It's time for the WATCH Project End of Year Survey! The survey take only 5 minutes and is available for you to complete by simply clicking this link.

We are hoping for a great response rate from WATCH Participants in order to help us share WATCH outcomes and progress with the John Rex Endowment.  To tempt (or bribe??) you, we'll be giving away two $75.00 gift cards to Panera--one to the site with the highest percentage response rate and one to the site with the most responses (to be fair to our smaller and larger sites). 

 

Right now it's a tight race between the Raleigh CDSA, Pediatric Therapy Associates and The Tammy Lynn Center for the gift cards.  Who is going to give them a run for it??

 

The survey will be available until the end of the day on Thursday, June 12th. 

 

I'd also love for you to share any other thoughts or comments you have about WATCH that don't seem to fit within the context of the survey.

Josh and I thank you all for a fantastically engaging and exciting year!

  

 

Recognizing and Healing Trauma in Early Childhood
Patti M. Zordich, Ph.D.
Triangle Psychological Services

 

WATCH Videoconference Review

by, Sue Powell, OTR/L, Easter Seals UCP 

 
This was a wonderful videoconference, which was very well presented and very relevant to practitioners as well as parents.  The focus of the videoconference was recognizing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder criteria in infants and children as well as interventions to begin the healing process. 
 
Dr. Zordich reviewed the DSM IV criteria for PTSD  (click link for a copy of the criteria) and the proposed criteria for infant and children.  The main criteria include:

Difficulty regulating affect

Variations in consciousness

Poor self-identity

Problematic relations with others

Varied changes in the perception of the perpetrator

 
I found it interesting that these signs are often overlooked or misdiagnosed as ADHD/ADD, ODD, Conduct Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, or even diagnoses on the Autism spectrum. These children are often living in a "vigilant" psychological state due to their experiences and therefore, exhibit "behaviors" or aggression.  Furthermore, they may have environmental triggers that cause regression.  Every aspect of their lives has been affected by their trauma.
 
Dr. Zordich spoke of the Blueprint for Attachment-Trauma Therapy to address healing in these infants and children.  The primary intervention is to ensure the child is in a safe and protective environment.  The therapy then addresses self-identity, relationship building, exploring the trauma and mourning losses; affect tolerance and modulation, and behavior mastery. This is an involved process that helps the child to recognize their feelings, address their trauma in an honest fashion, begin to build positive relationships, increase appropriate expressions of emotions, and take responsibility for their actions.
 
As a therapist, this reinforced the idea of seeing the child as a whole and considering the emotional foundation of the individual and its importance on their outcomes in therapy.  It is a different approach to consider as we work with all of our kids.  It emphasizes the importance of working along side the family and supporting them.  This may include referring the children to services such as psychologists to assist with these issues.
 
This was a nice venue to learn on this topic and to touch base with others who are also interested in this topic.  I was able to speak with other therapist and also with several adoptive parents.  It was nice to get their viewpoint as a parent and moving to see their dedication to their adoptive children whom they show such great concern over.

 

 

 

Conclusion: The results suggest that the parent language report is a valid and efficient tool for assessing productive language abilities and judging expressive language delay in 2-year-old toddlers. The measurement characteristics of the parent report are comparable with those of direct language measures.
 

 

 

 

 

 

The Honours golf tournament was established to honor someone in the community who has inspired those around them, while also raising money for a charity or cause special to the honoree. 

 

We are so pleased to anounce that the 2008 Honoree is Jennifer Pfaltzgraff.  Many of you know Jennifer  as Ethan's mom and Parent Co-chair of the Wake County Local Interagency Cooridinating Council (LICC).  Jennifer's dedication to strengthening the early intervention system has been unfaltering and realized in many ways.  If you've gone to  Wake LICC website you've seen Jennifer's work. If you've used the Wake County Early Intervention Road Map, you've utilized one of her many creations.  If you've received any number of flyers announcing EI events in Wake County chances are Jennifer not only created the flyer, but was instrumental in coordinating the event, as well.   If you've been to a Wake LICC meeting, you've seen her in action.  If you've ever seen the smile on Ethan's face, you've seen one of her proudest and most memorable accomplishments.

 

Jennifer and Dr. Alexander have worked together over the past 3 years to provide the best possible care for Ethan, as well as help to provide education and resources for families and early intervention providers.  Because of their dedication to the same causes, the TelAbility/WATCH Program will be this year's benefactor of the Honour's proceeds. 

 

The WATCH Project invites you partner with us to honor Jennifer and help us help you by supporting TelAbility and the WATCH Project.  You, your agency, or a team of collective agencies can sign up as a player, a sponsor or a donor.  Wouldn't it be fun to have a WATCH team or have several WATCH sites sponsor a hole in honor of Jennifer?  For more information on how to get involved please call Nicole Pratapas, Director of Development for the Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation with UNC School of Medicine at 919.966.8494 or email her at nicole_pratapas@med.unc.edu.  You can also find information at The Honours website.