Resources & News
🌟Milestone Moment🌟
​Tristan has met a HUGE milestone moment! For the past several weeks, Tristan has successfully used his coping strategies independently to help prevent and calm down when feeling angry! When Tristan first started participating in occupational therapy at TheraTree, he was having trouble regulating his emotions. He was quick to get angry, was not a fan of following adult directives, and really did not like doing his homework because it was challenging. During sessions, Tristan and his therapist worked on building his interoception awareness, understanding of his and others emotions, and practiced coping strategies that he found helpful and meaningful. Now consistently, he arrives to therapy each week excited to share his success with his therapist! Not only has Tristan shown improvement with his self-regulation skills, he also shows an increase with his self-esteem. We are so proud of you Tristan and all of your hard work!
Newsletter Archive
Newsletter Archive
Buddy Ball
Billy Shain, Director buddyballkids@gmail.com
iTumble & Bounce
itumbleandbounce@gmail.com 270.903.2685
Kindermusik at the Owensboro Symphony
cathy.mullins25@gmail.com 270.316.9203 www.kindermusik.com
Ohio County Equestrian
http://www.ocequestrian.org 270.274.9650
Dream Riders of Kentucky
dreamridersofky@gmail.com 270.883.1418
Western Kentucky Assistive Technology Center
Cindy Houston, Director 270.689.1738 Wendell Foster CenterWendell Foster Center
GRADD - Medicaid Waivers
River Valley Behavioral Health
www.rvbh.com 800.737.0696 1100 Walnut Street, Owensboro, KY 42301
What Are Essential Oils?
Essential oils are basically plant extracts. They're made by steaming or pressing various parts of a plant (flowers, bark, leaves or fruit) to capture the compounds that produce fragrance. It can take several pounds of a plant to produce a single bottle of essential oil. In addition to creating scent, essential oils perform other functions in plants, too. (Aromatherapy: Do Essential Oils Really Work?, Hopkins Medicine)
How do Essential Oils work?
Essential oils are most commonly used in the practice of aromatherapy, in which they are inhaled through various methods.The chemicals in essential oils can interact with your body in several ways. According to Michele Mack, LMT, CPMT, essential oils have psychological (affecting emotion), pharmacological (affecting chemistry) and physiological (affecting bodily function and process) benefits.
When applied to your skin, some plant chemicals are absorbed. Those who use essential oils topically tend to do so for cosmetic purposes or to treat pain. Oils are absorbed via the epidermis (top layer of skin), move from the soft tissue to the bloodstream, are carried to the treatment areas and then metabolized in the liver.
Most essential oil users inhale them to experience their psychological effects, such as stress relief. When inhaled, the molecules are distributed into the respiratory system, but a small amount has been shown to affect our brain. “When it is routed to our brain, we identify the smell and, in some cases, we have an emotional response to that smell,” Mack says. “In animal studies, it has been shown that inhalation has a quicker effect of distributing the sedative properties of certain oils in the body.” Inhaling the aromas from essential oils can stimulate areas of your limbic system, which is a part of your brain that plays a role in emotions, behaviors, sense of smell, and long-term memory. Interestingly, the limbic system is heavily involved in forming memories. This can partly explain why familiar smells can trigger memories or emotions.The limbic system also plays a role in controlling several unconscious physiological functions, such as breathing, heart rate, and blood pressure.
How to find quality Essential Oils
The most important thing to consider when shopping for essential oils is product quality, says Gujral. But figuring out which oils are the best is challenging, since there's no government agency in the U.S. that provides a grading system or certification for essential oils. A big problem? Many companies claim their essential oils are "therapeutic grade," but that's just a marketing term.
"Unfortunately, there are lots of products you might find online or in stores that aren't harvested correctly or may have something in them that isn't listed on the label," warns Gujral.
Here are some tips to help you shop for pure essential oils:
- Look at the label: It should include the Latin name of the plant, information on purity or other ingredients added to it, and the country in which the plant was grown.
- Evaluate the company: Purchase products from a well-known and reputable aromatherapy company that's been around for several years.
- Choose dark-colored, glass containers: Pure essential oils are highly concentrated. They can dissolve plastic bottles over time, tainting the oil. Most companies package essential oils in small brown or blue glass bottles to protect the quality.
- Avoid "fragrance oils": Fragrance or perfume oils are made from essential oils combined with chemicals or entirely from chemicals. They're not suitable for aromatherapy — instead, look for bottles that contain a single essential oil in its purest form (100% essential oil with no other fillers).
- Compare prices: Essential oils range in price, depending on how involved harvesting and production are. Within a line, there should be a wide variety of prices — rose absolute or sandalwood oils will be more expensive, while sweet orange oil will be on the less expensive end. If you find a rock-bottom price for an expensive essential oil, it probably isn't pure.
Essential oils can lift your mood and make you feel good with just a whiff of their fragrance. For some people they may even help alleviate the symptoms of various conditions. For more information on how to incorporate them into a healthy lifestyle, consult an integrative medicine expert. (Aromatherapy: Do Essential Oils Really Work?, Hopkins Medicine)
Essential Oils for ADHD & Autism
TheraTree exclusively uses Young Living Essential oils for all roller bottles and therapeutic grade pure oils. for their Seed to Seal promise which includes: Sourcing, Science, Standards.
Sourcing: Young Living will never knowingly compromise by adding synthetics, contaminants, or cheap fillers, or by using unethical production practices. Young Living Chief Supply Officer Lauren Walker guides the process of sourcing products from carefully vetted corporate-owned farms, partner farms, and Seed to Seal-certified suppliers and testing them extensively. If our exhaustive tests show that a product doesn’t meet our standards, we don’t buy it, or we reject the batch.
Science: Quality starts at the farm and is proven in Young Living labs. Through stringent, unyielding quality benchmarks,is able to identify the most pure, genuine, and effective ingredients.'s quality control team uses a battery of physical, chemical, and microbiological scientific tests to measure the exact components and properties of our essential oils. Each test is repeated numerous times during the quality process. Testing begins at our farms and continues all the way through the final stages prior to shipment.
Standards: Not only is Lacey Act Compliance Program comprehensive, it is also the first in the essential oils industry that has been reviewed and accepted by the government. It is the gold standard for compliance programs, and is proud to have gone above and beyond any competitors to establish it.
Young Living Oils in Clinic
TheraTree carries the following Young living oils for purchase in the clinic. Any Young Living essential oil can be special ordered. If there is an oil you'd like us to keep in stock let us know! All order requests can be made to jessica@theratreepeds.com.
$30
Roller Bottles
Roller Bottles are a great way to access a blend of oils, that is cost effective. Apply roller bottles directly to the skin. For sensitive skin or smell aversions, roller bottles can be applied to the feet.
Some pure therapeutic grade oils are too intense to apply directly to the skin. All roller bottles are diluted with a carrier oil for safe direct application to the skin. The standard carrier oil used in all of TheraTree's Roller Bottles is the V-6™ Vegetable Oil Complex. We also choose a safe dilution specifically for children as they are more sensitive to oils than adults.
V-6 Vegetable Oil Complex Ingredients: Fractionated Cocos nucifera (Coconut) oil, Sesamum indicum (Sesame) seed oil, Vitis vinifera (Grape) seed oil, Prunus amygdalus dulcis (Sweet almond) oil, Triticum vulgare (Wheat) germ oil, Helianthus annuus (Sunflower) seed oil, Olea europaea (Olive) fruit oil.
It is important to note that although people with allergies to this carrier oil's ingredients typically do not elicit an allergic response to this carrier oil, safety is a top priority for TheraTree and it is recommended to request an alternate carrier oil for those who are allergic to the plants in the V-6 ingredients.
All alternate requests are made custom to the order. Requests can be made directly to orders@theratreepeds.com. Upon making the request an estimated completion time can be established.
Stretch Break for KidsThis app will remind users to take periodic stretch breaks while using the computer. Includes animated tutorials of how to properly perform the stretches.
Sight Words
Help children learn to read with a list of 315 words categorized by appropriate age groups. Instantly recognizing sight words is an important skill for young readers.
Color ID
Color Identifier uses the camera on your phone to speak the names of colors.
First Aid by American Red Cross
Be prepared for accidents with this app that has expert advice for everyday emergencies.
Songify
Turn everyday phrases and names into a song. Have children sing along to words or phrases while talking and practicing words.
Bubbles
Blow bubbles by dragging your finger and then tap to pop them.
The Amazing Spider-Man
This augmented reality app allows children to discover Spider-Man in the world around them with interactive animations.
FSS Online
An assessment and curriculum app that helps users with independent living skills such as transportation, safety, health, literacy, and more.
Evernote
Helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Evernote lets you take notes, capture photos, create to-do lists, and record voice reminders.
Relax Melodies
Personalized relaxation and sleep assistance app has more than 40 high quality sounds to provide white noise or background noise to assist with falling asleep.
Metronome
Get a metronome on your device.
myHomework
Allows students to keep track of their homework, classes, projects, and tests.
Toontastic
Make your own cartoons and stories through imaginative play with this app that allows kids to draw, animate, and share their own cartoons. - See more at:
Star Walk & Google Sky Map
Turn your smart phone or tablet into a window on the night sky. Find out constellations and satellites by pointing your phone at stars. - See more at:
Ease App
Uses random bursts of sound to stimulate, challenge, and promote sensory processing. Contains 60 minutes of optimized music. - See more at:
iPhone - Personal version, $39.99 iPhone - Pro version, $99.99
Math Magic
Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division with visual supports, solution choices, reinforcers, and rewards (star system).
Easy Kid Timer
Visual timer to help kids visualize the passage of time. Customize the timer with your own pictures and description of tasks.
iDress for Weather
Provides images of clothing and weather conditions daily. Clearly displays the daily temperature (daily highs and lows). Ability to customize the closet using personalized images or photos.
Time Timers
Little clocks demonstrate the passage of time in three different sizes. Have an optional audio signal at completion.
Shelby's Quest
Children can learn fine motor and visual perceptual skills using this app developed by an occupational therapist. Follow Shelby the dog on her quest through the Pacific Northwest.
Math Board
Use this app to teach addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. Customizable options make this app fun for elementary school children.
Awesomenote
Note taking application and to-do manager.
SymTrend ADL Quickly record information about ADLs and track a child's progress. Once the ADL is mastered, move on to the next.
Brain Works
This app will remind parents and teachers to take sensory breaks with their children and has more than 130 sensory activities.
Stories2learn
Create personalized social stories using photos, texts, and audio messages.
SymTrend
An electronic diary that allows you to track symptoms, discover what is triggering problems, and determine whether treatments are working for depression, cancer, women's health, chronic pain, ADHD, or autism.
Annoying Sounds
Sounds divided into categories of high frequency, alarms, animals, eating, emergency, human, office, phone, random, and wake up.
Balloon Pop
Pop balloons by shaking the device up and down. Could help avoiders acclimate to the sound.
deciBel
Displays the current, maximum, and minimum values in decibels
Sounds Annoying
Change the pitch, volume, and filter using slider buttons. Customize the sounds if you buy the app for $0.99. Record a certain sound and use it for controlled exposure.
TooLoud
Ideal for teachers needing to limit noise in the class room. Records decibels and displays volume levels in numbers.
Video Scheduler
Use photos and videos to create a schedule. Set up multiple users—perfect for multiple children on your workload. Take a picture, add an audio comment, or take a video to create a list of steps for schedules.
iPrompts
Prompting app providing picture schedules, visual countdown clocks, and other choice prompts. Replace old handmade schedule boards.
Off We Go
Prepares children for everyday experiences while improving language and social skills. Each book tells the story of a particular event or everyday activity in a sequence of 12 steps.
Art of Glow
Draw with glow painting, fireworks, twinkle stars, and more.
Fireworks
Turn your phone into a fireworks display. Choose your background and with a tap of the finger launch fireworks.
Fruit Ninja
Use your fingers to swipe and tap fruit pieces. Zen mode allows for a more relaxed pace while arcade mode is played at a more frenzied pace.
iLoveFireworks
A multisensory experience that combines music (from your itunes account) with fireworks on a black background.
Pandora
Free personalized radio app. Start with the name of a favorite song and Pandora creates a customized radio station with similar music. Thumb up and down songs to further customize your radio stations. Quick and simple way to have background music.
Glow Tunes
Combines glow graphics with music to create a multisensory experience.
Line Art
Provides touch and visual stimulation with interactive visual art created by thousands of particles that move when you touch. Colors and patterns change as you move your finger.
Letter School
Make handwriting easier. Choose different fonts and listen to sounds and view graphics and animations.
Rockmate
Up to four players can play a variety of instruments on one device.
Kids ABC Letters
Help kids master their ABCs with this app. Name, form, recognize, and identify letters.
Photo Table
Flick, swipe, tap, zoom, rotate, and drag your photos on a virtual table. Add music for a rich sensory experience.
Glow Coloring
Drawing app that uses brightly colored paint.
Doodle Toy for Kids
Teach kids to draw and paint with brightly colored paint. Use mirror mode for easy drawing.
Magnetic Board Lite
Drag brightly colored magnetic letters onto a dark background. Save the pictures to your device.
Kidoodle: Pirate
Digital coloring book of a pirate story. Personalize the pages by adding your own illustrations. The drawing comes alive when finished, with moving objects, dancing pirates, and swimming fish.
iPhone - $2.99 Android - $2.99
iBooks
Free app for downloading books. Make the text larger, choose the right font. Keep track of characters in a story by highlighting the text and annotating the book. Some children's books in the iBookstore have a read-aloud feature.
Kindle
Free app for downloading e-books from Amazon. Change the text size, adjust the brightness of the screen, highlight text, and take notes. Look up words in the dictionary.
Studydroid Flashcard
FreeCreate flash cards online or on your phone and sync them
Flashcards+
Create flash cards that look like standard index cards.
QuickTodo Lite
Simple and clean design to create to do lists that won't distract sensors. Provides boxes to check when task is completed.
Taskos To Do List
Simple and intuitive to do list for android. Add tasks by typing or speaking to your mobile device.
Gaze HD—Lite
Nine video scenes to gaze upon. Block out other visual distractions. Shuffle through scenes and play the optional natural sounds to make the scene more realistic.
White Noise Lite
Plays ambient noise to block out distractions. Free version has 10 sounds including rain, chimes, a fan, and more.
iPhone - Free Android - Free
White Noise Recorder
Record your preferred sounds. Take 10- to 30-second recordings and play it as a continuous loop.
WaitStrip
This app provides a visual representation of increments of time. A visual guide helps an individual remain on task or focused for a specific duration of time.
Brighter and Bigger
People with low vision can use this app to turn their device into a magnification device that will make reading material bigger, brighter, and higher contrast.
AAC Talking Tabs
This app allows people with severe disabilities, limited movement, and challenged dexterity to communicate through their phone or tablet.
Say Hi! AAC
This app allows people with severe disabilities, limited movement, and challenged dexterity to communicate through their phone or tablet without ever touching the screen.
My Choice Board
Provides a visual display of choices for children with limited communication skills to be able to express their own needs and wants.
Quick Talk AAC
Giving a voice to those who can't speak, this app has a library of 11,000 images and symbols that represent many needs and wants. A simple two button design allows for easy selection of phrases.
Choiceworks
Help children complete daily routines and understand and control their feelings with three boards (schedule, waiting, and feeling). The app helps make task completion easier, teaches waiting skills, and helps children cope with being upset.
Abilipad
The app combines the functionality of a notepad with word prediction, a customizable keyboard, and text-to-speech tools. Advanced-level writing tools for children with special needs.
Functional Planning System
Plan out your client's day with this video prompting tool. Schedule activities, create step-by-step videos, and create alarms to remind clients of tasks.
Functional Communication System
Customize this video-based communication tool with real images, audio, and video to reflect your client's world.
Magnify
Turn your phone into a magnifying glass with a flashlight. Read tiny print, show a negative image, and take a picture.
High Score House Kids
An online game that helps parents and practitioners motivate children to complete tasks or other behaviors to reach real-life rewards.
Behavior Status
Record the daily behavior of your child or an entire classroom. Easily record behavior using a simple green, yellow, and red stoplight.
Teachers Class Behavior
Record behaviors with a list of multiple children. Tap to record default behaviors or edit and add your own. Can be used to multiple classes. Review behaviors in a daily log.
ABC Data
Data collection tool for counting behavior by simple tallies or percentages, recording the session duration, and e-mailing the data.
iReward
Behavioral management reward system. Allows you to post a picture of a reward and give stars for behaviors that will win the reward.
No More Meltdowns
This app provides the tools to help parents prepare their child for meltdowns and deal with out-of-control behavior.
Baby's Musical Hands
A simple cause and effect app, the 15 brightly colored squares provide audio and visual feedback when touched.
iPhone - $0.99 Android - $0.99
Color and Draw for Kids
Coloring book for children with 50 drawings in several categories such as professions and landscapes.
LetterSchool
\Practice letter formation by tapping, tracing, and writing. Learn the alphabet by playing games.
Colorific
A fun and smart drawing and coloring app for children. Choose from 40 templates in several categories such as numbers and professions.
iWritewords
Teaches handwriting and correct letter formation while children play a fun and educational game.
Write My Name by Injini
This app is a fun way for children to practice writing letters, words, names, and phrases. Children 4 to 6 can learn several writing skills such as writing their name.
Handwriting without Tears: Wet-Dry-Try
Using a visual chalkboard, children can learn and practice letter formation habits for writing capital letters and numbers.
iPhone - $4.99 Android - $4.99
Dexteria
Therapeutic hand exercises that improve fine motor skills and handwriting readiness. App created by an occupational therapist.
Garageband
Play musical instruments on your device. Individuals with limited motor control can play chords on a guitar or play a piano. Record the music you create.
Ready to Print
Created by an occupational therapist, this app helps teach pre-writing skills to build a strong foundation for beginning printers.
Typ-O
Writing is made easier with this app that uses a word prediction engine and spelling error model. Great for individuals with dyslexia. Synthetic voices allow you to inspect the predicted word before selecting.
Recognise
Accurately measure your client's ability to recognize left and right body parts and movement. Train left right discrimination with a series of images.
Ready to Print
Help beginning printers progress through pre-writing skills in a specific order to master the skills needed for correct printing patterns.
Holiday Tips from TheraTree
Set some boundaries. It’s okay to set limits with people during the holidays. The holiday season can be very stressful and often times, our families (immediate and extended) can be a little too demanding. It’s okay to say “no,” or “maybe later.” It’s okay to let your calls go to voicemail until you’re ready to respond. It’s okay to take time for yourself, to focus on your mental health and relax for a few. Don’t let the holidays stress you out. Enjoy them on your terms!
Disconnect. Take a day to break away from the outside world. Turn the phones off. Put the laptop away. Hide the TV remote. Put on your pj's, break out a book, a puzzle or board game and then RECONNECT with yourself, your pets or your family.
Release your inner child! Many people spend their days going to work, cleaning the house, taking care of the kids, paying bills…you know, Adulting! Some people get so lost in being an adult, they forget what it’s like to be a kid. Why not spend a day this season, take of your adulting hat and release your inner child. Have cereal for dinner. Binge watch those cartoons you grew up on. Climb a tree. Break out the coloring books and Crayons. And most importantly, enjoy yourself!
- Jacob, LPCC-S
Make sure to bring activities, movies, games, etc., to give your child something to occupy their minds during downtime.
Take time to talk about family traditions, family history and look through photo albums.
Prepare - Planning ahead allows you the opportunity to make your trip flow as smoothly as possible. Make a list of all the items you need to bring/pack and the things you need to accomplish for a successful Holiday trip. Don't forget to make a checklist of must have's for your child!
HAVE FUN! Holiday trips can be stressful, but if you plan ahead you can prevent some unnecessary stressors. Holiday trips are meant for love, fun and making the BEST family memories!
- Arrielle, RBT
Happy Holidays!! I know the holidays can get overwhelming for everyone especially young children with sensory processing disorders. It is important to incorporate many of these sensory approaches into holiday activities. One way to incorporate these difficulties into holiday planning is to allow children to perform age appropriate chores (helping set up Christmas dinner table, helping clean dishes after dinner...). It is also beneficial to provide children with transitional items to use when traveling to place to place for Christmas gatherings like a coloring sheet, a game or even a favorite toy. Don't let the holidays get to you this year! We are here to help with providing all types of tricks and interventions that will help prevent overwhelm for your family this holiday season!!
- Faith Adamson, MS, OTR/L