CNS NEWS

Volume 2, Issue 2 April 2009

Children's Neurotherapy Services

Special points of
interest:
Spring Begins!!!
• Local Autism Aware-
ness Event to be Spring begins with a
held in May at Gran-
busy start. Walkin’ Roll
ite Falls Elementary.
T-ball season officially
• Success Story of how began on March 21st.
therapy has im-
proved the qualify of April is Autism Aware-
life for one young ness Month, Occupa-
lady. tional Therapy Month,
and Child Abuse Preven-
tion Month. You can
read more about each
organization and the
events surrounding
each in the newslet-
Inside this
ter.
issue:
May is Better Speech
Employee of the 2
Quarter
and Hearing Month.
There is information
Walkin’ Roll 2 about speech therapy
and what to look for
with your children.
Guest Speaker 3
Look for more infor-
mation in the upcom-
World Autism Day 3 ing newsletters of
speech milestones.
Autism Awareness 3
Month
We are looking forward Mind, will be speaking
to a guest speaker for on Attention and ser-
the Sensory Integration vices offered by their
Support Group meeting organization.
for the month of April.
We have added a new
A Learning Specialist,
section to our newslet-
Elizabeth Hodgson,
ter: Success Stories of
M.Ed., from Success In
how therapy has im-
proved a child’s life.
Please refer to page 6
to see this month’s
installment.
Are you enjoying the
newsletters and think
you may have missed
one. You can read
past newsletters by
going to
www.cnsclinic.com
under the News Up-
dates tab.

Autism Awareness 4
Event Best Wishes
Occupational Ther- 4 Angela Stone, OTR/L, Clini-
apy Month cal Director of CNS is ex-
pecting a baby girl!!!
Child Abuse Preven- 5 Kingsley Addison Stone, is
tion Month
expected to arrive on April
29, 2009. This is Angie
Speech Therapy and 5
and her husband, King’s,
Pediatrics
first child. Everyone at
Success Story 6
CNS would like to extend
their best wishes to Angie
and King.
CNS NEWS
Employee of the Quarter
The Employee of the Quar-
ter is determined by all
the employees at CNS
Clinic. Everyone votes for
the co-worker whom they
feel is the best team
player for that quarter.
The chosen employee re-
ceives a gift card and a
certificate containing com-
ments their co-workers
wrote.
Angela Stone, OTR/L,
Clinical Director, is the
Employee of the Quarter
for the Hickory office. Her
co-workers reported that
Walkin’ Roll
Walkin’ Roll Activities
League is for physically
and mentally chal-
lenged individuals.
Their mission is to sup-
port and nurture chil-
dren and adults who
are developmentally
disabled by providing
team building opportu-
nities through T-Ball,
bowling, swimming,
dancing, and other
group activities. The
focus of their league is
to build self-esteem
and confidence in indi-
vidual performance in a
nurturing atmosphere.
Walkin’ Roll is celebrat-
she is always willing to
help others when needed;
one of the hardest work-
ing employees at CNS-true
dedication to families we
serve; very positive; and is
willing to do whatever it
takes to get the job done
and assist others.
Lisa Baker, Scheduling
Coordinator, for the Le-
noir Clinic was chosen as
the Employee of the Quar-
ter for Lenoir. Her co-
workers reported that Lisa
is a great communicator;
ing their 15th year.
Their T-ball season be-
gan on March 21,
2009. They practice
every Saturday at 10:00
until May 30th at West
Hickory Park. On June
6th, they will have their
All-Star game at the
Crawdad’s Stadium.
You can find additional
information at their up-
dated website at:
www.walkinroll.org.
They also have a new
phone number 828-228
-0616. You can join
them on Twitter to re-
ceive text message up-
dates and Facebook to
Page 2
always has a smile on her
face; has done a wonder-
ful job of taking on the
role of clinic “mama” in
Keisha’s absence and role
change; she’s the best;
sooo helpful and patient;
great team player-ALWAYS
willing to do whatever
needs to be done; always
cheerful and great atti-
tude; and has a great rela-
tionships with co-workers
and families.
share with friends and
family about their
unique organization.
Check out their website
for links to these sites.
This is a wonderful or-
ganization that many of
CNS’s children partici-
pate in as well as the
therapists. CNS has
sponsored the Braves
team for the past few
years.
Volume 2, Issue 2
Guest Speaker in April
We are excited to announce
that we will be having a guest
speaker, Elizabeth Hodgson,
M.Ed., from Success in Mind
for the month of April.
Success in Mind’s mission
is to provide students,
families, teachers, and
others involved in a stu-
dent’s education with a
deep understanding and a
common language that de-
mystifies learning, values
individual learning differ-
ences, and promotes success
for each learner. They utilize
the groundbreaking frame-
work developed by renowned
pediatrician, Dr. Mel Levine,
World Autism Day
On December 18, 2007, the
United Nations General As-
sembly adopted resolution
62/139, tabled by the State
of Qatar, which declares April
2 as World Autism Awareness
Day (WAAD) in perpetuity.
World Autism Awareness
Day shines a bright light on
autism as a growing global
health crisis. WAAD activi-
ties help to increase and de-
velop world knowledge of the
autism epidemic and impart
information regarding the
Autism Awareness Month
April is Autism Awareness
Month. Autism Speaks, the
nation’s largest autism sci-
ence and advocacy organiza-
tion has teamed up with sev-
eral corporations and philan-
thropic partners for the
month of April.
For 2009, Toys”R”US, Inc
have increased their support
by including their Ba-
bies”R”Us locations. Dona-
tions will be accepted from
March 1 through May 1. An
Autism Speaks puzzle piece
to deliver Learning Profiles,
Learning Plans, and ongoing
care to students in grades 1-
12. Center for Student Suc-
cess, the parent organization
of Success in Mind, also uses
this neurodevelopmental
framework to train other
clinicians. You can visit their
website at www.success-in-
mind.org.
On April 28, 2009, a Learning
Specialist from Success in
importance of early diagnosis
and early intervention. Addi-
tionally, WAAD celebrates the
unique talents and skills of
persons with autism and is a
day when individuals with
autism are warmly welcomed
and embraced in community
events around the globe.
Additionally, Autism Speaks
has teamed up with Wubbzy
– star of Nick Jr.’s whimsical
animated preschool televi-
sion series “Wow! Wow! Wub-
bzy!” – to promote WAAD.
can be purchased for a dona-
tion of $1 at TJ Maxx stores
from April 19 through May 9.
Modell’s Sporting Goods,
Build-A-Bear Workshop, Lindt
Chocolate Shops, and Discov-
ery Health are all partnering
with Autism Speak to raise
awareness for Autism.
Discovery Health will pre-
miere a groundbreaking look
into the world of autism from
a scientific and personal per-
spective with Unlocking Au-
tism on Monday, April 6, at 8
Page 3
Mind will be coming to the
Lenoir clinic to speak on At-
tention, services offered by
Success in Mind, and a ques-
tion and answer session. The
meeting will be held at the
Lenoir clinic at 6:30
pm and is open to
anyone. Childcare will
not be provided for
this meeting. Please
call 754-5550 or email
Jennifer at jcarpen-
ter@cnsclinic.com to register
if you plan to attend.
Autism Speaks and the Ad
Council produced television
and web banner public ser-
vice announcements (PSAs)
featuring Wubbzy. The Walk
with Wubbzy on the Web site
provides ideas about how
people can celebrate World
Autism Awareness Day in
their local community, and
also accepts donations to
fund autism awareness and
research efforts. Last year’s
Walk Now on the Web raised
more than $40,000.
www.autismspeaks.org.
pm, ET/PT.
You can find more informa-
tion about Autism Speaks
and awareness activities on
their website at
www.autismspeaks.org.
 Newsletter Title Page 4

Local Autism Awareness Event

An Autism Awareness Event
is being held at Granite Falls
Elementary School on May 9,
2009 from 10 am until 3 pm.
This event is being sponsored
to raise community aware-
ness of autism, provide fami-
lies affected by autism with
helpful information, and to
raise funds. The funds will
be used for a musical play-
ground for Granite Falls Ele-
mentary and other equipment
for classrooms serving stu-
dents with autism at Granite
Falls Elementary and Whit-
neal Elementary.
The event will have food,
inflatables, games, and raf-
fles. Various agencies and
organizations will have infor-
mation for families with or
without children with autism.
What they would like to do is
to set up a specific outdoor pitch, tone, vibration, and
music area at Granite Elemen- resonance, as well as helping
tary for special needs kids, them increase fine and gross
particularly those with au- motor skills. These stations
tism. This would allow the would also provide kines-
development of a creative thetic, tactile, and visual com-
outlet for the students and ponents.
give them the opportunity to
Donations can be made to the
improve their skills and inter-
Education Foundation of Cald-
est in the arts and music, just
well County.
as is provided for “regular”
students. With the expertise
of local 3-D artist Suzette
Bradshaw, we propose the Please contact Tracey Holton
construction of several out- or Dana Moore at 828-396-
door colorful and simple yet 2222, for more information.
“hard-to-destroy” musical
instruments. Initially these
would include a “pot-lid” tree
(similar to stationary cym-
bals), steel pipe xylophone,
and see-saw rainstick. These
instruments would give op-
portunities for the students
to develop understanding of

Occupational Therapy Month

April is Occupational Therapy
Month. Occupational therapy
enables people of all ages to
live life to its fullest by help-
ing them promote health,
prevent—or live better with—
injury, illness, or disability.
Occupational therapists and
occupational therapy assis-
tants focus on “doing” what-
ever occupations or activities
are meaningful to the individ-
ual. It is occupational ther-
apy’s purpose to get beyond
problems to the solutions
that assure living life to its
fullest. These solutions may
be adaptations for how to do
a task, changes to the sur-
roundings, or helping indi-
viduals alter their own behav-
iors.
When working with an occu-
pational therapy practitioner,
strategies and modifications
are customized for each indi-
vidual to resolve problems,
improve function, and sup-
port everyday living activities.
The goal is to maximize po-
tential. Through these thera-
peutic approaches, occupa-
tional therapy helps individu-
als design their lives, develop
needed skills, adjust their
environments (e.g. home,
school, or work), and build
health-promoting habits and
routines that will allow them
to thrive.
By taking the full picture into
account—a person’s psycho-
logical, physical, emotional,
and social makeup as well as
their environment —
occupational therapy assists
clients to do the following:
achieve goals, function at the
highest possible level, con-
centrate on what matters
most to them, maintain or
rebuild their independence,
and participate in daily activi-
ties that they will need or
want to do.
Occupational therapists have
expertise in evaluating chil-
dren’s neurological, muscu-
lar, and emotional develop-
ment and determining the
effects of infant and child-
hood illness on growth and
development. An OT can
evaluate a child’s motor
(movement), cognitive
(thinking, reasoning), social-
emotional, and behavioral
development; recommend
toys and play activities that
promote healthy development
and provide stimulation to
the child; and intervene when
needed to promote develop-
ment and skills for living.
For more information, go to
www.aota.org.
Volume 1, Issue 1
Child Abuse Prevention Month
April is Child Abuse Preven-
tion Month. In 2009, Prevent
Child Abuse North Carolina
celebrates 30 years of work-
ing with people to make our
state a better place for chil-
dren and families.
Every child deserves a safe,
healthy childhood and the
opportunity to grow up to be
a caring, contributing adult.
Ensuring healthy environ-
ments for kids today is really
about ensuring a brighter,
stronger, more prosperous
community for all of us. Re-
search now shows that a
child’s experiences in early
life actually build the archi-
May is Better Hearing & Speech Month
May is Better Hearing &
Speech Month sponsored by
American Speech-Language-
Hearing Association.
Language is different from
speech. Language is made up
of socially shared rules that
include the following: what
words mean, how to make
new words, how to put words
together, and what word
combinations are best in
what situations. Speech is
the verbal means of commu-
nicating which consists of the
Speech Therapy and Pediatrics
The following are potential
consequences that having a
speech impairment can in-
clude: difficulty expressing
need or routine information
intelligibly, difficulty commu-
nicating intelligibly in order
to function at level of inde-
pendence expected for age,
difficulty expressing feelings
intelligibly, difficulty engag-
ing successfully in social
and/or classroom situations
that require intelligible
speech, difficulty achieving
tecture of the brain, and have
a dramatic effect on their
cognitive, social, and emo-
tional development. Research
also shows that the toxic
stress of abuse and neglect
can severely damage this
foundation. In the short
term, abuse means behav-
ioral problems in school and
lower student achievement.
In the long term, it means
more crime, more drug prob-
lems, more heart and liver
disease, and other issues.
The good news is that child
abuse is preventable through
both individual and commu-
nity action. Often times,
abuse occurs when parents
following: articulation (how
speech sounds are made),
voice (use of the vocal folds
and breathing to produce
sound), and fluency (the
rhythm of speech).
When a person has trouble
understanding others
(receptive language), or shar-
ing thoughts, ideas, and feel-
ings completely (expressive
language), then he or she has
a language disorder. When a
person is unable to produce
speech sounds correctly or
adequate intelligible speech
to reach educational poten-
tial, and are at risk for per-
sonal injury due to difficulty
communicating intelligibly
about a dangerous situation
or calling for help.
Behaviors that should trigger
a Speech-Language referral:
By age 3 years cannot: be
understood by family and/or
caregivers, correctly produce
vowels and such sounds as p,
b, m, w in words, or repeat
when not understood without
Page 5
find themselves in stressful
situations and don’t have the
parenting skills to cope.
Reach out to the parents you
know; little gestures like an
offer to babysit can make a
big difference. Make sure
that your community has
evidence-based parent sup-
port programs that are
proven to help parents build
skills and to reduce abuse.
Giving children the opportu-
nity to grow up to be caring,
contributing adults in our
community requires all of us.
By reaching out and by ensur-
ing strong community sup-
port, you can do your part to
prevent abuse.
fluently, or has problems
with his or her voice, then he
or she has a speech disorder.
Language and speech disor-
ders can exist together or by
themselves. The problems
can be mild or severe. In any
case, a comprehensive
evaluation by a speech-
language pathologist is the
first step to improving lan-
guage and speech prob-
lems.
For more information, visit
www.asha.org.
becoming frustrated. By age
4 years cannot: be under-
stood by individuals with
whom they do not associate
regularly, be understood by
family and/or caregivers,
correctly produce t, d, k, g, f,
or be asked to repeat without
becoming sensitive. By age 5
years cannot: be understood
in all situation by most listen-
ers, correctly produce most
speech sounds, or be asked
to repeat without exhibiting
frustration.
Children's Neurotherapy Services
Children's Neurotherapy Services
1087 13th St. SE
Hickory, NC 28602
Phone: 828-267-1688
Fax: 828-267-1690
Lenoir Clinic
144 Tremont Park Drive
Lenoir, NC 28645
Phone: 828-754-5550
Fax: 828-754-5558
E-mail: help4kids@cnsclinic.com
We’re on the web:
www.cnsclinic.com
Success Story
Sadie began occupa-
tional therapy in May
2008. Her grades
ranged from an A to an
F and had consistently
dropped since the be-
ginning of her fourth
grade year. Her occu-
pational therapy
evaluation indicated
difficulties with visual
perceptual skills, sen-
tence memory, spell-
ing, auditory process-
ing, touch processing,
We are adding a new section
to our newsletter and we
need your help. We would
like to know your child’s
success story with CNS. How
has therapy made a differ-
ence in your child’s life? If
you are interested in shar-
ing your child’s story please
send it to:
jcarpenter@cnsclinic.com.
We look forward to hearing
from you. See our first in-
stallment below.
emotional/social re- months in therapy.
sponses, and modula- Sadie’s grades have
tion affecting her activ- continued to improve
ity level and behavior. over her fifth grade
After several months in year and she made the
therapy, Sadie’s grades A-B Honor roll the last
improved, she passed two nine weeks! Al-
her fourth grade EOG’s, though she will miss
and was promoted to coming to therapy, she
fifth grade. Her last is very proud of her
occupational therapy accomplishments and
progress note showed achievements!
significant improve-
ment in all areas of
concern-after only six