Speechy Sunday: Follow Your Students' Interests

So many of my elementary aged students love more than anything to tell me about their pets.  One little girl tells me about her rabbits before she even says hello to me on days I see her for speech!  So it seemed only natural to follow my students' interests and create a "Pet" unit for our literature-based speech-language therapy sessions.  For this unit, we read these 3 story books over and over: 




Harry the Dirty Dog by Gene Zion,
Stray Dog by Marc Simont, &
Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats

Each time we read the books, I teach specific vocabulary and concepts.  Here, I'm going to highlight the vocabulary and concepts I teach for the "Harry the Dirty Dog" book.

Key vocabulary:
except - but not
bury - to put in a hole and cover over with dirt
filthy - very dirty
changed - became different
recognize - to know who someone is
exhausted - very tired
expect - to think something will happen a certain way
disappointed - upset or sad that things didn't go how you expected
confused - not understanding
relieved - no longer upset, glad something stressful is over
comfortable - cozy
scrub - to wash by rubbing hard with a rag, sponge, or scrub brush

The first time I read this book with students, I often discuss the idea of changing from clean to filthy and back again, and create a craft illustrating the similarities and differences between clean Harry and filthy Harry.  For concepts, I like to point out the endings of these words:  dirty, dirtier, dirtiest-- and how "er" means more, and "est" means most.

The next time we read the book, I often encourage my students to create complex sentences using the sentence frame shown in the picture (ex:  He feels disappointed because he expected to go inside and eat dinner, but he can't.). 

The last time we read the book, I encourage my students to tell the story to me, using all of the vocabulary and concepts we've discussed throughout the times we've read the book already.  I take data on which vocabulary words, concepts, and complex sentence forms they can now use on their own.  I used to think that these types of story book activities worked only for "language" students, but I have to say that after using them this year with all of my clients, I will never do articulation sessions without a book to serve as a context for the words we are practicing again.  It takes some planning ahead, but is really useful for getting to spontaneous use of target words really quickly. 

This is also a great book for students on the autism spectrum, because it sets the stage to talk about different people's expectations, thoughts, and perspectives, and how they might be different depending on the situation.  In the book, Harry the dog gets so dirty while he is out playing that he changes from a white dog to a black dog.  Then, sadly, his family doesn't recognize him when he gets home.  Some good high-level questions to ask students include: 

 -Why is Harry disappointed when he gets home?  Because he expects to come home and eat dinner after playing all day. But instead, his family doesn't recognize him and won't invite him inside.
-Why don't they recognize him?  Because they expect him to be white.  But he is black.
-Why did Harry change colors?  Because he got so filthy.
-How did he get so filthy?  He played in filthy places. 
-Why did Harry want a bath at the end (when he hated baths so much at first)? Because he wanted his family to recognize him.
-Do you think Harry will ever get that filthy again?  (prediction-- maybe not, because he doesn't want to come home and not be recognized again!)

This book can be challenging for some students, especially students who are on the autism spectrum and might have difficulty considering other people's perspectives and thoughts.  But I have found that if I repeat the book enough times (3-4 times), my students understand the concepts by the end of the unit, and really enjoy being experts on the book by the last time we read it together.  I have also been blown away by the multisyllabic words that some of my articulation students begin pronouncing correctly after we practice them within the context of the story over and over.

our new little dog!

And funny story--the first week of this unit, as I was reading "Stray Dog" to my students, guess what I found?  My very own stray dog!   Who is now a wonderful member of the family!  So hooray for children's literature for planting a seed in my heart to have compassion on a little dog alone out in the world! 

What's your favorite book about pets?  (I also love "Hondo and Fabian" by Peter McCarty--a great book about a day in the life of a dog and a cat that my friend Dana gave Flanna one year.)

Wild Dogs

We've been spending a lot of time outdoors these days as summer is cooling off, and our once inside-all-the-time dogs are changing!  They've become a little more wild, a little more territorial, and tons happier!  They are so cute running around the yard, burrowing under logs and bushes, barking at everything that moves.  I'm not so sure it's a good thing as far as making friends with the neighbors!  But it's nice to see them so happy!

What are your pets' favorite activities?  Are you able to provide those experiences for them regularly?

A Snuggly Day

It's a small miracle!  Our little dog, Annie, is currently snuggled on the couch sleeping in Flannery's lap!   And they've been snuggling that way for over an hour now.  Flannery told me that her foot fell asleep, but she didn't want to move, because she loves snuggling with Annie so much.  How sweet!

Below are some pics of Flanna with the pups...note her "name" sweatshirt that my aunt and cousin made her.  She just loves it!

In other news, it's a snow day here!  Work and school were cancelled for everyone, and we're having a lazy day.  Poor Flanna's not feeling that well, but after she rests up a bit, we're hoping to brave the cold to make a "sleetman" (since it was more of a sleet storm than a snowstorm).    Such fun!



Who do you just love to snuggle with?

Pet a Pet

Have I mentioned I have the cutest dogs ever? Dogs are such a big part of our family. Their daily snuggles and snores add a cute and cozy element to our life. We gave Annie (our tiny black dog) a bath today, and it was so cute to see Flannery so gently pour water to rinse Annie without getting any in her eyes. As Flannery gets older, Annie and Padme (our brown dog) are letting her pet them and just generally be near them more. It's very sweet.


Today I'm praying for my friend Kelley, whose sweet dog Sandy has just had a tumor removed. They're waiting to see whether the tumor was benign or not. Send them good thoughts!



If you have a pet, what do you appreciate most about it?

The time when we went to the pet store and were sorely disappointed

So, apparently turtles are not for sale in NC. At all.

There was some salmonella outbreak traced back to a turtle, and so NC has banned the sale of all turtles in the whole state. The pet store owner we talked with today did show us everything we'd need to take care of a turtle, though, and assured us that they're just as safe as owning an iguana. But since iguanas have squinty eyes and do that strange thing with their necks, that really wasn't all that reassuring for me.

Plus, the CDC says kids younger than 5 should never ever have pet turtles. The picture above is from the CDC website, and I'm calling it, "Sad boy with salmonella." (Is that terrible?)

Anyway, so there goes that dream.

Thanks to those of you who commented about the idea, though! When Flanna's over 5 and we live in another state, maybe we'll revisit the possibility of having a pet turtle. What a shame, because I could see how turtles could be a great pet! I like the idea of them having to feel safe and comfortable before they'll interact with you...seems like a good way to teach kids to be gentle. But, I guess my dog running away and growling at Flanna if she's not gentle can also teach that lesson, hah!

In the meantime, we're talking about getting an aquarium. Flannery is just as excited about an aquarium as she was about the turtle. Thank goodness she's flexible, the sweet kiddo!

And my hubby's home now! Thank heavens! We missed him so much!






What have you had to be flexible about lately?