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.)

Speechy Sunday: Complex Sentences and Candyland!

A few weeks ago, I used a neat version of "Candyland" in my speech sessions, and it worked so well that I wanted to share it. 

Many of my students are working on learning to use complex sentences.  (Grammar review:  Complex sentences have a subordinate clause that can't stand alone.  For example, in "Because I was hungry, I ate lunch,"  the "Because I was hungry" part is the subordinate clause--it can't stand alone.  So, that sentence is complex.)  Many kiddos with speech/language disorders tend to stick with simple sentences to communicate, but it's hard to express complicated ideas using just simple sentences, so it's important to help them learn to use complex sentences. 

But back to the fun part. 

I love to play Candyland with my students, but I use the "fast version" of the game.  Did you know there's a fast version?  In the fast version, each player picks two cards on their turn, and then chooses which card to use to move forward on the board.  Also, there are NO "backsies," so if you choose a card that would send you backwards, you just choose again.  I like this version of the game because if you ask the children to tell you why they chose the higher card, they have to use a complex sentence.  (ex:  "I chose this card, because it will move me further.").  It also makes the game go more quickly so we can finish it in one 30 minute speech session.  Also, to give my students even more practice with complex sentences, I instituted a "Since" rule.  Before a student can move their game-piece, they have to say this sentence: 

"Since I got (two blues), I will move (two blues)." 

Most of my students are English Language Learners, and this long complex sentence can be a challenge, so I use a sentence frame visual aid for them.  You can see it in the photo above.  In just one 30-minute game, my students get to repeatedly practice two types of complex sentences in a real-life context--first when they choose which card to use (ex: "I choose the double green card, because it will move me farthest."), and then when they follow my "since" rule (ex:  "Since I got double green, I will move two greens."). 

If you play Candyland now and then with your students or children (or nieces, nephews, grandkids, neighbors, etc.), try the "fast version," and see if they know how to make the decision about which card is the better choice, and if they can tell you why.  It's great to teach decision-making and the concepts of less/more and distance.  Also, see if they can use these great complex sentences on their own, or if they need a model to use them.  And if they can't yet, don't worry--the more they imitate your well-formed sentences, the more they will learn to use them on their own. 


What's your favorite board game?

What the Speechie Wore Wednesday

Thursday:  Paperwork & Meetings Day

I have gotten into a fashion rut.  I seem to wear the same outfit--usually black or brown pants and a nice shirt-- to work every single day.  And because I'm only at each school I serve one day each week, sometimes I think I wear the same outfit every other Tuesday, and so my Tuesday school probably thinks I only own two outfits.  Umm, not good.

So, to hold myself accountable for getting out of my "black pants rut," I decided to do a "What I Wore Wednesday" post.  Here are some of my outfits from a week when I was trying to do better.  I only wore black pants once, yay!  I do notice that I feel better and more confident when I dress myself with a bit more thought. 

Friday:  Speech Therapy & Meetings Day (These don't count as black pants.  They're gray.  Very different.)

Saturday:  out for a walk

Sunday:  Church and cleaning day.  Excuse the blurry pics -- Flanna took several of them. :)

Monday:  Testing, Report Writing, and Meetings Day

Tuesday:  Speech Therapy and Testing Day

What about you?  Do you feel better when you "look better"?

Speechy Sunday: Valentine's Day Language and Literacy Activity

If you know me, you know that I'm a speech therapist, and that I really love working with kids.  On Sundays, I'm going to share some of my speech therapy tips and ideas.  Hope they're helpful!  

It's February!  Last month, in my speech sessions, I focused on a winter theme, and now I'm so excited that it's February, so I can start a Valentine's Day theme.  I usually anchor everything in my speech sessions for a month around one main book that we read over and over until my students know it inside and out.  It might seem like that would bore kids, but on the contrary--they love being able to tell me the story by the end of the month.  

This week, for Speechy Sunday, I want to share a Valentine's Day activity that will help you foster language and literacy with children.  You could use it with your students, children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, etc.  I think it's great fun!  Here's how it works.  

First, I find a story book about Valentine's Day that I enjoy (one that tells a story and isn't just a picture or rhyming book).  I chose "The Biggest Valentine Ever" by Steven Kroll, because I think it works for a large age range (and I work with kids ages 4 to 11 right now).  Other good options are "Mouse's First Valentine" by Lauren Thompson (for younger kids - ages 1 to 4, or kiddos with special needs) or "The Day it Rained Hearts" by Felicia Bond for preschool age up.  

Then, I read the book by myself first and try to find words in the book that I think my kiddos won't know.  I look for words in the text, or even add in some of my own if I don't see any good ones.  Next, I underline words I want to teach (yes, I actually write in my book so I won't forget!) and think about how I will quickly teach them as we read.  For "The Biggest Valentine Ever" book, I picked these vocabulary words:  

surprise, together, decorate, glare, create, satisfied, plan, cooperate, 

delighted, different, same, edge

After that, I think about questions I can embed into the story as I read.  Usually, I include easy questions like, "What's that?, Where's the mouse?, What are they doing?  How do they feel?" as well as harder questions like, "How is that different than before?, What just happened?  What do you think will happen next? and Why did he do that?"  If I write out my questions ahead of time and use post-its to put them on the exact pages I choose, I do a much better job of matching the right level of question to the right kiddo during my speech sessions (a.k.a. differentiating) than if I am trying to come up with questions on the fly.  

Next, I come up with 2-step directions to throw in for kids working on listening skills, and make a list of words that might be difficult to pronounce (often /r/ and /s/ words, depending on the students) for my articulation students so that I can embed articulation practice (working on certain speech sounds) into my session for them, as well.  (This is optional if your kiddo doesn't need help with following directions or articulation).

Finally, I find an engaging activity that goes with the story (a craft or game related to the story), and voila! I am ready for a month of speech language sessions anchored by a story.  

For this book, I chose to cut out hearts of all different sizes so that my students could glue them together to create a mouse-shaped valentine just like the boys in the story did.  (The first session, we'll create the Valentine by gluing the hearts together, and the next session, we'll decorate it with glitter and glue.) I tried this with my daughter first to see if we could fit the story and craft in one 30 minute session, and, hooray, we could.  Fun!  

If you try this activity, let me know how it goes!  I'd love to hear what words your kiddos learned from you and what questions they were able to answer with your help!

What great Valentine's Day activity do you like to do with the children in your life?  Link to it or tell me about it below!  (Also, if you'd like the list of questions and directions I used with this book, leave me a comment and I'll send it to you.)

Flanna's mouse Valentine.  Cute!

Just Add Music

Flanna's favorite artist right now--Lorde from New Zealand

Last Friday, I walked into a fourth grade classroom to pick up a student for speech therapy, and guess what?  The student did not want to come to speech.  Not even with temptations of all the fun we would have.  Not even with the mention of all the games we might play.  Not even with the possibility of earning iPad time.  Not even with his teacher threatening him with losing recess if he wouldn't go.  (I promise I wouldn't have let that happen!) He did not want to come to speech.  He did not want to, Sam I am. 

Somehow, magically, I coerced him into just walking with me for a few minutes in the hallway.  I used my handy dandy emotions thermometer (see below) and had him tell me how he was feeling.  Turns out he was "tired", he grumbled.  His morning had been rough.  He just wanted to go to sleep.

Well, I have a soft place in my heart for kids who like to sleep.  I myself wish sleep was a recognized hobby or competitive sport, because I would get the gold medal.

But back to my story.

TJ's Emotions & Energy Thermometer:
Print it, laminate it, and let kids use a dry erase
board to "check in" about their emotions/energy level.
If too high, help them use a self-calming strategy.
If too low, help them use an energizing strategy.
(Calm/relaxed is ideal.) 

On the back of my handy dandy emotions thermometer, I showed this fourth grader some ideas for how to "energize" himself a bit so that he could move his thermometer from "tired" up to "calm," so that he could get in gear for learning.  There are all kinds of energizing options like, "jump up and down, listen to music, go get some water, stretch," etc.  This kiddo picked "listen to music."  Luckily, I have iTunes radio on my cell phone.  My client requested his favorite song, which miraculously I found within a few seconds.  

The transformation was instant.  His face brightened.  He smiled and danced a little in his seat.  He sat up straight.  He completed his speech work without needing a single redirection.  What had been an exhausted, defiant, upset fourth grade boy, became Mr. Cooperative Student of the Year, just like that.

So, you've got a cranky kiddo?  Just add music.  You've got a grumbly 4th grader?  Just add music.  And hey, if you yourself are feeling overwhelmed and tired and heading home from work to pick up your child from childcare and trying to remember if you defrosted the chicken last night and feeling guilty that there is no way you're going to the PTA meeting tonight…well, maybe, just maybe, you can Just Add Music.   And let the moment be transformed.



What about you?  Do you find that adding music to your day makes it better?  And what's your favorite music right now?  

Build Quality of Life

One of my former clients passed away today. 

A sweet, spunky little bundle of energy who lit up a room with her laugh and her silly sense of humor.  She was only a year older than Flannery. 

I won't use her name here to protect her family's privacy.  But I have to say--this little kiddo was one of my favorites.  I know we're not supposed to have those.  But there are just some clients I really "click" with, and she was one of them.  She loved dress up, and playing pretend, and laying on her (amazingly good natured!) dog, and going outside in the rain.  She was working on using "am" in sentences, and would say, "I running, I winning!" until I prompted her to say, "I AM running, I AM winning!"...which was just never as much fun to shout, I think. 

One of the things I remember wanting to get out of our sessions, was helping her to play in a warm and successful way with her sister.  My hope was that by teaching them fun games to play together (that also gave my client practice using the language structures I targeted in therapy), we would not only help expand her language--we would also improve her quality of life.   It warms my heart to remember all the sweet times we spent together--my client, her sister, and me--making art projects, playing pretend, dressing up like princesses and movie stars, pretending to be powerful monsters or dinosaurs.  And we still focused on our speech goals--and made some good progress, I might add!  I remember that at times, her family would ask if I'd like some time to just work with my client alone without her sister.  But the look on my client's face when her sister walked in the room and sat down to play with us was worth a zillion checks of data showing mastery on language goals.  For those 30 minutes three times a week, we built more than grammatically correct sentences--we built quality of life. 

And what a quality of life she had.  A loving, strong family.  Friends and neighbors who would drop everything to help out if they needed a hand.  Classmates and teachers who loved her.  A medical team that tried everything to keep her illness at bay--a gazillion experts consulting on her case, progressive doctors leading a valiant fight, countless hospital stays with nurses who became like family, two bone marrow transplants, and who knows how many other procedures.  And throughout it all, there was always someone by her side--family members & friends rotating in and out to keep her feeling safe and loved. 

My life was broadened by knowing her.  My appreciation for all the little moments with my own family grew deeper as her situation reminded me not to take anything for granted.  Her strength amidst pain and unpredictability made me realize how small my own problems really were. 

And now, her death. 

It is horrible and dark and wrong.

It leaves such a wrenching in my heart, thinking of her parents, her sister, her grandparents, having to return home from the hospital without her.  Having to live out the rest of their lives, without her.

Such a separation must be unbearable.

But this.  This is why Jesus came to us.  To save us from this darkness, this chasm.  This separation from the ones we love who have died. 

He came to trample down death, by death.  He broke the chains that would have kept us apart with no hope of reunion. 

And this is important. 

In a time of political correctness and openness and tolerance, I admit that I hesitate to say that there remain a few absolutes.  But then I remember my grandmother's brave last words to her sister.  "I want to know that you all love Jesus, so I can see you in heaven one day."   When faced with death, my grandma's only fear was that her family might not know what was absolute. 

My client's family has exceptional trust that she is in heaven.  I have exceptional trust that they will see her again.  And in the meantime, I imagine, I try to really picture...an amazingly beautiful quality of life for her, as she gets to experience the fullness of a life finally without pain, finally without suffering. 



Who do you love to picture up in heaven, no longer suffering, but now perhaps praying to ease your suffering instead?  I am rather sure that my Grandma Norma has interceded for me many times in this life, and I also somehow feel a connection to my husband's grandfather "Pop."   And now, my sweet little client.  My sweet, sweet little client.  May her memory be eternal. 

Speechy Sunday - Mothers' Day Language Activity

I've been working on getting many of my speech students to use "descriptors" (adjectives) in speaking and writing, and for Mothers' Day, what better person to describe than their moms?  For students who don't live with their moms, they can describe their grandmothers, step-moms, foster-moms, or aunts (just modify the center to say the title of who they're describing).

For this flower card activity, I pre-cut the flower petals, stems, and leaves to save time.  I let the students choose 6 petals to put around the flower center.  They glued the stems first, then leaves, then the petals, then the center.  Next, they wrote, "My mom is..." (or "my grandmother is", etc., as applies) in the center of the flower.  On each petal, I had them come up with words to describe their moms or grandmothers.  We used brainstorming to come up with descriptors when kids got stuck and couldn't think of any.  For some kids who needed extra support, we flipped through the book "Quick as a Cricket," to see if any of the descriptors in that book would work for their moms.  After the card was finished, I had the students read or say the full sentence for each of their descriptors, such as, "My mom is...lovely.  My mom is...brave.  My mom is...determined." 

It was neat to see what words each student thought of first to describe their moms.  The most common descriptors were "nice" and "pretty."  I loved that some kids' moms were "silly," and "fun," as well.  I hope everyone enjoyed their cards. 




Happy Mothers' Day to all of you out there who mother!

Social Skills Activities

Our students brainstormed expected versus unexpected behaviors, and
how others think of us when we engage in unexpected behaviors.

This past school year, I've been using the Superflex Comic Book curriculum by Michelle Garcia Winner to focus on social skills topics with my students with autism and pragmatic language deficits.  The students have increased in confidence in their ability to monitor and modulate their emotions and energy level, to begin and maintain conversations, to participate in classroom discussions and collaborative projects, and to use appropriate body language and facial expressions in conversations with peers and adults.  I've had such fun with this curriculum, and I'm grateful to the Public School Foundation (who provided us with a grant to purchase these materials) for their generous support in helping the idea come to fruition.

The Unthinkables are "bad guys" who send our brain the ideas to behave in "unexpected" ways.  

Our students read about how the hero, "Superflex," uses strategies such as positive self-talk, calming deep breaths, thinking about what others are thinking about, and matching our reaction to the size of the problem, to defeat the Unthinkables.

Our students learned about each bad guy "Unthinkable," along with ways to defeat them.  They used calming strategies to reduce their emotion levels on the emotions thermometer from angry/exploding down to calm/cool. 

Our students figured out which calming strategies worked best for them when they were frustrated. 

Our students played egg-hunt games in which they used strategies to defeat the Unthinkables in each egg given a variety of situations.

Who has helped you meet your goals?

10 Ways I Used My iPad/iPhone This Week

As a busy mom and pediatric speech language pathologist, I can't imagine my life without my iPhone and iPad.  They make life easier for me in so many ways every day.  Here are just a few ways I put them to good use this week:

1.  iPhone "Clock" feature:  as a countdown timer that buzzes after 1 minute, to see how many perfectly enunciated /r/ loaded sentences a 5th grader could produce.  He loves trying to "beat" his own time in this type game.
2.  iPhone "Notes" feature:  to jot down 2 exciting blog post topics that popped into my head so I don't forget them immediately.    I also keep a shopping list in the notes section.
3.  iPhone "Maps" feature:  to find a shortcut from a daycare to a client's home when there was yucky traffic.
4.  iPhone Camera:  to record a "movie" that a student wrote about Michelle Garcia Winner's social skills superhero, "Superflex"
5.  iPad with Google Forms:  to record individual student data from a reading comprehension collaborative group.  The cool thing is that this Google form just asks me a few multiple choice questions and then uploads my responses into a spreadsheet that keeps track of the student's performance on each goal for each date.  This process is so exciting for organizing my therapy data that it deserves its own blog post.  (Let me just jot that idea into my iPhone notes section.  Done.)
6.  iPad Toy Story Book App:  to motivate a 3rd grader with autism to identify narrative structure elements and write them into a graphic organizer in complete sentences with punctuation and temporal markers.  Kids will write anything for me if I make it engaging enough.
7.  iPhone as a calculator:  several times each day to calculate accuracy percentages for my speech therapy clients during therapy.
8.  iPad Math Pop App:  to encourage two students with social skills goals to work together to solve problems and to take turns quickly and automatically.
9.  iPad Zoola Lite App:  as quick photo references of a variety of animals for a lesson in using "descriptors"/adjectives in writing
10.  iPad Cupcake Matching app:  as a reinforcer for a student for 2 minutes at the end of a productive therapy session

The funny thing is, that I think I only used my iPhone as a "phone" maybe 4 times this whole week!  Hah! 

I really don't know how I got along before touch screen technology.  It can be daunting at first, but ultimately, it makes me happy to master new technology. 


How has technology made your life easier?

Speechy Sunday: BrainPOP Review

My school recently got our teachers a subscription to BrainPOP.  Basically, BrainPOP is an animated learning website that you can subscribe to (family packages range from $80-$99 or so) to access educational resources that are pretty darn fun.  There are resources featuring science, social studies, math, english, health, arts/music, and technology topics.  Each topic is introduced with a little movie featuring Tim & Moby (a boy and a robot), and these videos are definitely the best part of the BrainPOP package.  There are also other resources related to each topic, including things like quizzes, experiments to try with students, and even comics.   I've yet to click on a topic that didn't spark my interest, and the quality of the little movies is pretty good.   Plus, the movies are relatively short and seem to hold students' attention well.

As an SLP, I've been using BrainPOP with a few of my speech groups, and I've found it most useful for students working on identifying the main idea, summarizing, answering wh- questions, sequencing, and vocabulary.  I've also used it in articulation and fluency groups, at the generalization phase of treatment, by letting my students take turns reading and answering the "quiz" questions after the movie.  That way, they're not just having a conversation unrelated to the classroom curriculum--they're having a learning conversation and can take their new knowledge back to the classroom feeling like an expert on a topic.

I really think students learn a lot from engaging and fun educational materials, which is what makes new educational technology so exciting.  When my students are laughing and interested, they'll pick up high level vocabulary without even realizing it, and some of my kiddos on the autism spectrum really love all the facts they can collect about certain topics of high interest featured on this site.  If you're an educator or parent interested in introducing academic material to your students or kids in a fun and motivating way, I think you'll be pleased by BrainPOP.  

By the way, BrainPOP has made its tsunami resources free for the next few weeks.  Check them out.  (I especially like the "FYI" resources and the little tsunami experiment.)  There are also some other free resources you can try out here.


What new educational technology do you just love?


(By the way, I don't make any money for endorsing this product.  I'm not that techno-savvy yet.)

Speechy Sunday: 10 Ways to Motivate the Unmotivated Student

My oh-so-clever cooperation chart.  Students earn
a prize when they reach the star. 

“Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” -- unknown

As a speech language pathologist for grades 3-5 in an elementary school setting, one of the challenges I regularly face is trying to make good progress with students who are unmotivated.  You know, students who don't want to be in speech, don't want my help, and generally don't want to try anything I want them to try.   Students who cross their arms and try to avoid making eye contact with me out of fear that I’ll try to get them to--(gasp!)--actually DO some sort of speech work.   

I admit it, sometimes I'm tempted to just give up, dismiss them, and say, "Well, when they WANT to make progress, they can come back to speech."  But, really, it’s my job to motivate even my most unmotivated students. 

So, what's an SLP to do?

Here are some strategies I've found useful:

1.  Use visual behavior tracking charts.  – That’s right, reward charts aren’t just for preschoolers anymore.  I have a large grid that I use as a basic chart (see photo) to help motivate students to participate, and I modify it for every student on my caseload.  Some students earn one square per session, others earn 3 or 5 squares per session, depending on how much reinforcement they need on a given day for a given task. Once they reach a star, they earn a prize/special activity.  Of course, a chart alone won’t do the trick unless the student wants the reward he’s working toward, which leads me to my next point.

2.  Allow students to earn a "work free" speech session.  – What does the unmotivated student want most?  To be left alone!  I have two students who will work diligently for weeks or even months just for a chance to take most of a speech session "off" from speech work and just "play" on a computer or iPad during speech.  (What they don't realize is that many of their goals are addressed by the computer games!)

3.  Challenge students to beat their own "record" for a certain task. -  Let’s face it; drill work is awful.  It’s hard to motivate even enthusiastic students to complete drills cheerfully. However, if we make the drill task timed and the student tries to beat his last score, drill work can actually become fun!  For example, I'll set my timer for a minute and see how many perfect "r" words from a set of 70 flashcards the student can produce, and then I'll let them try again (several times) to see if they can beat their best "record."   (I got this speed challenge idea from the "Superspeed" Whole Brain Teaching game, and just modify it based on my students' goals.)  Students actually beg to stay after their regular speech time to try to keep beating their records.

4.  Allow the student to be the expert by teaching a skill to younger students.   -  If a fourth grade student is a poor reader but can read simple picture books, he could perhaps read a book to a kindergarten class every once in a while, preparing for the reading by doing word study and learning tasks with vocabulary from the book he will be sharing.  This is a much more naturally motivating experience than reading for boring old Mrs. Ragan who already knows what the book says. 

5.  Make tasks more hands-on.  -  One of my third grade students recently said to me, "I like working with you, because we do stuff, and make stuff, and build stuff."  This was a student who for the first two weeks of speech refused to do any work at all with me when I was using traditional table-work activities (even when I bribed her with silly bands, her favorite!).  Good thing I wised up!

6.  Make tasks more physical. - Some of my most difficult to motivate students have been won over by a few sessions of playing physical games such as "Simon Says," "Mother May I," "Hot/Cold," "Lego Creator," "Charades," or "Pictionary."  These games can be modified to address social skills (joint attention, turn taking, flexibility, taking others' perspective), articulation (generalizing targets to sentences and conversation), receptive/expressive language (giving and receiving directions, vocabulary building, answering questions), reading (following written directions, recognizing sight words, reading CVC words, etc.), writing (summarizing, using transitional phrases, using descriptive vocabulary, etc.), and more.  I think that much of the success of this strategy comes from pairing myself with fun activities, because, after a while of doing physical speech activities, many students don't need as much reinforcement for cooperating and engaging with me--they actually begin to be reinforced just by engaging with me!  And then, boy, we can make some progress.  

7.  Catch the student cooperating. - Then praise, praise, praise! (Be sure your praise is specific about what you liked --ex:  "Great job using “although” in a sentence!")  I find that praising students in front of their peers, or especially praising them quietly by "whispering" to a teacher just loudly enough that they overhear me, can really shift a student's demeanor out of an unmotivated funk.   (I mean, if I overheard a colleague whisper to my boss how great I was, it would knock me out of a funk, too!)

8.  Treat a few students to a special lunch "party" with you as a reward/motivator. – Our time is limited as school SLPs.  But we typically do have a lunch break, and every now and then, it can be fun to spend it celebrating with students.  For my fifth graders, special lunches have been a highly motivating reward.  I've had students who have worked for two months (earning tokens toward their lunch party by following teacher instructions, being on task, participating in class and speech, and writing during independent writing times) to earn a special lunch with me (with pizza delivered, or McDonalds brought in, or something fun like that).  You might even be able to request PTA funds to help cover costs.

9.  Be lighthearted and make mistakes yourself during therapy sessions. - If students know that you are fun to be around, lighthearted, even silly sometimes, they are often less worried about their performance on learning tasks in your presence.  And when you, the brilliant adult, make mistakes sometimes, the stress involved in trying a new task is lessened in your presence.  

10.  If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  - Some students are going to have an extinction burst before they begin cooperating.  You may put a motivation plan in place, and find that they are even more defiant and uncooperative than ever, that they won’t work even for a huge reward.  But persist.  Give it two weeks.  Then, if it's still not working, you can chat with the student's learning team and try to modify your plan.  

So, the next time you're in a battle of wills with an unmotivated student, and your only hope of rescue seems to be in the possibility that they might be moving out of state, take a minute to think outside the box, and see if you and the rest of the child's learning team can come up with some ingenious ways to motivate the student.  Then, come back and leave a comment to let me know how it went! 

What have you discovered that motivates your most unmotivated students?  I'd love to hear!

iPad apps for Phonics

I've been challenging myself to use technology more in my speech sessions, and the iPad has been a wonderful way to enjoy that challenge.  If you don't know much about the iPad, it's a neat little touchscreen computer that's really easy to use.  There are lots of little "games" for the iPad, called "apps" (applications).  Many of these apps can also be used on the iPhone or iTouch.  You can download apps from iTunes and use them right away with your iPad, iPhone, or iTouch.  The thing I love about the iPad is that students don't have to know how to use a mouse or keyboard to use it.  They just touch the screen.    For students with fine motor difficulties, the iPad simplifies access to games and activities, and lets the content be the focus.  

Anyway, in the next few weeks, I'm going to do a series in which I review some iPad apps that I've used with my speech students.  Today, I'm going to focus on apps that I've used for beginning readers.  I'll use a scale of 1-5 stars to rate the apps overall, with
1 = Waste of Time, 2 = I've seen worse, 3 = Okay, 4 = Better than many,  and 5 = Amazing App.

ABC Pocket Phonics: Letter sounds & writing + first words - 4 stars ($1.99)
I used ABC Pocket Phonics lite for a while, and then decided to pay the $1.99 for the regular app, because one of my students with autism did so well with this app. Basically, ABC Pocket Phonics has two games:
1) Letter sounds & writing - in which the student is shown a letter, hears its sound, and is then asked to trace the letter. The cool thing is that the tracing game models the correct directionality and gives the child feedback about whether they traced the letter correctly or not (you can set the "grading" to easy, normal, or hard, depending on the child's ability). I've used this part of the game for teaching specific letter sounds, and I just keep pressing the back arrow button to repeat the sound I'm focusing on. The OT I work with appreciates that we model the correct directionality for writing letters while we're learning their sounds.  The thing I don't like about this part of the game is that you can't pick the set of letters/sounds to focus on. But it's pretty motivating, with applause when the student traces the letter correctly. The second game is:
2) the Word Game - In this game, the narrator says a phoneme (sound) and asks the child to pick the corresponding letter (from a field of 7 or so). Then the narrator says the next sound in the word until the whole word is spelled. After all the letters are chosen, the narrator models blending of the new word. I wish that the narrator would wait a bit longer before saying the word, to allow the child more time for blending. Also, again, I wish you could choose the set of words to be used ahead of time, but most of the words are simple CVC words with short vowels, so I'd only use this app for children at that level of encoding/decoding. The best part of this app, to me, is that it's motivating and good for multisensory learning. I wish it could be more individualized, as then I could use it with more of my students who are at a higher level but still need phonics instruction to meet their reading/writing goals.

Build a Word with Word World Characters - 2 stars ($ .99)
I used the lite version of this app for several weeks before upgrading to the regular version because one of my students with autism was so motivated by the TV show "Word World."  I typically use this app as a reward for this student, who is a solid reader and is way past the "building words" stage.  However, I've used this app for fun with my 4 year old daughter, too, and she enjoys it, although it doesn't hold her interest for very long.  Don't let the name of this app fool you---it's basically a letter matching game, and doesn't really teach children how to create words themselves.  (By the way, I'm constantly amazed at the apps that teach something completely different than they claim to teach, but I'll save that rant for another post.)  Build a Word displays a letter on the screen, and then the child must choose the matching letter from a variety of floating letters, at which point the app says the letter name (not the letter sound, as I'd hoped).  Then, the app displays the next letter in the word, and so on, until the student has matched all of the letters in the word that they're "building."  Once they've matched them all, the student squishes the letters together to make a word, and the app sings the little "It's time to build a word" song (from the TV show) and then says the word the student "built."  The repertoire of words that the child is able to build is very limited (maybe 10 words total, and then it just repeats the words in upper or lowercase), so this app gets boring very quickly (unless you're a student with autism who is completely gaga over Word World!).  Overall, I gave it 2 stars just because it's cute, engaging, and slightly educational. 

ABC Phonics Rocks Lite - 3 stars (Free)
ABC Phonics Rocks Lite is an app used to teach students their letter sounds. On the "Letters" section of the game, it just displays the alphabet (capitals), and when students touch a letter, its sound is produced. I wish it had an option for teaching lowercase letters, as well. Also, some of the sounds are hard to understand, so I don't use this part of the app much. On the "Words" section of the game, the student is shown a picture of a simple word to spell (word family words), and blank spaces are provided for the student to fill in letters to spell the word. When the student touches a space, they hear the phoneme that goes there, and then can choose the corresponding letter to go in that spot.  I like that this app says the sounds of the letters rather than their names.  Again, I wish lowercase letters were used, but only capitals are used here, as well. Once the child spells the word correctly, the word dances to music as a reinforcer. My students with autism who typically would not work diligently on a writing/spelling task will encode word-family words many times using this app. I do wish that the app were more flexible and that I could pre-set the target words, but for me, this app works ok as an intro or review for phonics lessons for very early readers focusing on short vowel word families.

Clifford's "Be Big" With Words word writing game - 3 stars  (Free)
In this game, Clifford's friend Jetta is painting, and needs ideas for what to paint.  The object of the game is for the student to spell a word for Jetta to paint.  Below an art easel, the student can choose from 2-4 capital letters to give Jetta some ideas.  The student drags and drops any letter they want into each slot (words are typically 3 letters in length), and the app displays only letters that will work to create simple words, so there's no chance the child will produce a non-word.  Once the 3 slots are filled, the narrator sounds out each letter and then says, "You spelled, bug!", or whatever word was spelled.  I like that this app provides the student with some autonomy as to what word they might want to spell, rather than giving a word and asking the child to spell that word.  Also, I like that success is built-in.  However, I wish this app said the letter sound instead of the letter name when the student is dragging and dropping each letter onto the easel.  I also wish that the narrator paused for a few seconds before telling the child what word they just spelled, to give the child a chance to try blending the sounds themselves first.  This game might be useful for a child who is learning to spell simple CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words with short vowels; however, it's more of a practice activity than a teaching activity.  I've used this app to buy myself time to cook dinner while my daughter plays it, and my daughter loves to show me all the words she spelled and the pictures Jetta painted because she "told her to."

Doodle Buddy - 4 stars (free)
It might seem strange to call this app a phonics app, because it's truly just a drawing app, but I've used it so many different ways to target phonics skills, and students are generally so motivated by this app, that I wanted to include it here. Doodle Buddy is pretty much a fancy magnadoodle.  The student uses his/her finger to draw on the screen, and has options to change the color of the paint, the size of the crayon, to use stamps, etc.  You shake the whole iPad to erase, which is fun for students, as well.  I've used Doodle Buddy to add a multisensory component to learning sound-letter correspondence.  I'll write a letter in one color while saying its sound, and then have the student trace the letter in another color while saying its sound.  I've also written a word family rime on the right side of the screen and allowed the student to use either the "eraser" or "undo" feature to change the onset to make as many different words from that word family rime as they can, while I transcribe the words they've made for us to review later.  There is an option to save pictures that you make into iPhoto, which the students also enjoy.  I find it's a nice way to review what we did in our previous session by looking back at some of the Doodle Buddy pictures we've made together.  This is a very versatile app, and my students really enjoy using it.  Writing activities they would never enjoy with just a pencil and paper become fun and engaging with Doodle Buddy.  Below are some doodles I've made with Doodle Buddy, focusing on short vowels with a student with autism who is a beginning reader.  (Disclaimer:  You probably want to monitor your student/child while using Doodle Buddy, because some of the ads can be difficult to navigate if you accidentally click on them, and you'll want to be there to close them quickly to get back to the fun.  If it weren't for the ads, I'd have given this app 5 stars---too bad!)

Tracing Over my "e" in many different colors for overlearning the short "e" sound

onset and rime game; we had written cat, then turned it into bat, and
will erase the onset (beginning letter) and make mat or hat.

We made a sun chart with short "e" words

So, there you have it, 5 apps that will get you started if you're working on phonics with your iPad (or iPhone or iTouch).


And now for the disclaimer:   The contents of this blog are for informational purposes only. The information is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. You should seek the advice of your health care provider regarding any questions you have. You should not disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this blog. The Gladdest Thing Under the Sun disclaims any liability for the decisions you make based on the information on this blog.  Ideas posted here are just general strategies that work for me, and should in no way to be taken as medical advice. If you have a child or grandchild who needs speech and language support, there is no better way to get it than in person with your very own SLP. You can find a certified SLP in your area by going here. 






What are your top 3 apps for the iPad, iPhone, or iTouch?  

Say it without Saying It

Sometimes when I'm finding it difficult to be patient, my voice gives away my frustration. But if I just keep quiet, and try to make my body do the hard work of being kind and patient, it's much more effective.

Take tonight, in the car on the way to Chick fil A. It was the end of a long work day. Flanna and I were on our way to grab a special "girls' night out dinner," and in the car on the way, she decided to chant some shrill song or poem repeatedly. My first instinct was to ask her to please find another quieter way to sing, but then I decided that might sound rude. So, I just reached back and patted her little toe (the best I could reach while driving) and smiled at her in the rearview mirror.

And then she stopped her shrill chant, smiled, and asked if we were there yet.

I bet if I had used words to ask her to quit with the shrillness, I would've been met with some type of resistance. But a small touch goes a long way in communicating sometimes.

A pat on the back encourages.

An arm around the shoulders supports.

A gentle touch on the arm connects.

A hug comforts.

A wink reassures, lightens things up.

A few days ago, I read that regular touch helps preemies gain more weight, helps reduce depression in patients with alzheimers, and increases student verbal participation in class. This video about the many ways that touch increases quality of life was very interesting.

Since then, I've been making a point to pat my students on the back, to wink at my daughter more, to give high 5s to my speech students when they meet a goal, to just communicate acceptance and fun and reassurance to those around me through touch.

And it's really made me happier.




How can you reach out to your family more through touch? Do you feel comfortable giving pats on the back or high 5s to students, and if not, would thumbs ups and grins work?

Joint Attention and my Favorite Band

Tonight, my husband and I went to see my favorite band play in Raleigh. It was a fabulous evening of gorgeous music and just general fun.

I tried to be in the moment during the show, and I was struck by how much that increased my enjoyment of the experience. At one point, the band was singing a song about how "sometimes rain that's needed, falls," and the crowd all around me was singing those same lyrics, and I realized that almost everyone in the whole theater was sharing in this beautiful quiet moment of joint attention. Which was rather transcendent, actually.

That moment got me thinking about how people bond.

I teach social skills groups to children with autism, ADHD, and general difficulty with social language skills at work each week. The last 2 weeks, we've focused on "making friends." We've learned about how to choose which person might make a good friend, how to learn about that person, how to ask about his/her favorite topics each time you see him/her, and how to judge whether your friendly gestures are being taken well or not.

But, we have not focused on what makes some friendships "click." On how to bond with friends. Which is ultimately my goal for each of my students...to get them to the point where they are able to bond with others.

The interesting thing to me here, is that this band we went to see tonight, it's not my husband's favorite band. It's mine. Yet he indulged me; he entered into my interest. And we shared a beautiful bonding experience together because of that. It deepened our relationship to share joint attention together.

So this week, I'm going to remember that my students (and my family, too, for that matter!) really want me to come and see their favorite "band." To stand and listen and watch the things they really love. To have me appreciate the things they find amazing.

Hopefully I can do just that.




Have you indulged friends' or family members' or students' interests and reaped the reward of a stronger connection? I'd love to hear about it!

Halloween Phonics Fun

This week, in my speech class, I made some "Bat Books." First, we cut out the bat from construction paper. Next, we glued the "at" on one wing. And just in front of the "at" block, I stapled about 12 rectangles of construction paper to make a little flip book. The kiddos enjoyed making their own "-at" family words. And because the books were cute, they were motivated to sound out the words to me several times over and over, and to their teachers several times, as well.

I also had them write the real words they created on the other wing of the bat in pencil. You probably can't see it here, but the kids were able to create lots of -at words like, "mat, hat, fat, cat, pat, etc."

Flip books are a fun way to work on word family patterns, and I'm using these not only with my speech kiddos, but also with Flannery at home.





What fun halloween decorations do you display at your house?

Get Organized

I'm on an organizational kick at work right now. I organized the resources on my shelves. I organized the files on my computer. I sorted my art supplies. I cleaned all the stray papers from my organizational notebook that holds all my session notes.

And the cool thing I noticed is, that when I organized my resources, I used them much more frequently. It was as if just organizing them, touching each one, reminded me why I had loved that resource in the first place, and planted a seed about how I might put it to good use with a particular client.

So, on that note, I've decided to share my favorite online resources here, in an effort to motivate myself to use them more. Here are some of my favorite links for various topics:

For students with autism:
The Gray Center - Social Stories - social stories info and ideas, a great newsletter you can sign up for
Boardmaker Share - I just found out about this last week from my friend Ruth, and oh my goodness, it's very exciting, and I've used it every day since.
Cathy Binger - my brilliant AAC professor from back in the day is now a big wig who shares wonderful ideas and resources for download
Ladders - Autism support and research - Margaret Bauman is my hero, very smart and passionate lady
Autism Games - really good ideas of simple to more complex games to teach a huge variety of skills


For bilingual students (Spanish/English):
Bilingual Therapies
The Bilingual Early Language Assessment (BELA)
Mama Lisa's World - Spanish Songs & Translated English Songs



For reading/writing:
Reading Rockets
Assessment of Children's Narratives - an article by really great researchers
Handwriting Worksheet Maker
Kathy Ganske - all of Ganske's books are great, but I especially use "Word Journeys" most often


For general teaching strategies:
Super Simple Songs
Whole Brain Teaching/Power Teaching and A Video of Power Teaching/Whole Brain Teaching
Storytime Songs - simple kids' songs with guitar chords
Thinking Maps

If I had more time, I'd describe each link, but let me just tell you that I use all of these links pretty much weekly for either my clients or my daughter. I'd love to hear what resources inspire you in your field!


How does getting organized affect your happiness and productivity level?