Infant Massage at St. Ann Center

Who doesn't like a massage?

I wanted to share with you some photos from our recent Infant Massage workshop.  Sandy Anderson, CMT, is sharing her techniques with some students.  The babies in the Ladybug room just LOVE the massages, they coo, smile and calm down. 

 

With the best interest of parents and caregivers in mind, Sandy Anderson, CMT, provides workshops throughout the year.  Participants learn the nurturing hands-on techniques of infant and child massage.  The workshops are designed for parents, grandparents, caregivers and siblings.  Within the 1-2 hour workshop individuals will discover how a caring touch can enhance the bond between child and caregiver.

Why Infant Massage?  The benefits are more far reaching than they may at first seem. Massage is a tool for maintaining health and well-being on many levels for both caregivers and children.  It helps parents and caregivers feel secure in their ability to do something positive for and get a positive response from their baby.  This special bonding time between parents and their babies teaches parents to read baby's cues such as body language and types of cries.

Infant massage provides psychological and physical benefits to the baby too.

Physically, infant massage can;
Accelerate development of premature babies
Increase circulation.
Strengthen the immune system.
Aid the digestive system and can help calm some of colic's characteristics.
Calm the nervous system by stroking which may lead to better sleep times.

Psychologically, infant massage can:
Promote parent and baby bonding.
Provide stress reduction for the baby.
Help babies develop body awareness.
Create a positive reaction to touching.

Being touched and caressed, being massaged, is food for the infant.  Food as necessary as minerals, vitamins and proteins Dr. Frederick Leboyer

One-on-One Music Therapy

Do you know what Music Therapy is?

Music therapy is the use of music to reach goals that are tailored to each specific client. Music is a non threatening entity, and has characteristics that allow it to be especially useful with clients who may not respond to traditional therapies. Music therapists assess emotional well-being, physical health, social functioning, communication abilities, and cognitive skills through musical responses, create goals, and design music sessions appropriate for the individual.

Some common goals of music therapy can include the following: sensory stimulation, interaction with therapist, developing decision making skills, increasing expressive communication, learning a leisure skill, such as adaptive piano lessons, and different relaxation techniques.

A few of the different techniques and methods a music therapist may use can include, music improvisation, song writing, lyric discussion, learning through music, and music performance.

When clients who are currently receiving one on one music therapy were asked what they liked about music therapy, they said “I like learning how to play the piano.” “I like singing songs together with you.” “I like learning songs I haven’t heard since my childhood.”

St. Ann Center offers one-on-one music therapy that is available to anyone, not just St. Ann Center clients.

It's the Little Things

Sometimes it's just the little things that matter most.
Sometimes it's just a "God bless you," when someone sneezes.
Sometimes it's an "excuse me," when trying to move out of the way of a wheelchair.

Sometimes it's as simple as an act or gesture of caring; bending down to pick up something someone has dropped, holding a door for someone who struggles, moving things out of the way for a wheelchair to get through, a high five, a hand shake, a pat on the back.

Yolanda, the art and crafts teacher at St. Ann Center, understands this well.  She teaches arts and crafts, helps with computer time, feeds clients at lunch time, and occasionally, when she has time, she also paints the clients nails.  It's a small act really.  It doesn't take much time.  But it really means a lot to the clients.  It helps to make them feel cared for and loved.

"Look at my nails!" said one client as I was walking through the atrium.  Yolanda had just painted her nails and she was feeling very pretty!  It made me smile all day!

Summer Camp Learns about the Life Cycle of a Butterfly

Our summer program kids had so much fun learning about the life cycle of the caterpillar to butterfly. With the help of several St. Ann Center staff the kids gathered some caterpillars and a lot of leaves and branches put them in a large plastic container with holes punched in the top…and then they waited.

Each day they checked the container and watched as the caterpillars ate the leaves and pooped…and boy did they poop. They learned to clean out the container and make sure the caterpillars had plenty to eat and someplace strong to attach themselves to so they could make their cocoons.

The caterpillars attached themselves to the top of the container and began to spin their cocoons. The children got to see the whole process. Once the cocoon was formed they waited. It turned out they waited about 12 days; that was the average wait.

Right before their eyes a magnificent monarch butterfly emerged ever so slowly from its chrysalis (also called a pupa.) The kids also learned some new words! When the butterfly’s wings were dry they took the butterfly out of the jar and took turns letting it land on their hands, or shirts and noses! When it was time, they released the beautiful butterfly outside so it could start the life cycle all over again!

It certainly didn’t take long and they were lucky enough to experience the full life cycle of the butterfly. The summer program learned many new things this summer. Our next summer program article will be about Mad Science!

 

Jewelry making is art, therapy and a whole lot of fun!

Susan G. and her jewelry creations!

Suzanne Leberman is St. Ann Center’s jewelry teacher and works one-on-one with many clients creating beautiful wearable art. St. Ann Center offers jewelry classes for a small cost to any client interested in learning to make their own jewelry.

A new client named Susan G. started attending St. Ann Center in November. She was recovering from a brain aneurysm and part of her therapy at her rehab facility was stringing beads so naturally when she heard about the Suzanne’s jewelry classes she was intrigued and signed up right away.

When Susan began the jewelry making classes her jewelry was beautiful but very simplistic and followed an easy pattern of 3’s. As Susan progressed her jewelry has increased in beauty as well as design complexity. She has steadily moved beyond set patterns and advanced to creating lovely necklackes, bracelets and matching earrings. Suzanne says that she has really witnessed a change and definite progress in Susan’s abilities since she started. It’s exciting to witness such change and improvement in the health of our clients.


This is one of the first jewelry pieces that Susan created.



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 This is one of the later pieces that Susan created



 Susan (St. Ann Center Client) and Suzanne L.(jewelry teacher) 

African Dance comes to St. Ann Center

This week a very inspirational dance group came to St. Ann Center to entertain and share their talents with the clients, kids and staff!


The DanceCircus and Xalaat Africa Drum and Dance for Life dance groups is an dance corp that trains junior and senior high school students in modern and African dance and modern and African drumming. For two weeks during the summer the group performs for Boys & Girls Clubs, senior centers, care centers and community sites.

We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to experience their wonderful dancing and drumming skills. Everyone was entertained and had so much fun! The little kids were just dancing in their seats and waving their hands in the air. The clients were trying to clap along to the beat of the drums and the staff was cheering! Some of the St. Ann Center kids were asking how they can get involved in this wonderful group.

For more information about Dance Circus check out their website at http://www.dancecircus.org/.
Check out the dancing on Youtube http://www.youtube.com/user/stanncenter?feature=mhsn

Taking steps to prevent memory loss

Study hopes to prove exercise could help many

e-mail print By Kelly Hogan of the Journal Sentinel

July 25, 2011
Long before Alzheimer's disease is diagnosed - before it robs one of language, judgment and temperament - a person capable of normal daily activities starts to have trouble remembering things.

This early form of memory loss is considered a harbinger of Alzheimer's disease, which affects upward of 5.1 million people in the United States.

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee are studying whether exercise can stall this form of memory loss - called amnestic mild cognitive impairment, or aMCI - and stave off the progression of Alzheimer's disease.  Follow this link to read more! http://www.jsonline.com/features/health/126130108.html