Children's Health

Kids will be head­ed back to school again before you know it and along with sched­ul­ing phys­i­cals, eye exams, and vac­cines, it’s impor­tant to think about your children’s men­tal health too. Coor­di­na­tor of Behav­ioral Health, Nik­ki Shields, shares the fol­low­ing back-to-school tips with par­ents and caregivers:

March 2 is Nation­al Read Across Amer­i­ca Day. The day was estab­lished by the Nation­al Edu­ca­tion Asso­ci­a­tion (NEA) in 1998 to help get kids excit­ed about read­ing. The day occurs each year on the birth­day of beloved children’s book author Dr. Seuss. Our Pedi­atrics team here at Quin­cy Med­ical Group knows the val­ue of read­ing to your child’s devel­op­ment. We asked a few ques­tions of QMG Pedi­a­tri­cian Dr. Todd Porter on the top­ic of lit­er­a­cy. Below are his responses.

It’s Nation­al Play Ther­a­py Week! At Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG), we have trained Play Ther­a­pists who uti­lize play to sup­port and help their patients. Two of our ther­a­pists, Amy Hast­ing and JoAnn O’Rourke, answered the ques­tions below about the ben­e­fits of play ther­a­py and how the pow­er of play can help your kid­dos at home.

School is back in ses­sion, which means back to the week­day rou­tines. Part of your week­night rou­tine may involve home­work. For some kid­dos, home­work can be a strug­gle cre­at­ing frus­tra­tion for every­one in the house­hold. Lyn­nae Glas­cock, clin­i­cal coor­di­na­tor of pedi­atric ther­a­py at Quin­cy Med­ical Group, offers these help­ful home­work tips:

Back­packs are an essen­tial item for school. Did you know there is a right and wrong way to car­ry one? Lug­ging around all those books and school sup­plies can cause dis­com­fort, mus­cle sore­ness, and low­er back pain if they’re too heavy or are used incor­rect­ly. Lyn­nae Glas­cock, clin­i­cal coor­di­na­tor of pedi­atric ther­a­py at Quin­cy Med­ical Group, offers these tips for students.

The QMG Pedi­atric Ther­a­py team has some gift sug­ges­tions for the kids in your life. 

Dr. Kendra Conkright, a physi­cian with Quin­cy Med­ical Group’s Pitts­field Clin­ic, is deeply com­mit­ted to her com­mu­ni­ty. Grow­ing up in near­by Grig­gsville, she devel­oped a strong con­nec­tion to the area and its peo­ple. Her child­hood expe­ri­ences with a med­ical con­di­tion sparked her inter­est in health­care, and she pur­sued her edu­ca­tion with the goal of return­ing to serve her community.

Jes­si­ca Booz­er, a nurse prac­ti­tion­er at the Quin­cy Med­ical Group Pitts­field Clin­ic, shares her pas­sion for pedi­atrics. Dri­ven by a desire to make a pos­i­tive impact, she found her call­ing in work­ing with chil­dren. Booz­er enjoys see­ing her young patients smile and light up dur­ing their appointments.

Are you buy­ing gifts for kid­dos this year? Have no idea what you are doing? Want some ideas beyond those must-have toys this sea­son? Lean­na Moss, Cer­ti­fied Occu­pa­tion­al Ther­a­py Assis­tant & Ann Zinn, Speech-Lan­guage Pathol­o­gist, have some great ideas to think about while you are shop­ping. You can find some fun and educational/​developmental gifts for the kids on your list.

Anne Zinn, Speech Lan­guage Pathol­o­gist and Feed­ing Spe­cial­ist, dis­cuss­es tips and tricks to help you nav­i­gate meal­time with picky eaters dur­ing the holidays.