FIRST BASE GLOVES

What is Childhood Development Screening?

Development screening is a procedure used to identify children of all ages who may show signs of developmental delays. These screenings can allow for earlier detection and intervention for developmentally delayed children. This can improve the health and well being of the child. The earlier the detection the better the outcome for all those involved. There are many opportunities for those children identified with behavioral and/or developmental delays.

In the United States about 17 percent of children have some sort of development or behavioral delay. Less than 50 percent of these children are identified before they begin school. These missed opportunities can cause significant delays and can impact school readiness. Examples of developmental or behavioral disabilities that are screened for include autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and intellectual disabilities. Studies have shown that early detection of all these disorders can benefit greatly from early detection.

Development screenings can be done by various healthcare professionals. They can be done by your healthcare provider at the well child visits done in infancy and toddlerhood. Infants and toddlers between the ages of 0-3 should be monitored for development by a primary care health professional. Early intervention has been shown to provide the best results so emphasis is placed on early identification and treatment. Parents look to their healthcare provider for information and guidance although about 65 percent of pediatricians feel inadequately trained to access developmental status in their patients.

Early identification and intervention for children with developmental delays is mandated by law. States are required by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to provide early identification and provide services to infants and toddlers. They are mandated to identify developmental delays, establish conditions associated with the delays and identify children at risk for developmental delays. States are also mandated to refer children, free of charge, for comprehensive evaluation by a team of professionals who then, with the family, develops an individualized plan of services. The National Early Childhood Technical Assistance Center lists early intervention programs by states along with contact information.

Screening tools are not designed to provide a specific diagnosis. A positive screening should be followed up with a more thorough assessment by a specialized professional. Screening tools can be specific for a certain type of disability or a more generalized assessment. If you know what specific type of delay or condition you are looking for it makes it easier to choose the correct healthcare professional to administer the developmental screening.…

Highway Hosts: Keeping America Fat

Have you traveled lately on an interstate highway? Did you stop at one of the myriad gas stations with convenience stores or one of the highway chain restaurants?

Many of your fellow travelers, maybe not you, exhibit a similar characteristic. They are large people, wide more than tall.

That our First Lady wants to conquer childhood obesity seems to prove the point. America has become a nation of fatties.

The restaurants along the highways contribute to this condition. They are carbohydrate havens.

You don’t have that many choices. If not a fast food establishment famous for its burgers, it is likely a restaurant serving a plethora of taste-good, stick-to-the-ribs belly-expanding food.

Consider the menu at Highway Hosts. Their all-day breakfast specialties feature a week’s worth of carbs in a single sitting. Biscuits and gravy. Pancakes and syrup. Waffles and syrup. Potatoes in six different varieties, many of them fried. Fresh creamery butter on everything. Corn bread and toast and muffins and more biscuits. Makes you hungry, doesn’t it?

No wonder Americans have become unreasonably fat. Going on a road trip can become a culinary disaster and a challenge to your health. You eat those carbs. Then you sit motionless in a car for three hours until you stop again for gasoline and another dose of carbohydrates. Whew!

What are we going to do about it? The military recently announced that 27% of prospective soldiers get rejected because they are too heavy. These are young people.

Consider the increase in the numbers of people with Type II diabetes.

We Americans need to begin to act for ourselves. We must limit what we eat when we travel on the highways. Actually when we stay at home too. We need to reduce our carbohydrate intake. A healthier way of eating must begin at home as well as when we travel.

When you travel by automobile, why not pack a picnic lunch? Select tasty non-fattening foods. Remember your inactivity in the car. Think thin as you pack your foods or sandwiches. Nuts, fresh fruit, cut vegetables all curb the appetite without doing doughy damage. Canned vegetable or tomato juice proves very satisfying. It taste good, provides energy and somewhat eliminates or postpones the need to eat.

At home, read those labels. Buy those veggies. No matter how good our American healthcare, we must do our part.

Maybe Highway Hosts can help us out by serving more vegetables and fewer carbohydrates. Little packages of carrots and celery sticks. Fresh fruit. Fresh unsalted nuts. That’s the way to become a better corporate citizen. They can sell these snacks in their stores.

Healthier, thinner people will live longer. Loyalty from customers with increased longevity will result in more years of business. Something to think about, Highway Hosts.…

Memory of Place – Understanding the Person Place Connection

Have you ever walked into a person’s home and felt uncomfortable? Like there was something you couldn’t quite put your finger on or even acknowledge in a rational sense? On the other hand, have you ever walked into a place and felt totally at ease, as though almost every detail, down to the smell, made you feel welcome?

Close your eyes, think back to your childhood home, the first place you lived and were aware of your surroundings. Was it a “Miami Beach Modern” clean-lined concrete structure or a “Northwest Craftsman Bungalow” with clapboard siding? Was there a high flat ceiling or were there exposed beams and a pitched roof? How big were the windows? How bright and airy or cozy and enclosed was the living room? Did it have a fireplace?

Now, imagine the home of your dreams. How many features from your childhood home are mirrored in your home of the future? Or even in the home you currently inhabit? This will depend greatly on whether the childhood memories of your home are happy ones.

My big white childhood home in Portland, Oregon had a fireplace where we eagerly hung our stockings each year at Christmas. There was a special corner right next to the hearth for our gift laden Christmas tree. The house had large picture windows that allowed plenty of light and gave us a postcard view of each changing season. Its wide Craftsman-style front porch with stout brick columns welcomed us home from school each day. I can remember feeling safe and secure there.

As an adult, I’ve always been drawn back to neighborhoods like the one I grew up in with its mix of styles and sizes. One such place was Pasadena, California with its Craftsman jewels; the other is in College Park, Florida with its m?�lange of big and small bungalows, revival style cottages and tree-lined streets. For what seems to be an inexplicable reason, these places make me feel like I’m home, like I belong. The reality is we all respond to our memory of place. Those happy childhood thoughts and feelings are forever attached to the place where we first felt them, and our internal subconscious desire is to replicate them.

Now that you’ve been transported to your childhood memories of place, let’s visualize another scenario. Imagine yourself living in just one room, performing every daily task − sleeping, cooking, eating, reading, watching television, making love and raising children – inside only four walls. Just the thought of it makes you cringe. How much we have evolved since the days when homo-sapiens first became cave-dwellers and many of those activities were commonplace!

Just as we have an affective connection to our childhood home, so does our brain have an ancient memory of place embedded deep inside our human response system. The ancient Chinese, grounded in the knowledge that created the Feng Shui philosophy, understood our primal connection to place. How each activity performed within our “cave” was connected to a hierarchy of safety or honor. An example of this is the fight-or-flight response which makes us feel safer when we have a solid wall behind us or as the saying goes “when someone’s got our back”. As a result of this knowledge, they created a road map called the Bagua. This is the starting point from which we can experience our homes, just like taking a journey.…

Love, Faith and Understanding – A Baby Boomer’s View of Childhood

Do you remember the gentle times of childhood where time had no meaning except that you had to be in the house by the time the streetlights were on?; Where summer meant no shoes, being in the sun all day and family trips to the beach? Do you remember running through the sprinklers with the neighborhood kids and not caring that your hair was a tangled mess?

Or what about the night the Comet flew by and you and your whole family laid on the top of the old Chevy and watched the sky for hours?; Or going to sleep in your PJ’s at the drive-in. These are truly the memories a happy childhood is made from.

This windy, brisk weather brought fond memories today of my Dad, Mom and siblings flying kites in the park, or at the end of our cul-de-sac. Always a diamond shaped kite, and we made the tail really long with old sheets ripped into strips, that Mom kept just for that occasion.

Dad would hold it up and we would run fast with the string holder. Then he would run up and show us how to let out the string, a little at a time, gently so the kite would finally catch the wind and nose its way upwards. Then, oh the joy! to watch its exciting dips and flips in the clouds! It was always sad to see it come down, and crash to the earth; But by then we were on to more kiddie things, like the absolute joy of riding down the big grass hills on a big piece of cardboard. You felt like you were really going fast, until your brother went flying by you. Inevitably, you’d crash at the bottom, and then the big trudge uphill to do it all over again!

But I think swinging on the swing was my most favorite thing. The feeling of weightlessness, of touching the sky with your toes outstretched as you climbed higher and higher into the pure joy of being in flight, the wind breezing through your hair and the sun kissing your arms and face.

There are many memories we hold dear of the innocence of childhood. How lucky are we to be the ones who had parents who understood the importance of child-play and family; of learning life’s lessons in a safe environment, with love, faith and understanding.…