Once signed by the governor, Missouri Senate Bill 159 will give patients greater access to physical therapy at a lower cost. The Missouri APTA Chapter has been working on pushing this bill through for two years. Great job! Learn more here. 

May is Better Hearing and Speech Month. Take a few minutes to educate yourself about different communication disorders and the services speech-language pathologists and audiologists provide. Here's some information on school-based SLPs. You can also follow the #BHSM hashtag on Twitter for more. 

And finally, this week is Nurses Week. On behalf of everyone here at WebPT, we'd like to thank all the hard working, caring nurses out there. Thank you for all that you do!

Of course, these are just a few news stories making the rounds this week. You can also find us on Facebook for more PT, OT, and SLP news and updates.

Spend just a few minutes on Pinterest and you’ll discover a plethora of fun and out-of-the-box PT, OT, and SLP activities—especially for kids. Finding environmentally-friendly (and more grown-up) therapeutic exercises might prove a bit more challenging. With that in mind, here are three environmentally-friendly activities for all ages:

1.) Gardening
Gardening empowers people to create something beautiful, while increasing plant life in their community (and attracting lovely butterflies, ladybugs, and hummingbirds). Even better, planting vegetables and herbs encourage healthy, natural eating.

 Gardening strengthens nearly all of the muscles of the body with the movements involved in planting, weeding, and maintaining. It’s fantastic exercise that many people don’t view as such. Plus, the use of tools provides hand therapy, and the different visual, tactile, and olfactory sensations involved with gardening can assist with occupational therapy. There are also these benefits as noted in a press release from Conshohocken Physical Therapy: 

• Gardening burns approximately 272 calories per hour (translation: a grande cafe latte from Starbucks).
• Outdoor gardening provides exposure to vitamin D, which is vital for bone strength. (Just make sure patients slather on the sunscreen before gardening and at regular intervals. Also, some plants need partial or full shade, so mix those in so patients get shade, too.)

Before you assign your patients gardening (which if you have a yard at your clinic, you could have your patients do there), check out these PT pointers and ergonomic tips to ensure your patients’ gardening is truly therapeutic. Also, consider these pre- and post-gardening stretches.