One of my favorite things about writing a blog, is the people I meet through my posts. Last week I blogged about some artists I met through our local Art Trail, a tour of artist’s studios. One of the artists I met, learned that I was a speech pathologist, and wrote me the following:
Hi Sherry,
What a wonderful website! Interestingly, my middle child (who is now 15) was speech delayed. His motor skills and spacial awareness was very developed though at an early age. I was able to take advantage of Birth to Three’s services, which were very helpful. I am sure that the info on your site proves to be a great resource with parents faced with these issues. (fast forward 13 years: My son Ryan is a straight A student…..and is in the high school math club with a boy who shared speech pathologist sessions with him…..This boy was the national scrabble champion when he was a middle schooler!)
Sometimes it’s good to hear about what happens on the other side of therapy. Does anyone else have some encouraging words to share with parents who are just starting the process of speech and language therapy with their child?
I try to share my challenges and successes in therapy so others can learn from them. As we know, as parents and therapists we have good days and bad days. A good day for me is when a child I am working with shows wonderful progress on his or her goals.
Yesterday I was working with a 4 year-old boy on the Autism spectrum. He is suddenly blossoming in his creative play. Just last summer he was starting to use a little representational person and talk for it following much modeling. During our session yesterday he took his shark (he loves sharks) and took it though nine scenarios, using props to illustrate his story. Our sharks got up and had breakfast (oatmeal and chocolate milk), went to the museum, the beach where we skipped stones in the water (threw Play-doh balls on the floor and counted our skips), piled into a bus and went to Taekwondo (that was a first for me—taking a busload of sharks to exercise!), took a bath, watched a big TV and went to bed in their sleeping bags and Play-doh blankets. Play-doh and simple wooden blocks were our props. As this little boy advances in his play skills, I pick up a block and say, “What is this?” and he incorporates it into play.
I am collaborating with his other therapists and with what goes on at his preschool. When the kids at school are using the block center for pirates, then we reinforce that play theme during therapy, expanding and giving him more ideas to relate at class.
What play ideas have you found helpful when working with higher level kids on the autism spectrum? Share in the comments below.
As a speech language therapist or parent of a child with language disorders, we want to expand our child’s play, while following their interests.
The other day, I was playing with a little boy with the Fisher Price barn. After getting out the animals, feeding them, playing in the mud, and putting the farmer down for a nap, I started to make some hay out of Play-doh to feed the animals. My little play partner began piling it up in a nest for the chicken. As it got higher and higher, I commented that it was tall. Then he said, “Beanstalk.” So, following his lead, we made a beanstalk that was tall and had the animals climb up to the top to greet the rooster on the roof.
Research shows that when you follow a child’s lead in play and talk about it, they take in more language. You as the parent can suggest a little change in the action, (like make some food for your people or animals) and then sit back and watch your child adapt the story to take in the food. If you child needs more modeling in play, go ahead, but step back when they can start to lead the play.
I just got a note from Marshalla Speech and Language, pointing me to Pam Marshalla’s new free videos on YouTube, demonstrating her cues for consonants. She has developed a helpful system of hand cues to focus a child on placement of sounds. I watched her video and tried them out with a few of my 3 year-olds who keep confusing /k/ and /t/. They were helpful and the kids started to use the cues themselves! Try them out.
What cues do you find helpful in articulation therapy? Share with us in the comments below.
It’s time to put away the Halloween costumes and talk turkey, preparing for Thanksgiving. Preschools are busy painting feet and hands to provide the body for a feathered turkey, and using play doh for turkey feasts.
Today I was working with a 3 year-old on /k/ and /g/ and found a turkey to be the perfect thing to get him going with back placement of his tongue. This little guy loves to pretend play with small representational toys, such as the Fisher Price little people, so he started out on a trip to the camping grounds for a picnic and we decided to make turkeys out of play doh. Taking a cooler on our picnic of turkey and gravy offered many opportunities to practice /k/ and /g/.
Max and Ruby were waiting for the feast as we rolled out the dough and used our turkey cookie cutter to make the picnic.
Today I was called in to consult on a little 2 year-old girl who has been receiving services from a Birth-3 provider. I usually ask parents to have all the reports and current goals for me to get an idea of the background on their child. Once again, a child had been labelled “apraxia” and the parents wanted to know what I thought. Personally, I have seen very few children who truly have apraxia in the 35 years that I have been in practice. I have seen many that initially I thought had motor planning difficulties but they settled into therapy and began to show progress and were eventually dismissed.
This little girl was using some 3 word sentences, imitating what I was saying and also had the advantage of just getting tubes put in her ears a few weeks earlier. The parents noticed a dramatic improvement in her speech and ability to imitate. Fluid in the ears and temporary hearing loss can contribute to slow progress and a need for medical intervention.
I gave the parents several suggestions for how they were to respond and talk to their child–not a lot of questions or requests for her to say words, but modelling the words and phrases for her, turn off background music and tapes during your talking play time and talk in 2-3 word phrases during your play time. I offered some suggestions for therapy as well as increasing her frequency of sessions. I am careful not to be invasive when recommending ideas to other therapists because I know that they are doing their best and usually a very good job as in this case. But, sometimes it is helpful to take a step back and view the child through different eyes.
As a speech therapist, we have to be flexible and follow the child’s lead and interests even on the best planned day.
Yesterday, I carried two stuffed bags of toys into the home of 3 year-old Duncan. I had printed out pictures of /k/ words for articulation therapy. I thought he would enjoy cutting and pasting them on cards and loading and dumping them in my variety of trucks. Well, he took a liking to my Fisher Price garbage truck and before we could paste any pictures he was enjoying crumpling them up and loading up the truck, shutting the back to the crunching sound, and hauling them off to the dump!
I got so many responses to my naming the pictures, handing them to him, and his stuffing them in the garbage truck. Of course the pictures didn’t survive more than one session but that way okay. We did what Duncan wanted to do that day and he was full of language as a result!
I am working with a 5th grade student with a language disorder and she is studying the Civil War. I checked out a few books to use to work on her goals that I thought were interesting and helpful:
Allen Jay and the Underground Railroad by Marlene Targ Brill. This true story takes us back to 1842, when Allen Jay’s family becomes part of the Underground Railroad. This story can be used to teach inference as you question your student about “Why?” Allen’s father doesn’t want to know what he is doing or why the slave points a gun at him at their first meeting. Talk about what the risks and rewards were of helping a slave escape to freedom. In addition, here are some lesson plans from the National Geographic site.
When Harriet Met Sojourner by Catherine Clinton is the story of Harriet Tubman and Sojourner Truth and how their lives intersected. Every other page picks up the story of the two women whose life paths finally cross. You can use the book to make comparisons–how the women were alike and different–they both were given a new name by their masters, they both broke through to freedom, etc.–or talk about how they felt and why. Figurative language can be explained using such examples from the book as “So like the quilt she worked on, one square at a time, she pieced together her plans for running off to the North.” How are a quilt and plans alike?
In our search to understand the Underground Railroad, we found a wonderful site by National Geographic that puts you in the mind of a slave and asks you to make decisions based on risks and situations. Kids loved it!
Let me know any other resources you find helpful in teaching about the Civil War.,
My search for Halloween books that are simple, funny and have lots of language to discuss brought me to two more books that might be helpful to you.
Skeleton Hiccups by Margery Cuyler is a favorite as the skeleton goes through his day, waking up, taking a shower, brushing his teeth and polishing his bones, as his hiccups continue–hic, hic, hic. Each double page is so simple but there is plenty to talk about as his arm comes off while polishing or his jaw flies out as he brushes his teeth! Ghost helps out with several suggestions like drinking upside down and holding his breath. Finally, ghost reaches into his old trunk to get just the right thing to end the hiccups.
T. Rex Trick or Treats by Lois Grambling takes us through the tough process of T. Rex deciding on a Halloween costume. With lots of words in bold for pre-literacy such as EEK and SCARY, this book draws the kids into the story. The illustrations are cute, especially of his dream of being a bat or a black cat with whiskers taped to his nose!
I hope you all have your costumes picked out! Happy Halloween.
Recently, as I was looking on the internet for games to play with my kids on the autism spectrum, I came across autismgames.org, a wonderful site engineered by speech pathologist, Tahirih Bushey.
Her site and blog encourages parents and specialists to learn about how to use games to teach children on the autism spectrum. According to her website it includes:
- Games that will engage young children with ASD in play
- Videos of kids and families playing the games to model play and imitate
- Tips on how to make the play more fun and educational
