by Anne Page | Mar 14, 2015 | Autism, Inspiration
(Note: I found this in a tucked away journal. It was almost written two years ago when I was doing some of my clinical experience for my master’s degree.)
May 2012
Hugo doesn’t speak. When I first saw him he had a lot of physical ticks and throat clearing. He loves the iPad. My strategy was to gently move into his space physically and match his energy. He is quiet and there is a sweetness about him. For the first few sessions I sat next to him on the couch. My supervisor, had been working with him and would say “my turn”, take the iPad and model a sound. When he made a sound (any sound), he got the iPad back. So I started there. Hugo likes to play animal games, especially animal puzzles. I would consistently say the name of the animal as it was on the screen. With time, Hugo would look up each time for eye contact and a smile. I started signing the animal name along with saying it. Hugo started imitating the signs.
This became our routine. Hugo was starting to make a few different sounds but still routinely says “t”. One day, after 35 minutes of our 45 minute session, he turned off the iPad and started to leave. I followed his lead, figuring he either needed to go to the bathroom or go swing in the jungle room(he had OT after our session). He started to run, but I held his hand and gently said “no running, let’s walk, hold hand”. He lead me to the swing. He was swinging for a while, looking at the colorful animals painted on the walls. I followed his eye gaze and signed the names of the animals. When he finished swinging, he stood up and hugged me. That was a first. He had held my hand before but never initiated a hug! I think it was a sign of affection and thankfulness.
One month later…
We were having our usual session of Hugo looking at the iPad and making animal puzzles. After 35 minutes he closed it and was ready to go. I said 5 more minutes but he wasn’t interested. Again, I followed his lead because I had a hunch that he wanted to go back to the jungle room. He wanted to run again (we didn’t). When we got there, he pointed to the large elephant and said “t-t” and looked at me. I signed it for him and he had a big smile. He did that with each animal (pointing and smiling, not just looking). I really got the feeling that he was making the connection for the first time between the animals in the iPad puzzles and the animals on the wall! Generalizing is so hard for children with Autism. It was so exciting to be able to witness that realization on his face. For a second, I felt like Anne Sullivan.
The following month:
Hugo was consistently imitating signs for animals!
Sometimes, we have to let go of our treatment plans. We have to remember that children with autism process and absorb information at a different pace than we do. If you can be patient and gently join them at that pace, they may surprise you.
by Anne Page | Feb 24, 2015 | Freebies, Ipad Apps, Quick Therapy Tips for the SLP and SLPA
Here is a great tip for when you are short on time (uh-everyday?). Get the Doodle Buddy app for your ipad. You can quickly photograph worksheets and the kids can use their fingers to draw lines and write. Even better you can use the stamp feature, which comes with audio! Also it has a great tic tac toe feature that I use for quick, fun articulation practice.
Here, I just wrote the words with my finger, then chose a stamp. Put on one stamp per production, a great way to get many productions!
Click here to read my post on all the great ways to use
Doodle Buddy. And the best part? It’s FREE!
This is all part of Kim Jarvis’ Quick Tip Tuesday Linky Party, so click on the pink pic to head on over to The School SLP for some more amazing ideas!
by Anne Page | Feb 24, 2015 | Language Activities, TPT Products
(Graphics by Ashley Hughes, Creative Clips and Tiffany Teaches)
Who wants their students/clients to speak and write more descriptively? I know I do. I created the Nacho Sentence Builders as an engaging activity to do just that!
This fun game helps students learn to build more detailed sentences using adjectives and adverbs. Aligned with Common Core Standards (Speaking and Listening 2.4, 3.4, 4.4, 5.4), there are at least three different levels of play(more if you use your imagination).
Research tells us that solid syntactical skills rely on understanding and use of correct word order and organization. By providing these written and oral examples of sentences you are helping your student move from simple sentences to richer, more detailed sentences. As we know (and studies prove), repeated modeling and opportunities for practice are needed for students to solidly acquire these new grammatical forms (Gummersall & Strong, 1999).
While playing the game, take the opportunity to talk about how the adverbs and adjectives change the meaning of the sentences. Use examples such as how is “big” different from “humongous”? Use a white board and make a scale starting at “teeny” and incrementally moving up to “giganitic” (Nippold, 1998).
Nacho Sentence Builder includes all the fixin’s you need to make simple or loaded nachos.
24 Nacho Chip pronouns 24 Black Bean verbs
27 Guacamole adverbs 27 Melted Cheese prepos./article
27 Jalapeno location nouns 6 Blank Nacho Chip pronouns
9 Blank Black Bean nouns 9 Blank Guacamole adverbs
9 Blank Melted Cheese prep./article 9 Blank Jalapeno location nouns
6 different colors of Nacho platters 8 bowls of salsa
Mmmm, hungry yet? I also included three leveled writing/homework sheets.
This game is perfect for small groups and is geared toward 2nd – 5th graders. Now available in my Teachers Pay Teachers store!
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by Anne Page | Feb 20, 2015 | Quick Therapy Tips for the SLP and SLPA
Okay this might not work for everyone but I want to tell you what I did recently that brought a big improvement to my energy level and my outlook. Like all of you, many days I feel like I am pulled in so many different directions. I want to do it all, be it all AND I want to have a clean house while I do it. I’ve dreamed about hiring someone to clean my house for years but always have a million excuses for why it won’t work (cost being at the top of the list). Many of the motivational and business books I’ve been reading lately talk about the importance of delegating and paying others to do tasks that you are not that good at (or that you don’t enjoy). I thought … you know, I don’t buy Starbucks everyday anymore and I pack my own lunch. Hmmm, maybe I can afford this investment in my self. So last week, I took the plunge, hired a wonderful woman and I came home on Friday to a clean house. Such an amazing way to start the weekend! My time was free to enjoy the days and to create some new Teachers Pay Teachers products, which just made me so happy.
This “tip” is part of Kim Jarvis’ Quick Tip Tuesday. Click here to head over to her blog and get some more great time-saving ideas!
by Anne Page | Feb 10, 2015 | Quick Therapy Tips for the SLP and SLPA
Here is this Tuesday Quick Tips, part of the School SLP’s Tuesday Linky Party (Thanks Kim Jarvis). Be sure to click on the button above to find more amazing quick ideas!
I use a sticker incentive chart for good behavior and the kids love it. I use the
Whole Brain Teaching Rules, which are amazing! I got this free download at TPT. So basically if they follow the rules during their session, they get a sticker for the chart. For every five stickers they get a prize and they get really motivated by this. Lately, my prizes have been getting a little boring; the kids can only get so excited about pencils or erasers. But, I don’t like to spend much on the prizes because I have a BIG caseload (usually 60-80 students, K-8). My awesome niece and Saturday assistant Liz, found 2 packages of Angry Bird puzzle erasers at the dollar store and the were a HIT!
We will keep searching dollar stores for them but in the meantime I found some online at good old Amazon. For your convenience here is a link:
Angry Birds Puzzle Erasers.Since I am addicted to Amazon Prime, there was no shipping and I got these within a few days. They come 3 to a package, but I am taking them out of the packets and putting them in the prize jar. That way each prize is under 50 cents a piece. Magic!
Beautiful Speech Life is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com. Just letting you know.
Hey there I’m Anne Page. I help heart centered SLPs and educators put the fun in functional communication. 