If you’re like me, you may have a hard time keeping up with all the activities our community has to offer. Often times you hear about something really cool happening in town after it has already happened. Do you find yourself wondering how other people find out about these things? One great resource for community activities is the Bozeman Parks and Recreation website.

Bi-Annual Activity Guides

Twice a year, Bozeman Parks and Rec publishes a program guide with all of the activities they will be putting on. Activities include those specifically for adults, as well as a variety of children and family friendly activities. This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the cool happenings in our community, however they have a ton to offer.

They just put out their Spring and Summer Guide and registration opened on March 9, 2023.

Activities for All Ages

No matter what the season, Bozeman Parks and Rec usually offers Active Aging Programs specifically for adults 55 and older. These include: fitness classes, group outings, presentations, and even brain booster classes. The catalogue will have more information on dates, times, and fees.

For adults, including those 55 and older, pickleball, badminton, and ping pong sessions are usually available on certain days. Story Mansion is hosting acoustic string music events the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday of each month. There will also be a sand volleyball league, and this summer they are putting on a Grow Your Garden for the Birds class at the Story Mill Community Center.

For children, there are classes, camps, and programs for those ranging in age from 2 to 17. These include a variety of sports (t-ball, baseball, basketball, soccer, etc.), aquatic activities, clubs, and learning clinics. In addition, they offer a variety of summer day camps, as well as middle school PIR day meetups.

Scholarships and Registration for Community Activities

Some programs and events are free of charge, but others cost a fee, and some require preregistration. They  offer a scholarship program for youth within the city of Bozeman to give them an opportunity to participate in activities that might be unfeasible otherwise. In order to register for events, you have to register for an account. Step-by-step directions are here. Check out their guide (linked above) for all the events and activities coming up.

Also, for more spring and summer activity ideas you can check out some of our previous blogs, including: Exploring Yellowstone and Hiking With Kids.

It is stressful for a parent to follow the developmental milestones that are provided from the pediatrician for feeding under 1. And let’s be honest, it is also hard to follow the various online resources readily available. It can appear that information is not straight forward when it comes to answering the big questions of “when do I start solids with my baby?” or “what foods do I first give my baby?” Let’s answer these questions with recent research.

Feeding Under 1: up to 6 Months of Age

Firstly, until 6 months of age, a child’s intake should consist only of breast milk, formula, or a combination. This ensures the child is obtaining the optimal amount of vitamins and minerals for body and brain growth. When deciphering the most optimal time to begin solids, there are a few factors that must be considered. These include the child’s immune system, sensory system, and motor development.

If your family has a history of celiac disease, type 1 diabetes, or other factors, introducing gluten to a baby before 3 months of age or after 6 to 7 months of age seems to increase the risk of celiac disease. Similarly, introduction to cereals, both rice and gluten-containing grains, before 4 months or after 6 to 7 months has been associated with a greater risk of type 1 diabetes.¹ The sweet spot to introduce solids may be right before your baby turns 6 months old.²

Feeding Under 1: The Sensory and Motor Systems

Secondly, the sensory system must also be considered. The optimal time to expose your baby to new tastes and textures is 5-6 months. Lastly, when looking at a child’s motor development, the following is necessary for introducing solids: head and neck control, trunk stability, sitting up with minimal support, crossing midline, and bringing toys and fists to the mouth.  So, provide lots of tummy time, beginning at birth, for optimal gross motor development and core strength. To summarize, ensure all necessary motor milestones are present while offering a wide variety of flavors with repeated exposures.²

Feeding Under 1: 6 Months and Up

What first foods should you feed and how should you prepare them? First foods can be prepared by steaming, poaching, roasting, pureeing, or offered fresh. As you prepare a food, keep in mind you can use formula, breastmilk, or water to achieve the consistency you want when mashing or blending. Let’s take a closer look at examples of a “grocery list” that are presented mashed or blended.³

Foods to Steam or Poach

• Apples
• Carrots
• Cauliflower
• Chicken
• Pears
• Peaches
• Plums
• Summer Squash and Zucchini
• Sweet Peas

Roast These Foods

• Apples
• Bananas
• Beets
• Carrots
• Peaches
• Pumpkin
• Sweet Potatoes

Foods to Offer Fresh

• Avocado
• Ripe Banana
• Peaches without Skin
• Plums
• Soft/Very Ripe Melons
• Hummus

You can offer your child what the family is eating if you present it in a safe manner. Foods that are soft and are able to be held should be cut to the size and length of an adult pinky finger for the child to hold in hand and “mouth” the tip. As more food opportunities are offered, the child will continue to develop gross and fine motor feeding skills. Allow development of fine motor skills by dipping a spoon into a puree or offering soft meltables, such as yogurt bites, around 8 months of age. This will help to define the pincer grasp. The pincer grasp occurs when the child can pick up the meltable with the index fingertip and tip of the thumb.

For the first few months of beginning solids, a parent should focus on consistently offering new food experiences and variety to expand tastes and oral feeding skills. However, be aware you should not replace formula and/or breastmilk. Therefore, it’s best to introduce solids after and between formula, breastmilk, or combo milk feedings.

For more recommendations or counseling, please voice concerns to your pediatrician or seek assistance from a feeding specialist.

References

1. Ludvigsson, J. F., & Fasano, A. (2012). Timing of Introduction of Gluten and Celiac Disease Risk. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 60(Suppl. 2), 22–29. https://doi.org/10.1159/000335335
2. Potock, Melanie with (Katz). Responsive Feeding: The Essential Handbook – A flexible, Stress-Free Approach to Nourishing. Babies and Toddlers. S.L., Experiment Llc, 2022.
3. ‌Fernando, Nimali, and Melanie Potock. Raising a Healthy, Happy Eater : A Parent’s Handbook– a Stage-By-Stage Guide to Setting Your Child on the Path to Adventurous Eating. New York, Ny, The Experiment, Llc, 2015.

I always hoped that sibling rivalry wouldn’t be an issue with my children because they are different genders and 2 years apart. Boy was I wrong! I feel like my children are constantly at each other, and I just don’t know what to do! If this sounds like your home, then this post is for you. If the fighting and constant rude comments between your children are wearing you down and impacting your life negatively, read on for some tips that may help you along the way.

Is Sibling Rivalry Normal?

Sibling rivalry includes, but isn’t limited to, disagreements, envy, resentment, verbal, and even occasional physical fights. This is normal.

As humans progressed, we have had to learn how to compete to survive. If food was scarce, you would want to be the strong sibling/parent in order to obtain food for your family/children. It is human nature to want/need to provide care to your loved ones.

If your child(ren) is regularly being verbally and/or physically abused to the point that it is affecting their well-being, then you will likely need to seek external help with the relationship. If your child(ren) is regularly getting hurt or you worry their mental health and/or physical health is in danger, you should seek out professional help.

Family Dynamics

Your family dynamic is a huge contributor to how our children feel secure and valued, which can greatly impact sibling dynamics. Below are some examples of various situations that can impact your child:

• How much physical time a parent has to devote to a child (Do they work full time? Care for another person’s medical needs?)
• Adult to child ratio (Are there two children and two parents? Or one parent to three children?)
• The amount of emotional availability the adult(s) have.
• The physical space of the home. Does each person have a safe place that is theirs alone? Is your house cramped? Do children share a room?
• How defined are the family roles? Is one child clearly viewed in the lime light? Another as a big brother/big sister and role model? Are the expectations set to high? OR perhaps one child is competing for the same role as another child?

Have you noticed a pattern to the sibling rivalry? Do they behave better when mom and dad are not around? What is each child’s personality? Are your children strong willed? More laid back? Individual temperaments really affect the dynamics of the family relationships.

Signs of Sibling Rivalry

There are some obvious signs of typical rivalry and there are signs of more extreme rivalry.

Typical

• One-upmanship. For example, the younger sibling passes their spelling test with ease and the older sibling struggles with spelling.
• Bickering and picking small fights with one another about trivial things (what side of the counter is theirs in the bathroom).
• Indifference. For example, in children this could be a lack of support when their sibling is facing a big event in their life, and their needs are placed on the back burner for a time.

Extreme Rivalry

• Clear lack of empathy, constant verbal abuse from one sibling
• Physical assaults/fights where one or both get hurt
• One sibling showing dominance over the others

Why Don’t My Kids Get Along?

Children often fight because of insecurity. Children need to feel safe and secure. Sometimes children feel that their security is at risk by the sheer presence of their sibling. Kids often feel this subconsciously,and it can heighten their feeling of parental rejection.

These feelings and fears are realistic to a certain extent. For example, the arrival of a new baby will mean that you get less of your parents’ attention (resulting in the feeling of rejection). However, if your child is feeling insecure, remember that it is not your fault. Children of all ages and stages go through periods of insecurity.

So Much Fighting!

Why do my children fight so much? The answer to this is complex and also includes a combination of factors. Some of these include:

• Personalities (incompatible or too similar)
• Family environment (space, responsibilities, roles)
• Parental approach (do you unwittingly encourage competition by celebrating good grades?)
• Level of family stress
• Birth order and age

Can Sibling Rivalry be Good?

Sibling rivalry can have benefits and is positive for development. Some of the positive reasons for this include:

• Competition can be healthy. Competition can set high goals for children and can allow for them to become high achievers.
• Rivalry can get children to practice important social skills in a safe environment. It allows children to work on conflict resolution and how to prepare and manage adult life.

How Can I Help?

Here are some effective strategies to help in managing and resolving conflict between siblings.

Firstly, Reward Cooperation

Despite sibling rivalry being normal, we can still work on and reward cooperation. We can bring out more of the behaviors we want to see by encouraging, labeling, and rewarding the behaviors we like to see. The more practice a child gets in cooperation skills, the more they will be able to follow through in the future.

For example, if you are making cookies at home give one child the job to turn on the mixer each time a new ingredient is added and have the other child place the ingredients into the bowl. If they achieve the goal of making cookies and following through with their roles, let them know how proud you are! The key to letting them know how proud you are is to make sure you “label” what it is that they have done well. Make sure you plan family activities that require the cooperation.

Secondly, Plan Parent Child Time to Decrease Sibling Rivalry

Parent Child Time is one on one full direct attention to one child. Make sure that there are times when your children do not feel that they need to compete with others for your attention.  This means scheduling one on one time with each child. This allows them to feel special and valued. This can help with reducing the feelings of insecurities and, in return, decrease the need to compete for attention.

Lastly, Give Them Different Roles

Give them different roles. Sibling rivalry occurs when siblings actually feel they are rivals. Altering this dynamic by changing the way they see themselves can help. Talk to your children about their unique roles within the family dynamic. It also really helps children if they can help teach others. For example, “Can you teach your brother how to transform the car into the robot?”

Hopefully after reading though and understanding sibling rivalry, you can begin to implement some of the provided strategies to implement at home. If you need additional guidance, one of occupational therapists can help!

Paradoxical vocal fold movement (PVFM) is inappropriate closure of the vocal folds when inhaling and/or exhaling. Vocal folds close suddenly when they should remain open. PVFM may occur in both children and adults. People experiencing PVFM feel like they are breathing through a narrow straw. They struggle to get air in and may feel dizzy, panicked, or faint. Symptoms can be very similar to asthma but PVFM is not asthma.

Paradoxical Vocal Fold Movement Triggers

PVFM is most often triggered by laryngeal irritants such as:

• Smoke
• Fumes
• Vapors
• Dust
• Allergens
• Gastroesophageal reflux (GERD)
• Post nasal drip
• Cold temperatures
• Upper respiratory infection.

It may also be exercise induced, which is why it is frequently confused with asthma. A wheezing noise (stridor) that occurs on inhalation accompanied by tightness in the throat is indicative of PVFM as compared to wheezing on exhalation and tightness in the chest, which is typical in asthma. PVFM caused by irritation to the larynx is very often responsive to speech therapy, and in most cases, involves only a few sessions of treatment with home exercises for breathing. Therapy focuses on identifying triggers and learning techniques for breathing and laryngeal relaxation.

In rare cases, PVFM may be neurological in origin. PVFM that is neurological in nature presents with persistent symptoms rather than sudden breathing attacks. PVMF that is due to neurological causes requires medical management and does not typically benefit from speech therapy.

Stress and anxiety are other causes of PVFM, but it is important to rule out irritants as a cause. Treatment focused on stress or anxiety will not be effective if laryngeal irritants are not first resolved. Stress or anxiety induced PVFM often responds to treatment as well. Treatment will focus on education and relaxed throat breathing. A referral to psychology or psychiatry may occur in order to effectively manage the stress and/or anxiety causing PVFM.

If your child is just beginning language therapy, you might have some questions about how their speech therapist is choosing what words to work on. With all the words out there that can help children communicate better, which ones are the most important to focus on first? After reading this you should have a better idea about words to work on and words to wait on when you work with your child at home.

Functional Words Versus Academic Words

First, lets talk about different types of words children can use. To make this easy, we will just divide them into functional words and academic words. Functional words help to get immediate needs met. Academic words help to build knowledge of a specific topic or domain.

Teaching functional words first will help children to express themselves more successfully. Once children learn the words to get their immediate needs met, you will likely see less frustration and behavioral outbursts. Functional words may include names of immediate family members or caregivers, yes/no, names of foods and drinks, favorite objects and actions. They may also include words such as: go, stop, all done, help, and look. These words will help children communicate their wants and needs and make meaningful requests.

Academic words include: colors, numbers, letters, shapes, etc. I also include please and thank you on this list. Although please and thank you are manner related and not specifically academic, they do not serve to meet a child’s immediate need. Academic words are useful, but if your child is just beginning to talk and learn language they are not as helpful in making your child a successful early communicator.

How to Teach Functional Words to Work On

It is easy to feel overwhelmed when your child is beginning therapy. If you are starting the speech and language therapy process with your child, please know you should always feel comfortable asking your therapist any questions you may have.

When teaching functional words, the goal is not just to get your child saying the words. Children have to understand words before they will begin using them to communicate. So, when you think about words to work on, the goal isn’t just speaking or saying the words. I like think about words for objects or actions your child loves and uses on a daily basis. These may be different for each child. Some examples may include: car, shoes, ball, eat, banana, stop, go, push, etc.

Label these words at home. If you see these objects or complete these actions within the community label them there as well. For example, “You want to eat,” “You are eating a banana,” “I see the banana,” etc. Functional words can also be modeled using sign language. As your child becomes more familiar with these functional words, you can start to encourage your child to use a sign or verbal word approximation to request these words.

Speech and Language Kids also has some really helpful information about how to help your children learn to be functional communicators.

Each Child is Different

It is important to remember that every child is different. This means children learn differently too. Some children may gravitate to using academic words, and that is ok. You can then use these words to help build a more functional vocabulary. Just remember, when you are working with your child try to help them learn. Use words that will help them express their wants and needs as much as possible. Once your child can get their needs met, the focus can shift to more academic vocabulary.

It may be helpful to check out our blog on prelinguistic development to see if your child is ready to start moving forward with verbal language. If you have questions about your child’s language development, call us today at (406) 388-4988.

Children learn to communicate gradually by spending time with the various people in their lives. Communication is two people sending messages to one another. This form of communication might be in different forms, including body language, gestures, signs, simple sounds, babbling, words, or vocalizations closely approximating words. Children learn these forms of communication from observing others. They are more likely to be engaged and motivated to communicate when the activity or topic of conversation interests them. Follow your child’s lead to increase their interest in communicating with you.  

Following your child’s lead is simple. When they are playing, join in and play with them. Even if they are not interacting with you, imitate their play. If they are banging toys together, bang toys together alongside them. If this attracts their attention, they might hit their toys together again and wait for you.  An interaction has begun!

Another way to gain a child’s attention is to use fun sounds and words. Examples include:

• “Vroom vroom” or “Beep beep” when playing with cars
• “Chugga chugga choo choo” when playing with trains or when you see a train while driving
• “Pop” when playing with bubbles
• Animal sounds when playing with animal toys

Simple Actions to Follow Your Child’s Lead

• Imitate – Do what your child does. If they bang their hands on the floor, you hit your hands on the floor. If they make a babbling sound, you make the babbling sound too. Imitating lets your child know you are interested in their actions and sounds.  

• Interpret – Observe what your child may be trying to communicate, and interpret it in a simple phrase. If your child points to the candy cupboard, it is obvious what they are trying to communicate to you. Put this communication into words for them by saying, “You want candy.” This model will help your child learn to say those words eventually.  

• Make a comment – Use short, grammatical sentences to comment on what’s happening throughout the day. For example, if you’re driving and hear a train, you could say, “I hear the train. The train is loud.”

• Follow through – When your child makes a request, it is important to follow through so they know that their communication has an effect. For example, if your child hands you their shoe, imitate their words with correct pronunciation or interpret by commenting and helping them put their shoe on. If the request is unreasonable, let your child know you understand and explain why they can’t get what they want. For example, “I know you want candy, but we can’t eat that right now.”

Three Comments to Every Question

It is natural to ask a question when we want to communicate with one another. Still, in general interactions, we don’t usually ask someone five questions in a row. Subsequent questioning can cause a child to shut down and disengage in a communication interaction. Accept the challenge to give at least three comments to every question you ask your child. Remember, if you are commenting on a child’s interest, they are probably listening intently. They may look at you or communicate back to tell you they heard you. For more tips on increasing communication, check out Is My Child Ready to Start Talking?

References

1. It Takes Two to Talk: A Practical Guide for Parents of Children with Language Delays, Elaine Weitzman