by Anne Page | Sep 30, 2014 | Technology
I love technology and social media: catching up with friends on facebook, instagram photos, Pinterest, Teachers Pay Teachers, and shopping online! I love pizza too-doesn’t mean I can eat it every day without getting some unwanted results! Everything in moderation, my dad used to say.
Last week, after listening to Brendon Burchard’s podcast “How to Unplug”; I decided to take the 30 day challenge. Nothing digital for the first hour that I’m awake; that’s my hour for me. And nothing digital for the last hour before bed (that was more difficult). A study proved that people who checked their email first thing in the morning were 30% less productive over a week’s time. That’s because you become scattered; suddenly you’re thinking about what other people want you to do. You lose focus of YOUR priorities for the day.
So how’s my challenge going? Now, in the morning I journal, plan my day, and sometimes go for a quick walk. At night, for that last hour, I give my busy mind some to decompress. I am reading a book; a paper one, with a cover and pages I can turn. I am feeling calmer and more centered. I have more time to talk to my hubby.
I still have my technology fix during the day and I still love it. But as my dad also used to say, “There’s a time and a place for everything”. (Smart man, my Dad).
by Anne Page | Sep 30, 2014 | Evaluations, Freebies
So you’ve completed your testing and written your report. Now it’s time to present the results to the student’s parents. This is delicate work; use empathy and try to put yourself in the parents’ place. Know your “audience”. This is not a time to dazzle them with your brilliance or to use all of the vocabulary that you learned in grad school.
Remember, we have our own lexicon and so does the education world. This can be a little overwhelming. A few years ago, I was in a meeting where a well-meaning special education resource teacher was telling a parent that her son was behind in his ability to decode and comprehend grade level informational text. She talked for a while and then asked the parent if she had any questions. The parent said, “you lost me 10 minutes ago, I have a 6th grade education and I have no idea what you are talking about.” That’s something I won’t ever forget.
Parent friendly language is really important. We want to invite understanding and collaboration. When we are giving standard scores, percentiles, and standard deviations below the mean; we need to interpret and not overwhelm with information. Here are a few tips that I have found helpful:
- Start with the child’s strengths, every parent wants to hear some good things about their child
- Use pauses, take breaths. Try not to be nervous and rush through the information.
- Encourage questions. If parents have a glazed look or are just nodding in agreement with everything-not a good sign.
- Use visuals (don’t assume understanding of the Bell Curve) I created a simple visual that you can use to give an overall picture of what the child’s communication strengths and areas for improvement are. The score range varies slightly by test but generally the average range is from 85-115. Mark scores right on the sheet or put in a plastic document cover and mark with dry-erase marker. This is not meant to replace the Bell Curve, it’s just an additional way to make results clear for parents. Click Here for your free download.
- Provide examples
- Explain how this will affect the child in his classes
- Hopefully you had a chance to explain what areas you were testing at the pre-evaluation meeting. Now would be the time to briefly explain again the different areas of speech and language. I use this chart available in my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.
- Let them know that you are available to answer any additional questions after they’ve had the opportunity to read the complete evaluation
- If it looks like the child will qualify for services, give the parent an idea of what this will look like
- Ask the parent what area they would like to see their child improve in first
Parents are such an important part of the team approach, the more they understand; the stronger your team will be!
by Anne Page | Sep 16, 2014 | Speech Room, Uncategorized
School has been back in session for six weeks now and things have been a little crazy. After my room flooded from heavy rains, I got back into my room after a few weeks of clean-up. The professional clean-up crew nicely packed all my games and materials into boxes, which I haven’t completely unpacked because the bookcases were trashed from the water damage. (The carpet was thrown away as well, thank goodness).
I am waiting to hear when the replacements will come, if it is too much longer, then I am off to Good Will or Treasure4Teachers. That might not be the worse thing, then I can paint the bookcases a fun color. I always get such great DIY ideas from A Beautiful Mess www.abeautifulmess.com (love their blog).
Last week, we had our first ever “Rain Day”, with school closures for our whole district. Thankfully, the janitor had placed sandbags in front of my door and no flooding for Room 4 this time. Meanwhile, therapy sessions are in full swing. The kids make me laugh every day and I love working with them!
Cute story: I was doing the vocabulary portion of a language evaluation. I asked 8-yr. old Xavier to tell as many meanings as he could think of for the word “sole”. He thought and thought. Then, I saw the light bulb come on. He rubs his chin like it’s a beard (Picture the Antonio Banderas version of Puss In Boots) “Sole, we meet again.” Bahaha.
by Anne Page | Sep 13, 2014 | Therapy Ideas
I don’t know about you but I am really excited about the release of the new Iphone 6. I am trying to decide if I want to order it, or wait to go buy it in the store. I love technology and the iPad is an incredible tool to use in speech and language therapy. I have been using the app called “Word SLaPps Vocabulary by Zorten Software, LLC” for a couple of years. It is amazing because you can customize it with your own photos and it has a voice recording feature. I have used it in a multitude of ways. Word SLaPps also comes with two preprogrammed categories, one for animals and one for colors. You have the option to choose the number of turns per game (5, 10 or 15). It is great for small group work.
Basically, it is great for teaching receptive vocabulary. We have a little farm at our school (I know, lucky us). Part of my caseload includes three classrooms of students with special needs such as autism, Down Syndrome and cognitive impairments. Learning vocabulary across a multitude of settings and exposures is so important. So, I took pictures of our farm animals and used them for Word Slapps. You choose if you want 1 to 6 pictures to show on the screen. In this example, I chose 3. The three pictures show up and your voice says an animal name. The child touches one of the pictures. If correct, the photo spins and makes a fun noise that the kids like. If they choose the wrong photo, a black X covers it. Once the amount of turns you chose is completed, some animated kids jump up and down and say yay! I have also used this to help the kids learn their classmate’s names.
I have also used it for older kids to help them learn difficult vocabulary. Once you input the words (Go to settings, Edit/Add Content, Your Folders, Add category, then type in your word). You can then search for an image online. I let the students help me choose the image that most reflects the word for them. Then you can add audio. Again, I let the students record their voice. This is so great because it uses multimodalities and the kids are in on the creation of the game.
For your convenience here is a link to more information https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-slapps-vocabulary/id413888079?mt=8 I have no affiliation to Word Slapps, I am just a fan.
The best part is the price, just $4.99. If you try it, let me know what you think!
by Anne Page | Sep 8, 2014 | Speech Room, Therapy Ideas
I found this cute bulletin board idea on Pinterest and used it for a great how-was-your-summer activity.
Materials:
- White paper (I just used photocopy paper)
- Pencils
- Colored markers
- Scissors
I traced most of the kids hands for them in pencil. Then, I told them to decorate their hand however they liked. I showed them the Pinterest picture that we were following.
During the activity, we just chatted. I was able to get an informal sample of how each student was doing with their goals in a casual conversational setting (usually this is very informative). We talked about their speech-language schedule for the year, reviewed goals, and reviewed the “rules of the classroom”. (I use the Whole Brain Teaching Rules. If you are not familiar with them here is a link http://www.wholebrainteaching.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=160:five-classroom-rules&Itemid=127And here is a link to the Free Download of the Posters I use from Mrs. Magee on Teachers Pay Teachers http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Whole-Brain-Teaching-Rules-Posters-FREE-292602
The older students cut out their finished hand, however, in the interest of time, I did it for the younger students. For my students with special needs, we used this as a following-directions and labeling colors activity. They loved it!
Have students put their name on one of the fingers of their hand so it will be visible in the finished product.
I just used bulletin board paper for the background, the saying and the flower stem and leaves. I wrote the quote in freehand (sometimes my art background comes in handy). To create the flower, just start with the outer edges of it, I just visualized a big circle. You could do a light pencil outline if you need to. Then start stapling on the larger hands and spiral your way to the center. The kids love the finished product and are having fun finding their hands. Such a great message too!
Hey there I’m Anne Page. I help heart centered SLPs and educators put the fun in functional communication. 