Referral Tracking Sheet

Did you know that I recently got a new job?  I work at a fantastic charter school one day a week.  I love the schedule, the environment, and all the people I work with.  I get to work with another SLP there, although we can't work on the same day since we share a small office space.  It works out pretty well but we are getting totally SLAMMED with referrals.  It's great that the teachers are so on top of it, but we found ourselves needing to get really organized.  No sense in having to brief each other on everything on a day when one of us doesn't work.  Thus my referral tracking sheet was born.  I figured if we can use it, maybe somebody else can!  Enjoy!

Defining Words: Part 5 Games and Apps

There are lots of fun games to use to reinforce categories and word definitions.  Here are some of my favorites:

Name 5

Just like it sounds.  Each card gives a prompt for you to name 5 items in random categories, such as 'items that make you sneeze' or 'types of dogs.  There is a timer which adds an element of difficulty if you want it.  Great for any speech therapy session if you play for a few minutes at the very end. 

Headbanz

Too bad I didn't patent this when I had the chance, because I totally invented it.  Oh well.  It's a great way to reinforce the concepts of categories and defining words.  Kids will know when they didn't do a great job describing it because the other child will tell them flat-out, "I have no idea what you're talking about."  And they will be rewarded when they used good clues because the child will guess.  The categories are concrete and the vocabulary is familiar.  I like to introduce this game by modeling "bad clues".  Say we're talking about  ice cream.  I say, "It's yummy".  They might have a guess but most likely they will not get it from that one clue.  I then proceed to explain that lots of things are yummy so that is a 'bad clue'.  It's usually quite the 'aha' moment for the kids.  I'm constantly prompting them by asking, "What makes it special or different?"

20 Questions

A great way to teach kids the importance of 'narrowing it down'.  I usually draw a big circle on the board and call it 'animals'.  We talk about how there are many different kinds of animals and we need to 'narrow it down'.  Then I discuss how we can narrow it down by type (mammals, reptiles, amphibians) or habitat (tundra, jungle, forest).  See how great it plays into the curriculum?  20 Questions is a fun way to teach the applicability of

 'narrowing it down'.

APPS

And here are some apps that I know of that you can use to teach sorting, organizing, and defining words:

- Objects: Pro

- What Does Not Belong?

- Clean Up: Category Sorting

- NLConcepts Autism: Sort and Categorize

- Pre-Number Category Sorting Matching Game

- Name that Category

- Let's Name Things

- Autism and PDD Categories

- Category Carousel

I am sure there are lots more!  Leave us a comment if you have one that you particularly enjoy or know about.

Defining Words: Part 4

More fun ways to teach adjectives!

1) Darling activity from "Crazy for First Grade".  Check out her post!

2) Or this is a fun idea from "The Inspired Apple"

3) Here's a list of books that lend themselves to teaching adjectives.

4) And here's a quick list I made of adjectives categorized by size, appearance, shape, what it's made of, and how it feels.  A fun way to use it is to put it in a page protector and hand the student a dry erase marker.  Then, grab a bunch of objects with very salient characteristics from this list.  Show the student the object and talk about it.  Have them circle the applicable adjectives that describe it.  Erase and start again!  Who doesn't love a little dry erase marker activity?

Defining Words: Part 2

When I did my student teaching, the speech therapist I worked with was pretty great.  Her name was Jacqueline.  She made sure to pronounce it "Ja-kwa-lynn" with the rounded 'w' in the middle.

Anyway.  She was a smart lady and I learned so much from her.  She made these charts and gave me permission to share, so today I shall do just that!  I like them because they are simple and straightforward, which is what I think these kids with language disorders really need.

I usually start teaching by introducing the concept of categories.  I give them this sheet and we discuss how each category acts as a file of sorts in our brain.  Then most any noun in English can be filed away into a specific file folder.  Imagine how many fun games you can do while teaching this!  The possibilities are quite endless.  I know you guys reading this have a million awesome tricks up your sleeves!

First we practice identifying categories.  I will read a list of 3 or more words and ask the student to tell me the category.  They often need extra help with 'appliances' and 'occupations' and 'vehicles/transportation'.  The app I use for that is "Name that Category" which is from Super Duper for $1.99

Then we practice listing things in categories.  For this I usually use "Let's name things" which is always free from Super Duper.  We also go the other direction and I read them a list of 3 or more objects and they tell me which category it goes to.

I also found this sorting game.  I don't even know who Erin Jackson is but I'll still give her a shout-out.  "Thanks Erin!"

What are your favorite ways to teach this? Next time I'm going to post a bunch of other available materials and apps to use while teaching sorting and categorizing.

Defining Words: Part I

One day I was working with a boy and a girl on describing.  We were describing animals to each other, trying to help the other child guess what animal we were talking about.  This little boy was supposed to be describing a rooster, and....he didn't really know how.  I whispered into his ear, "It says 'cockadoodledoo'".  He turned right around and promptly said, "It says crocodile doo-doo!"  And then I proceeded to laugh.  Really hard.  Couldn't help it.

I love language.  I love teaching language.  I love working with children who struggle with language.  Not only is it highly entertaining, it can also be very rewarding.  I am by no means an expert, but I feel like I have some nifty tricks and materials up my sleeve.  So I thought I would share them with you.

In my experience, when I have a child with language difficulties, they usually also have trouble defining words.  Semantics  in general seem to be a common area of difficulty.  My favorite tests for looking at semantics in detail are the TOSS (There's one for ages 4-8 and one for 9-13) and the LPT-3 (Ages 5-11).  They are both extremely easy to administer, score, and interpret.  They lay it all right out for you very clearly what areas the child particularly struggles with- whether it's labeling/word-finding/vocabulary, giving functions, attributes, or the category.

Join me tomorrow when I share with you how I usually introduce intervention and also a couple of printables. :)

Auditory Verbal Therapy: Part 10

Auditory Verbal Therapy: Part X

Principle X

Promote education in regular classrooms with typical hearing peers and with appropriate support services from early childhood onwards.

We're talking mainstreaming.  Children who are born deaf can definitely be placed in a regular classroom with hearing peers.  This is happening more and more often.  Parents and professionals should plan and prepare for this if they think it is a good fit for the child.  Many children who are born deaf are also born with other challenges such as Down syndrome or cerebral palsy and may require a specialized setting.  Work as a team to figure out what is reasonable.  Teamwork will be necessary.  The team should consist of: the parent, speech therapist, audiologist, classroom teacher, principle, resource teacher, and AV therapist.  Am I missing anybody?

Auditory Verbal Therapy: Part 5

Auditory Verbal Therapy: Part V

Principle V

Guide and coach parents to create environments that support listening for the acquisition of spoken language throughout the child's daily activities.

Dishwashers are loud.  So are air conditioners and fans and fish tanks and lights and washing machines.  A house can be a loud and distracting place, especially for a child with a hearing loss.  They need to hear conversations happening around them in order to learn language, and background noise makes that so much more difficult.  Therefore a big part of AV therapy is educating parents to be more aware of the noises that surround them and convince them how important it is to reduce it as much as possible.  Run the dishwasher at night.  Same with the dryer and washer.  If your lights hum (like the ones in my kitchen - so obnoxious) then just leave them off.  Classrooms are a totally different story but most teachers are open to trying whatever they can to help the classroom be a quieter place.  After all, it improves learning for all children, not just the ones with hearing loss (Nelson, Soli 2000).

Summer Activities and Language Suggestions

Hello!  Are you having a fun summer?  Are you taking it easy or are you starting off with a bang, trying to pack in as much fun as you can?  I am having a blast hanging out with my 2 boys.  We are trying to find a good balance between taking it easy together and also doing lots of fun stuff.  I thought I would share with you my list of summer fun activities!  And it wouldn't be a good speech/language blog if I didn't give you some language-enhancing tips!  So here are 5 language skills that can be targeted while enjoying these activities:

1) Vocabulary - Most any activity comes with new vocabulary for a child to learn!  Pick two or three words that may be unfamiliar to them and make a point to use them over and over in different contexts.  Never underestimate the words your child can learn.  For example, on your family hike, point out some plant names.  Discuss trees vs. bushes, talk about the parts of a flower.
2) Sequencing - Most structured activities require that you follow certain steps in a certain order.  Teach your child the words "first, second, then, next, and last" while you make cookies or write letters.  If you're into apps and really want to focus on this concept - check out the Pictello app.
3) Descriptions - I've worked with lots of kids who know plenty of nouns but when it comes to describing them, they would rather not.  :) Discuss words like: sticky, rough, smooth, clean, wet, hot, cold, spicy, sweet, loud, etc.  Make a contest to see how many words you can think of to describe something.
4)  Predicting - An important skill for social language as well as reading.  Ask your child questions about what will happen next: "What is going to happen when I mix these two colors?" or  "What do you think might happen if we didn't put a letter on this stamp?"  or "What if our boat gets really wet?" or "Those two ducks are going for the same piece of bread...what are they going to do?"  Encourage guessing and see if they can start asking you questions in return.
5) Developing Schema - A less-known concept but a very important one for all parents.  'Schema' refers to the child's own database of personal experiences.  It is crucial for reading comprehension, as children need to learn to make personal connections to events or places in books.  If a child encounters a book about fishing, and they just recently went fishing, they will have a much better understanding of what you need to take with you, how to use a fishing pole, and how you have to sit and wait.  Much of those things are not specifically mentioned in books and must then be inferred by the reader.  So basically any activity you do with your child this summer is theoretically helping your child's future reading comprehension abilities.  Good to know, right? :)

So here's my list: I tried to credit the ideas back to the original blogger/website so be sure to check out the links!

-          Swimming

-          Bowling

-          Watergun Fight

-          Water Balloons

-          ScavengerHunt

-           Fishing

-          Fly a Kite

-          Make cookies

-          Read books

-           Go on a picnic

-          Makeplaydough

-          Fingerpainting

-          Go to the zoo

-          Rainbow Volcanoes

-          BalloonTennis

-          Puppet Show for Dad

-          Watercoloring

-          Fun Things with Crayons

-          Write Letters to Family with lots of stickers

-          Geocaching

- Wash the car

-          PopsicleStick Puzzles

-          Giant Bubbles

-          Homemadelava lamps

-          Marshmallows and Toothpicks

-          Bug Hunt (magnifying glass and tube found at Dollar Store)

-          Pillow Fights

-          Run through the sprinklers

-          Paperboats down the river (or even the gutter when it’s full)

-          Archeology Dig (plastic dinosaurs in dirt/sand)

-          MagneticPuzzles

-          CraftStick Letters with Velcro

-          Visit a farm

-          Makeslime

-          Family Hike

- Paper Airplanes

-          FrozenFigures 

-          Learn some new songs with actions

-          Mini Golf

-          Make a Spotting Scope or binoculars

- Edible Bird Nests (and read "Are You My Mother" just because it's so cute)

-          Go to a local splash pad

-          Feed the ducks

-          Play date at the park

-          Get snow cones

-          Cut out pictures from Sunday ads and make a collage

-          Storytime at the library

-  Salt Dough Footprints

- Bike Ride

- Picnic

- Learn some new jokes and teach them to Dad

- Popcorn and Pajama Night

You Caught Me Chart

One of the greatest concepts I learned in grad school came from my fluency professor.  She was explaining how difficult it can be to raise a child's awareness of their own speech.  Sometimes they just don't listen to themselves, and they have to listen to themselves before they can fix their errors.  But before they learn to listen to themselves, they have to learn how to listen to other people's speech.  Thus the concept of a "You Caught Me" chart.  It works best with younger kids, like ages 3-8ish.

First, introduce the child to the chart:
"Hey, Josh/Kyle/Emily/whatever the kid's name is, sometimes I make mistakes while I'm talking too.  If you catch me making a mistake, say, "I caught you!"  Then we can draw a smiley face in the chart.  If you catch me FOUR times, then you get a prize!"

It's usually very motivating and exciting for these kids.  They kind of feel like they're the speech teacher, and what's not fun about that?!?  At first they may not notice any of your errors.  You might have to correct yourself for a while:  "Oops.  I forgot to say my /s/ sound.  Let me try that again.  Ssssstop."  Eventually they will start to notice something is wrong, but not be able to explain it.  That's ok!  It's a good start.  Pretty soon, they should be able to catch your errors 100% of the time and be able to explain what you did wrong 100% of the time.  Now you're one step closer to having that child identify their own errors.

 It's simple.  It's genius, and here's one for you if you want it.
It's basic and to-the-point.  Just laminate it or put it in a page protector so you can re-use it.

Language Activity: Treasure Hunt

Something I'd like to do with this blog is post ideas for games and activities you can do with your child, and also include ideas on how to strengthen language or speech skills with that particular game.  So here's an example:

Activity:  Treasure Hunt
Ages:  2+
Language Skills Targeted: -Directional Vocabulary (left, right, straight, up, down, under, next to, on top, beneath, etc.)

So here's what you do.  You find a treasure box.  Or a shoebox.  Or a leftover container.  Really it doesn't matter.  That's the wonderful thing about kids and their imaginations.  You say, "This is our treasure chest!" with enthusiasm in your voice, and they'll run with it.  I happened to have a little treasure chest I bought at Michael's back in my college days.

Now go ahead and dump your change jar full of pennies into the treasure chest/shoebox/leftover container.  Or you could also find those cheapo bags of chocolate wrapped in gold foil.  Then muster up your inner-child's enthusiasm and say, "This is our GOLD!  Now let's pretend to be pirates! I'm going to hide my treasure where you'll never find it!"

Okay you don't have to use those exact words.  But you get the idea.

Then for the fun part. Take turns hiding the treasure chest.  To really take advantage of the language-learning opportunities, hide it really well.  That way they have to look at you or ask you for help in finding it.  Then you can start using the directional vocabulary.  "Look under the couch.  Look on top of the shelf.  It might be in between the couch and the table.  Look to your left."  


An understanding of these concepts is crucial for academic success in the classroom and in life in general.  It's never too soon to start introducing them.

After you or your child finds it, review by stating where it was hidden.  "It was inside the cupboard!"

It's up to you how much you want to embellish this little activity.  I prefer to lean towards simplicity.  But you could always add an eye patch or a treasure map.  When I played this with my son, we drew a simple map of our house and I'd draw an X in the room where I hid the treasure.  Then I taught him the phrase, "X marks the spot."  Throw in a few "Argh matey's" and "Avast me hearties" and you're GOLDEN.

And just because I think it's hilarious, here's an English to Pirate Translator.

Have fun!