Recovery Snack Checklist for Young Athletes

Recovery Snack Checklist for Young Athletes

by | Sep 23, 2020 | Sports Medicine

It is important for young athletes, like high-level gymnast Shayley, to understand how to properly fuel their bodies – before and after a practice, competition or game. Our certified sports dietitian Taylor Morrison, M.S., R.D., CSSD, L.D., stresses the importance of having recovery snacks on-hand.

Many parents ask, “What is a good recovery snack that I can have ready for my athlete after a game or practice?” While important to know quick ideas, it’s even more important to know what makes up the ideal recovery snack. 

In addition to providing specific examples, Morrison likes to provide a framework to follow in order to make the right decision. She says this also helps to prevent “snack fatigue” down the road. 

Here is a guide to creating optimal recovery snacks You can use the examples listed to build snacks your athlete will enjoy or add in some of your own food examples as well.

Three Key Components to the Ideal Recovery Snack

  1. Carbohydrate: replenishes depleted energy stores in the muscle and liver. Maintains energy levels and allows the body to maintain lean muscle.
  2. Protein: used to rebuild or repair worked tissues in the body.
  3. Fluid: prevents dehydration and promotes optimal recovery.

Recovery Snacks Should be Made with Whole Foods Not Packaged Supplements
It’s important to focus on whole foods for recovery vs. supplements because the micronutrients in the foods can also be important factors for recovery and injury prevention. Some of these micronutrients include: 

  • Vitamin D
  • Calcium
  • Potassium
  • Fiber
  • Magnesium
  • B12
  • Iron

To know more specifically how much carbohydrate, protein and fluid your athlete needs for optimal recovery after long intense games or tournaments. meet with a registered sports dietitian who can create recommendations unique to your athlete.
 

FOOD/DRINK PROTEIN CARBOHYDRATE FLUID
Chocolate milk milk milk & chocolate milk
Turkey wrap + water turkey tortilla water
Smoothie milk fruit (fresh or frozen) & milk ice, milk & fruit
Peanut butter toast + milk peanut butter & milk toast & milk milk
Yogurt + granola + water yogurt granola + yogurt water + yogurt
Granola bar + string cheese + sports drink string cheese granola bar sports drink
Dried edamame + fruit + water edamame fruit & edamame water & fruit
Dyslexia – The Evaluation Process

Dyslexia – The Evaluation Process

by | Sep 16, 2020 | Dyslexia & Learning Disorders

At our Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders, our team is committed to helping parents and children understand the entire evaluation process. From arriving at our Dallas campus to your child going through testing and what happens once that is complete, we want to share with you what you can expect every step of the way. Learn more below.
 
The process

  • Parents/guardians apply for our services. Click here for the online application or call 214-559-7815 to have a copy mailed or emailed to you.
  • As part of the application, parents will send in educational information (report cards, benchmark measures, previous testing). We want to ensure we can integrate all previous pieces to get a good idea of what your child needs.
  • A few weeks after your application is approved, you will receive a packet of parent and teacher questionnaires in the mail. Once you complete all of these pieces, return them to us. We will schedule your child for evaluation soon after you return everything requested.

 
Day of evaluation – what can my child expect?

  • Upon arrival, you and your child will have your temperatures taken. Please make sure you are both are wearing a mask. Our Security team will direct you to the A bank elevators and to the fourth floor. Once upstairs, you will follow the signs to the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders.
    • Just outside our doors, you will see the airplane mural. We firmly believe that each child has the potential to soar once we find the right path for them.
  • Each child will work with a team member who already knows a lot about them from the paperwork submitted beforehand.
  • Once in the testing setting, we have large safety glass partitions in place. At this time, we are able to remove our masks.
  • Testing will take two to four hours depending on your child’s age and academic needs. They will get a 10-15-minute break about halfway through.
  • While visiting with us for the first appointment, your child will also interact with our nurse. Nurse Marilyn will check their height, weight, vision and hearing – just like a school nurse.
  • During the second visit with us, which is currently online, we will visit with parents about all of your child’s hard work! We will discuss how to best support your child at home and at school. As a team, we will help determine what your child needs to make learning as friendly as possible.

 
What can parents expect?

  • Once we take your child back for their assessment, you will have between two and four hours in the waiting room.
  • The second appointment, which is currently provided online, is when you will do the work. We will ask you many questions to ensure we completely understand your child’s background and your current questions/concerns.
  • In the context of the second appointment (“Clinic Visit”), we will walk you through your child’s testing performance, as well as providing diagnoses and recommendations for next steps.
  • While visiting, we encourage you to ask questions. There can never be too many questions when it comes to your child and their needs.
  • You will receive a packet of information with helpful guides and a formal report to share with your child’s educators and whomever else might need to know more about how to support your child.
  • We encourage you to contact us if you have any questions along the way.

 
Learn more about the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders.
 

Understanding the Basics of Dyslexia

Understanding the Basics of Dyslexia

by | Sep 10, 2020 | Dyslexia & Learning Disorders

In 1965, the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders was established to help identify and treat children with various learning disorders. As pioneers in the field, the center has developed curriculum that is used across the country – helping children everywhere. As a condition that impacts 10-15% of individuals, it is important to understand the basics of dyslexia. Learn more below. Dyslexia Defined Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurological in origin. The condition can best be described as an unexpected difficulty learning to read. Children with dyslexia struggle with phonology, or the recognition and manipulation of sounds in language. Dyslexia affects a child’s ability to decode words — to break them down into constituent sounds, or phonemes, and then to sound out novel words. That makes it hard to recognize words, to retrieve words, to read, to write and to spell. Some children with dyslexia just have problems quickly retrieving words. The result is a discrepancy between ability and achievement: a child who is struggling with reading despite having the intelligence to be a much better reader. Children identified with dyslexia do not necessarily have failing grades in school. However, because of their learning disability, they often struggle with reading, despite exerting a great deal of time and effort. Students with dyslexia often find it difficult to keep up with academic expectations around third grade when reading fluency (reading quickly, easily and automatically) is an expectation and can impact other areas of learning. While they may learn to read and compensate for reading weakness in other ways, children do not outgrow dyslexia. Dyslexia is Not: 
  • reading and writing letters backwards.
  • a vision problem.
  • due to lack of intelligence.
  • because the child doesn’t work hard or lazy.
  • caused by a lack of reading at home.
  • extremely rare.
What Happens in Dyslexia?
  • Most kids begin learning to read by learning how speech sounds make up words (phonemic awareness) and then connecting those sounds to alphabet letters (phonics).
    • They then learn how to blend those sounds into words and, eventually, they can recognize words they’ve seen many times before.
  • Kids with dyslexia have trouble with phonemic awareness and phonics. Reading doesn’t become automatic and stays slow and labored.
  • When a child struggles with these beginning steps in reading, comprehension may suffer and the child may experience frustration.
  • A common assumption about dyslexia is that letters or words appear reversed — that “was” appears like “saw.”
    • This type of problem can be a part of dyslexia, but reversals are very common among children through first or second grade, not just children with dyslexia.
  • The major problem for kids with dyslexia is in phonemic awareness, phonics and rapid word recognition.
Tips for Parents Can a parent or guardian request an evaluation? Yes. A parent/guardian may request to have his/her child evaluated for dyslexia and related disorders by staff at the school district or open-enrollment charter school. The identification and intervention process for dyslexia involve both state and federal requirements that must be followed. The evaluation, identification and provision of services for students with dyslexia are guided by either the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 depending on the data and the student’s individual needs. These two federal laws established the assessment and evaluation standards and procedures for students. A team of persons knowledgeable about the student, instructional practices and possible service options meets to discuss data collected and the instructional implications of that data. These individuals include, but are not limited to, the classroom teacher, administrator, dyslexia specialist and/or interventionist. This team may also include the parents and/or a diagnostician familiar with testing and interpreting evaluation results. If the school district has data to support refusal of the parent/guardian request, the procedural protections of IDEA and/or Section 504 must be followed. Parents or guardians must be given notice of their rights under Section 504 or IDEA with prior written notice of the decision. Also, the school district may provide the student with additional support in the classroom or through the Response to Intervention (RTI) process. Must a student fail a class or subject before being recommended for evaluation for dyslexia?  No. A student does not need to fail a class or subject, or fail the state-required assessment, in order to be referred for a dyslexia evaluation. According to TEC §38.003, which requires students to be screened or tested, as appropriate, for dyslexia and related disorders at appropriate times. Screening must occur at the end of the school year of each student in kindergarten and each student in the first grade. The appropriate time to possibly evaluate a child depends upon multiple factors, including the student’s reading performance, reading difficulties, poor response to supplemental, scientifically based reading instruction, teacher’s input and input from the parents/guardians. To the extent these factors give rise to the suspicion of a disability and possibly a corresponding need for special education services and/or accommodations, the student must be referred in accord with the relevant body of federal law (Section 504 or IDEA). Learn more about our Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia and Learning Disorders.
SAFE Program

SAFE Program

by | Sep 9, 2020 | Sports Medicine

As experts in caring for young athletes, our Sports Medicine team at Scottish Rite for Children is focused on providing tips and tools for kids to stay healthy – before they might need us. Sometimes the best way to learn how injuries occur is to evaluate children and young athletes who are not injured. Towards this effort, the Movement Science Lab in Frisco is leading a research initiative called the SAFE Program. The Specialized Athlete Functional Evaluation is a project which invites sports teams of all skill levels and ages to perform a variety of sports-related and other tasks to assess balance, mobility, agility and strength.

The Purpose
Sports specialization occurs when an athlete focuses on only one sport, year-round. More than ever, young athletes are concentrating on a single sport, which has resulted in an increase of overuse injuries due to a lack of variation in their training and no real off-season. Data collected from the SAFE Program will be a great resource to help our team identify who might be at the greatest risk of injury. 

The Process
Through the SAFE Program, healthy athletes go through a series of performance tests that evaluate their strength, speed, agility and flexibility. In addition, the Movement Science team uses high-speed motion capture to analyze each athlete’s motion during dynamic movements, such as running and jumping, and sport-specific tasks based on their primary sport, like penalty kicks, layups or back handsprings. Small reflective markers are placed on the athlete’s body during this motion analysis testing help our team accurately measure how each joint moves in 3D. 

One of the most important aspects of the SAFE program is injury surveillance. Each athlete receives a monthly survey asking if they have sustained an injury in the previous month. If so, they are asked follow-up questions regarding details about where and how the injury occurred. Athletes who are interested may come back for a second round of testing after six months or a year. This will provide our team the opportunity to analyze changes in performance due to growth, improvement or an injury.

The Goal
The SAFE program will allow the Movement Science team to create a database of assessments in hundreds of athletes across all ages, sports and skill level. Then, injury surveillance after SAFE testing will provide our experts with additional information to see if any of the movement or performance measures could potentially point to a future injury. Ultimately, the goal is to create an injury prevention program, using these same SAFE tests, that can provide athletes with an individualized, comprehensive performance report which includes an injury risk assessment.  

Leader of the project and assistant director of the Movement Science Lab in Frisco, Sophia Ulman, Ph.D., is excited to see this initiative come to life. “I have a passion for sports and the SAFE Program is a project that can really make an impact in the lives of young athletes,” says Ulman. “Although we are still in the data collection phase, once we have enough information, we hope to be a resource for our highly athletic community. We want to be a go-to center for young athletes – before, during and after an injury. This program will eventually allow us to provide injury prevention assessments, help determine injury risk and interpret prevention strategies – helping athletes stay safe and in the game.”

To learn more about Movement Science, please call 469-515-7160 or email [email protected].

Pre-Exercise Fuel for Morning Training Sessions

Pre-Exercise Fuel for Morning Training Sessions

by | Sep 3, 2020 | Sports Medicine

Many athletes avoid eating anything before early morning practices. This may leave them feeling slow and tired during practice and not eating anything until lunch, causing them to miss out on two key meals for the day: the pre-training meal and the recovery meal. The good news is that the stomach can be trained and there are ways to make sure the young athlete is not running on empty for that early morning practice.  
 
For the athlete just getting started with early morning fuel or who jumps out of bed and is at practice in 30 minutes, try small amounts of very simple carbohydrate foods to prevent upset stomach & cramping during practice.

Examples include:

  • 4 to 8 ounces of juice
  • 4 to 8 ounces of sports drink
  • 1 small or 1/2 a large banana
  • Dried fruit (raisins, mango, apples, pineapple)
  • Slice of white toast or mini white bagel topped with thin spread of jam or honey
  • Snack-size baggie of low-fiber, low-fat dry cereal
    • Try to keep amount of fiber & fat per serving as low as possible (example: choose Cheerios vs. granola)
  • Fruit leather
  • Low fiber, low fat granola bars
  • Handful of pretzels

4 Key Points to Remember:

  1. As the athlete becomes used to these foods or drinks before practice, portions can be increased and a little more variety can be added, which will provide more energy for a longer period of time during his / her training session.
  2. If more time is allowed between the pre-training meal and the training session, then a little more food may be eaten.
  3. Different athletes may also be able to tolerate different foods because their training sessions are different. A football or baseball player may be able to tolerate a little more protein during the pre-training meal, whereas an endurance runner or sprinter will most likely want to limit protein and focus completely on easily digested carbohydrates.
  4. For the athlete that still has trouble with this pre-training meal, remember that the meal the night before can be helpful. Include a balanced dinner and, if dinner was early, include a bedtime snack with quality carbohydrate and some protein so that the athlete will not have to rely entirely on the morning fuel to carry him or her through training.