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7 Essential Considerations When Buying Furniture For A Mental Health Facility

There are many organisations, businesses, and facilities where the responsibility for purchasing commercial furniture for the use of those within them falls upon one or more individuals.

When that furniture is being bought for use in a mental health facility, there is a lot more to be considered than just seat fabric, colours, and how many drawers there might be in a desk.

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Dental Implant Surgery Recovery Timeline

If you are considering dental implants or have already decided they are the best option for replacing missing or damaged teeth, you must understand what the procedures entail from start to finish.

By negative, we mean elements such as the minor side effects that occur after surgery, or the recovery process, which is not something that will happen within 24 hours.

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How Speech Pathology Experts Use Nursery Rhymes To Develop A Child’s Language Skills

Most of us can still recite a nursery rhyme or two from childhood, word for word.

That is no accident. The rhythm, rhyme and repetition that make these little songs so catchy are the same things that help young children learn to talk.

Speech pathologists often use nursery rhymes in therapy, and parents can use them at home without any special equipment.

In Perth, Kid Speak uses play-based activities like songs and rhymes in its early intervention work with young children.

Here is how nursery rhymes help, and how to get the most out of them.

Why rhymes work so well for young children

Young children learn language by hearing it over and over, in ways that are easy to follow.

Nursery rhymes are short. They repeat the same words and patterns. And they usually come with a tune, actions or both.

All of that makes them easier for a child to remember and join in with. Once a child knows a rhyme well, they can start filling in the missing words, which is a big step in learning to talk.

The Healthdirect guide to speech development in children explains the milestones most children reach in the early years.

They build listening skills

Before children can say sounds clearly, they need to hear them clearly.

Rhymes draw attention to the sounds in words. When a child hears “Jack and Jill went up the hill”, they are tuning in to the “ill” sound in both words.

This skill, called phonological awareness, is an important building block for both speech and later reading.

They are repetitive

Children often want the same rhyme again and again. That can test a parent’s patience, but it is exactly what helps.

Every repeat is another chance to hear the words, practise saying them and connect them to their meaning.

“This Little Piggy” repeats the same phrase on every toe. “The Wheels on the Bus” repeats each line several times before moving on.

They teach new words

Nursery rhymes are packed with words children may not hear in everyday chat.

Words like “spout”, “fetch” and “tumble” come up in rhymes long before they come up at the dinner table.

Talking about the pictures in a rhyme book helps children connect these new words to what they mean.

They link words to actions

Many rhymes have actions. “Itsy Bitsy Spider” has fingers climbing up. “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” has rocking back and forth.

Actions help children understand verbs and follow along before they can say all the words.

For children who are not yet talking much, doing the actions is a great way to join in. It is communication, even without words.

They practise speech sounds

Rhymes are full of sounds that young children are learning.

“Old MacDonald” is a favourite with speech pathologists for good reason. The animal noises let children practise simple sounds like “moo”, “baa” and “oink” in a fun, low-pressure way.

Children who find certain sounds tricky can practise them over and over without it feeling like work.

They build social and turn-taking skills

Singing together is a social activity.

Children learn to wait their turn, take part in a group and share attention with an adult. These skills lay the groundwork for conversation later on.

Rhymes like “Wheels on the Bus” also let children choose what comes next, such as which part of the bus to sing about. Making choices gives them a reason to communicate.

They support early literacy and numeracy

Rhyming skills are closely linked to learning to read. Children who can hear and play with rhymes often find it easier to link sounds to letters later.

Counting rhymes like “Five Little Ducks” and “One, Two, Buckle My Shoe” also introduce numbers in a way that sticks.

Raising Children Network has plenty of ideas for reading, singing and playing with words at home.

Choosing rhymes for your child’s age

Babies love simple, bouncy rhymes with touch, like “Round and Round the Garden” or “Pat-a-Cake”. At this stage, it is all about rhythm, closeness and enjoying sounds together.

Toddlers enjoy rhymes with big actions and animal noises. “Old MacDonald”, “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes” and “Incy Wincy Spider” keep little bodies moving while they listen.

Preschoolers are ready for longer rhymes and stories in verse. They can start spotting words that rhyme, making up silly rhymes of their own and counting along with number songs.

There is no strict rule here. Follow your child’s lead and choose rhymes they enjoy, because enjoyment is what keeps them coming back for more.

Tips for using rhymes at home

You don’t need to be a good singer. Your child won’t mind.

A few simple ideas:

  • pause before the last word of a line and let your child fill it in
  • slow down so your child can keep up
  • use the same rhyme at the same time each day, such as bath time or in the car
  • add actions, and let your child lead them sometimes
  • swap in your child’s name or favourite things to make it personal

Keep it light and playful. If your child loses interest, stop and come back to it later.

When to seek extra help

Rhymes are a great everyday tool, but they are not a substitute for professional help if you have concerns.

It is worth speaking to a speech pathologist if your child:

  • isn’t babbling by around 12 months
  • has very few words by around 18 months
  • isn’t putting two words together by around two years
  • is hard for family to understand by around three years

Every child develops at their own pace, so these are rough guides only. If something doesn’t feel right, trust your instincts and ask.

Make it part of your day

The best thing about nursery rhymes is that they fit into ordinary life.

A few minutes of singing in the car, at bath time or before bed adds up. Your child gets more chances to listen, copy and talk, and you get some fun time together too.

Over weeks and months, those small moments add up to a real difference in how your child listens, talks and plays with words.

SEO vs. PPC: Which is Better for Marketing Your Nutrition Coaching Services?

Hey there, nutrition coaches. We get it — you’re here because you want to take your marketing to the next level.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) vs Pay Per Click (PPC) — we’re pitting two of the most powerful marketing strategies against one another. If you’re a small business, and these two acronyms sound like gibberish, don’t worry.

We’re going to break it down so you know exactly which strategy to choose, and how to ensure it amplifies your marketing efforts — from the moment you hit GO.

Back in 2022, our SEO agency was working with Alex, an amazing nutrition coach based in Atlanta. Alex was a pro at what she did. She had a very small number of clients, but they were raving about getting insane results! However, there was a problem. All of Alex’s attempts at marketing were costing her big bucks, yet still falling flat.

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Why is Sofa Cleaning Important For Your Health

Your sofa serves several purposes. From your popular sleepovers to chilled family movie nights or hosting your guests, it indeed holds your daily life together. Since you have regular contact with it, hygiene automatically becomes essential.

Why?

First off, it harbors dirt over time and becomes unhealthy. So, when cleaning your carpet, don’t forget your upholstery also needs care!

You should keep your furniture and couch clean for several health reasons. Let’s explore these reasons.

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Coping with the Loss of a Parent: Grief and Finding Strength

Losing a parent is an inevitable part of life for many of us. It’s a profound and personal experience that each person navigates in their own way. While the inevitability of losing a parent is known, the actual experience of it can be shockingly painful and disorienting.

The Emotional Rollercoaster of Losing a Parent

Grief is a deeply personal and varied experience. There’s no ‘correct’ way to process the loss of a parent. As you journey through grief, you may encounter a myriad of intense emotions, often confusing and overwhelming:

  • Numbness and Emptiness: Feeling numb or unable to cry is not uncommon. This doesn’t mean you’re indifferent; it could be your mind’s way of processing the shock or shielding you from a deluge of emotions.
  • Profound Sadness and Despair: It’s natural to feel engulfed by sadness, often with the belief that you’ll never come to terms with your loss.
  • Sleep and Appetite Disturbances: Grief can disrupt your standard sleep patterns and eating habits, leading to insomnia or a change in appetite.
  • Vulnerability and a Sense of Regression: The loss can leave you feeling vulnerable, almost childlike, as you grapple with the absence of a pivotal figure in your life.
  • Strained Family Dynamics: Relationships within your family may become tense as each member processes grief differently, sometimes leading to conflicts.

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Speech Therapy Terminology And What It All Means

To most people, the terminology and jargon within medical niches can be confusing, and that applies as equally to speech therapy as it does any other. This can be incredibly frustrating for the parents of children with speech and language difficulties as sometimes they struggle to fully comprehend what speech therapists explain about their child’s problems.

We are not suggesting that those who work within speech therapy deliberately try to confuse parents. They are likely to use words and phrases that they almost take for granted, given that they use them daily. In addition, we are sure most speech pathologists try to explain the terminology they use to parents.

Nevertheless, that may not always be the case. Additionally, when parents read subject matter relating to their child’s language issues, they might encounter several words they do not fully understand. So, we thought it would be helpful if we went through some of the more common terminology used within speech therapy and gave you a short explanation of what it all means.

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5 Health Benefits Of Hiring Professional Removalists For Your Home Move

There are several reasons why hiring a professional removalist company to assist you with a house move makes perfect sense.

Those reasons include not having to hire a van yourself, not having to pack that van, the convenience of letting them do most of the work for you, and, in many cases, it can be more financially viable to pay them a fee for the complete set of services they provide rather than making individual payments for different services to several companies.

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The 8 Worst of the Worst Skincare & Beauty Toxins

Did you know that over 10 250 known industrial chemicals are used in beauty products, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins & hormone disruptors? Chemicals like plasticisers that keep concrete soft, surfactants that reduce tension in paint & degreasers that remove grime from car parts are found in your beauty products! Scary huh?

So what can we do about it?

Head to the bathroom & pull out all your hair, face, skin, body, & makeup products & scrutinise all the ingredients – look out for these eight commonly found toxic chemicals – & throw them out!

1. Mineral Oil
She is also known as petroleum, paraffin oil, liquid, or white mineral oil. Used in shampoos, cleansers, body lotions, lipsticks & foundations, and mineral oils will not only cause skin irritations but are contaminated with polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, which cause cancer.

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7 Reasons Why Laser Eye Surgery Is A Better Option Than Contact Lenses

One decision that many people who need glasses take, especially those who dislike wearing glasses, is to switch to wearing use contact lenses instead; however, one question this raises is whether going a stage further to laser eye surgery would be better still. Contact lenses are a hugely popular means of correcting vision, and anyone who has made the switch to them from glasses is usually delighted they have done so.

It might be they switched from wearing glasses to wearing contact lenses for practical reasons, such as their glasses regularly getting broken. Alternatively, it could have been the perfectly valid reason that they feel more confident and even more attractive by not having to wear glasses. Now that they are wearing contact lenses, no doubt most contact lens wearers believe there are more positives to wearing them than negatives, especially when compared to wearing glasses.

If we take that thought process further and compare the advantages of laser eye surgery to those of contact lenses, the former soon becomes an even better option for those who need corrected vision, be they currently wearing glasses or contact lenses. Also, laser eye surgery overcomes many negatives of contact lenses. To outline that further, here are seven of those negatives which highlight reasons why laser eye surgery is usually a better choice than contact lenses.

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4 Ways Your Health Food Store Can Benefit From Marketing On Social Media

If you have used or tried to use digital marketing as a means to promote and grow your health food store’s revenue, then we hope social media as part of your strategy. The reason we say that comes from the advice from digital marketing experts, who advise their clients that social media can provide a huge impetus to an online marketing campaign and long-term benefits to any business that uses it.

One of the first things we need to do is clarify exactly what we mean by social media. For those who do not follow social media too much, the assumption is often made that it is just Facebook, but that would be wrong. While Facebook is the largest social media platform by some distance, it would be a huge mistake to focus only on it.

There are dozens more, and the key to choosing which ones to use within your digital marketing strategy is not so much which ones are the biggest, but more specifically, who their audiences are. You also need to consider that different types of content are used on each social media site. Pinterest and Instagram are mainly photographs; YouTube is primarily videos; and Twitter and Facebook use text but also have images and videos.

So, with the basics out of the way, let us look at 4 ways social media can benefit your health food store.

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7 Common Excuses For Not Entering Drug Rehab And How To Overcome Them

For anyone who has a drug addiction the decision to enter a drug rehabilitation program is a positive one, but not one that every drugs user makes enthusiastically.

Often it will be their partner, family, or even their doctor who implores them to seek help, and may even give them an ultimatum in that regard.

Whether they are considering a local center or an international option like Sivana Bali, a drug rehab in Bali, the initial resistance can be intense.

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5 Key Facts About Dental Implants You Should Know

It is no secret that the more a person knows about a medical condition or treatment, the more at ease they are.

Not knowing everything about something often causes worry rather than the medical procedure.

With that in mind, we thought it would be helpful to provide some of the core information relating to dental implants, and if it means just one person reading this has one of their concerns about dental implants put aside, then it will have been worth it.

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How Your Lifestyle Choices Can Positively Or Negatively Impact Your Oral Health

Whenever dentists are speaking to their patients about oral health and some of the issues an individual patient might be having concerning the health of their gums and teeth, one of the contributory factors for those issues is the lifestyle that person is following.

The choices you make within your daily life can certainly have both a positive and a negative impact on your oral health.

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Most Commonly Asked Questions About Laser Eye Surgery

Insight Eye Clinic perform laser eye surgery or ocular surgery, which is  a refractive surgery on your eyes to correct astigmatism, hyperopia, and myopia. As straightforward as it is for those performing it, it can be a big decision to make for someone who is thinking about getting it.

If you’re unsure whether laser eye surgery is for you or you’re about to visit a clinic to find out more, here are some of the questions you may like to have the answers to beforehand.

Does Laser Eye Surgery Hurt?

This is perhaps one of the most commonly asked questions about laser eye surgery – whether or not it hurts. The procedure itself is mostly pain-free because anaesthetic drops are given to the patient before the procedure.

However, in the early stages of healing post-surgery, some people do experience some discomfort. The level of pain you experience can also depend on the type of surgery. Most people will be able to enjoy their new, pain-free eyesight in a matter of days.

How Long Does Laser Eye Surgery Take?

No one wants to be sitting in a surgical environment for any longer than they have to. Therefore, it’s only natural to want to find out how long laser eye surgery takes. The timeframe can depend on the severity of the issue, the prescription’s complexity, and a few other factors like technology and the surgeon.

In most cases, you will be in and out of surgery in half an hour or less. The actual procedure may also only take mere minutes.

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What You Need To Know About Root Canal Treatment

Root canal treatment is one type of dental treatment that seems to mystify those who have never had to undergo it.

Because they normally hear of dental issues that refer only to teeth and gums, when a root canal enters the discussion, many people are unaware of what a root canal is, let alone what its treatment might be.

So, in this article, our dentists outline the most important facts you should know about root canal treatment.

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8 Common Causes Of Missing Teeth In Adults

If you were to ask 100 dentists to give a reason why teeth might fall out, the vast majority of answers are likely to be related to patients not taking care of their teeth properly. Whilst these id certainly one of the primary causes of teeth falling out, you might be surprised to learn that there are many, many more. We cannot list every single one of them, but to get you started, here are 8 common causes of tooth loss in adults.

Bone Deterioration: Obviously, we are speaking here about the jawbone in which your teeth would normally be strongly secured when it is healthy. However, if your jawbone’s density starts to deteriorate, which can happen for a number of health reasons, then your teeth can become loose, making them, more prone to falling out.

Not Flossing: Dentists often hear patients strenuously claim that they brush their teeth regularly, however, despite what you might think, brushing is normally not enough. In addition, you should be flossing as this will remove any stubborn fragments of food which brushing misses, plus flossing removes dental plaque, which attacks the gums, and damaged gums can mean loose teeth.

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3 Strategies That Can Boost Your Retirement Savings

If you are aged in your 20s, 30s, or even your 40s, the idea of retiring might be something which seems like some distant event, but if you ask anyone who is close to retirement age, they will tell that it comes around a lot sooner than you ever expect.

Worse than that, if you or your financial planners have not done any financial planning to maximise your retirement income, then you could find yourself in a worrisome situation with regards to your finances after you retire.

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Aquafaba is the new Egg White

Ever heard of aquafaba?!? No, it’s not the Swedish entrant for Eurovision 2017 but it is gaining huge popularity as an egg substitute. So what is it? Aquafaba is chickpea brine which can be used raw to make cakes, meringues, baked macaroons & pavlovas. Three tablespoons of the liquid from either cooked raw chickpeas or from the can is the equivalent of one egg.

Not convinced you could make culinary delights with the waste from a chickpea can? The #aquafaba hashtag on Instagram has thousands of recipes using chickpea brine. The reason why it works so well is that the brine has a similar consistency to egg white.

Aquafaba was first ‘discovered’ by a French Chef (Joel Roessel) in 2014 who found that the brine from canned beans & other vegetables could be made into foams. Blogging his discovery & recipes to the world, the cooking technique took off & the term aquafaba was first used in March 2015 by Goose Wohlt to provide a common name for the cooking liquid. (aquafaba is Latin for bean water).

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