leaves and grass

Get a bag and collect leaves

Model saying “Leaf” every time you put one in the bag

Use action words like “RIP” and rip the leaf “Crunch/Stomp” on the leaves
“Throw” the leaves up in the area

When you get home, tape the leaves to a piece of paper and model action words like “leaf”, “stick”, “on”

Other Strategies

Sing songs while child is riding in stroller

Feel bumps in sidewalk – BUMP!

Get mail from the mailbox “open”, “close”

Wave and model “hi” to people you see