Amen, brother

Me: "Alright, go ahead and color The Giant Stomping Sound picture."
Very unintelligible cutie-pie: "He bi'er da me!" (He's bigger than me!)
Me: "Yep, he's bigger than you. He's even bigger than the house."
Cutie-pie: "Yeah. Bu nah bi'er da Do!" (Yeah. But not bigger than God!)

Melt my heart!

No title can express.....

This is a good one. I mean a REALLY good one. I'm not sure I can explain it in a way to fully capture it's awesomeness.

I was playing bowling today at the end of my session with one of my kids who has been begging me to bowl for weeks. If you remember Batman, that's the guy. There are two balls that belong to the bowling set. At the end of the session, as we are picking up the pins and putting them away, Batman picked up the balls and put them on his ears to be funny. We laugh, haha. Then he puts them on his head, more laughs. I turn away to continue picking up the pins and then hear, "Hey look!" I turn around to see Batman holding the two bowling balls in the position of......you guessed it, boobs.

Hyper-excited

I have to say, although I was uneasy (ok petrified) at the beginning of the year when I realized I had students with nasality issues on my caseload, I now find it to be somewhat invigorating to get to try new things and come up with my own solutions.

Today, I am happy to report that my hypernasal “er” kid made a breakthrough. His /er/ sound was hypernasal basically because his tongue position was too high, (which is funny because that’s what I spend 99.9% of my time with /r/ kids trying to get them to do; hopelessly pleading “make that tongue high” “it’s being lazy!”). But, in this case, too high of a tongue means that air can’t escape through the mouth like it’s supposed to, and instead the air goes through the nose. Which ain’t right.

We spent weeks of doing “yawning” exercises (which was the only technique I could find in my hopeless and tedious researching) in order to relax and help approximate the back of his tongue into a lower position. It was helpful, but only about 70% successful. It was time to move on, but I didn't know to what. However, today, in the middle of therapy no less, I had a “lightbulb” moment. I realized that prevocalic /r/ was essentially “normal” for this kid. So, we drilled prevocalic /r/ words (words with /r/ at the beginning of words like “red” “reel” “road” “rope”), then after awhile I started having him produce /er/ in front of these words. I would have him say “rope” then “erope”, nice and short. This worked fabulously for getting that lower /er/ sound established. After only about 20 words practiced this way, I went back to the more “traditional” /er/ words (urban, bird, mother, teacher, etc.) and voila! Just like that we were at about 90% accuracy with only needing 1 yawn cue to re-establish that lower tongue!

I think that is what makes working with these kids actually kinda fun. I can use what I know and then tweak it until I find something that works. I kinda feel like a scientist.

Gobble-Gobble

This activity is not on my list of most successful activities ever......Nevertheless, it is my one Thanksgiving activity, and at least I tried! I had students create complex sentences using the conjunction "because". I am thankful for_________ because_________________. Some of them did a really nice job with it......others not so much. I probably needed a little more set-up, and the whole thing was quite rushed. But, at least I now have some cute Turkeys outside of my door, I just hope no one looks too closely!

A drop for your bucket

I was so mean to my kids today. I mean, not brutal or anything, I was just quickly and easily aggravated with them, and no one really had a lot of fun.

Then, when I was leaving my classroom for the day, I found a really nice note (it was called a drop for your bucket, which I then had to research because I had never heard of it! http://strengths.gallup.com/116275/Drops.aspx) that someone left on my door. It really made me step back and re-evaluate my attitude about today. I came to the realization that I have to decide to make it a good day for my students even when I am not feeling it.

Product Reviews

With a Super Duper gift certificate that was given to me, and with the "start-up" funds provided by my county, I have really gotten to explore and find some cool products that have been so helpful in addressing my students' needs. Here is a list of a few of my favorites:

HearBuilder Following Directions: This targets so many levels of following simple and complex directions. And of course, since it is a computer "game" it is fun and motivating for all of the kids I use this with! Also, I love that I can put a kid on the computer to work independently, because I can then work more intensely with the other students in the group.

 

Season to Reason: This has all sorts of grammar practice cards corresponding to the 4 seasons. The grammar cards include: completing sentences, creating sentences, fixing sentences, and combining sentences. It also includes "bonus cards" which help turn the activity into a fun game for the kids. I have used this with more of my students than I thought I would, and they all love and often request to play!

Social Inferences Fun Deck: This deck has been awesome because I have used it for many, many students. I of course use it with kids working on social language and understanding inferences. I have also used it with kids working on descriptive language (they look at the picture and tell what they think is going to happen then they can flip it over to see if they are right!). I have also used this deck for kids working on written and auditory comprehension skills. The decoder makes it way "cool" in the eyes of the kids.

Honorable mentions:

Auditory Memory High-Interest Quick Stories (Another computer program. It also includes a workbook of extra support materials. Says it's appropriate for 1-5, but I would say it's really targeted to 3-5.)

What Would You Do If......? Fun Decks (Useful with a lot of students, working on pragmatic skills and conversation skills!)

Topic Talk (Always a goodie, I use this a couple of times a week in therapy and evaluations.)
Say and Do Social Scenes for Home, School, and Community (I have not used this for what I originally planned on using it for, but it has been perfect for RTI for pragmatic skills and even auditory comprehension.)

Ode to Febreze

If the kids are noticing it, then it's bad. In the words of one of my 3rd graders:

"Who reeeeeks?!? UGGGGGGH."

So thank you Febreze Air Effects for all that you do. 

P.S. My current fave scent is Cranberries and Frost. It is yummy!

A box full of rrrrrrrr

My two /r/ girls have been working on these "R" boxes for a month now. The girls first filled the boxes with: /r/ and /er/ pictures, /r/ and /er/ sentences, and then conversation topics. After that, I let them go at it with all of my art supplies! Here's the finished project, aren't they about the most beautiful things you've ever seen? I'm sending them home next week so that they can practice at home!

Fall Fun!

I am so excited to officially be in the "holiday season"! This means staying late to work on fun activities like this pumpkin patch where my artic kids write their artic words/sentences on pumpkins.

And this, where my younger students get to work on their basic concepts and following directions!

Test

I had my first true test of my behavior management skills today. I am sad to report that I failed miserably.

Just when I felt like I was really getting the hang of all of this too!

Are you getting married?

Somehow, a few of my kids have discovered that I am getting married soon. They like to ask me about it a lot. The other day one asked me when I was getting married. When I told him in December, his response was:

"Ohhhh. What a rooomantic Christmas wedding!" 

Complete with googly eyes.

100 Challenge

I have now made it my goal to come up with one fun activity for every week. Last week it was the Autumn Leaves display, and this week is the the Amazing 100 Challenge! This one is (once again) for only my artic kids. Their challenge is to have 100 productions (of words or sentences, whatever they are working on!) in one session. If they complete the challenge, they will get to sign their name on the poster outside of my door and they will get a yummy prize! I have been preparing them all week. They have all been quite observant-they are so intrigued and excited by the sign (see below) that is now hanging above my treatment table. I am trying to make it mysterious by not telling them when they will complete the challenge. I will put postcards with their names on them around the sign on the day they are to complete the challenge. I think that I will complete this challenge a couple of times a year; especially on the 100th day of school!

Autumn display

This is my feeble attempt to have an outside display. Basically, I have had my artic kids write their "favorite words" that they have been working on. My sentence level kids have been writing sentences. Of course, my /l/ kids have been strongly encouraged to write sentences about leaves :)

Door

This is my kids one last chance to convince me that they actually know/remember why they come to speech. Nothing irks me more than to ask my kids, "What do you do in speech?" and to have them answer "play games." Not to mention the fact that my kids maybe get to play one game a week, most of them don't even get that! My goal for them is to have them clearly understand and be able to explain why they are coming to speech class. So far, I have felt good about using this with my speech only kids, my language kids have proven to be a bit more challenging.

Cold

Having a cold+trying to treat nasality=bad therapy session

It's the boomerang-rang-rang

"You wanna know why I can't say my r's? Cause a couple of years ago I got hit in the head by a boomerang. And now I can't say my r's."

I love the kitty boy!

My name is Skippito Friskito.
I fear not a single bandito.
My manners are mellow,
I'm sweet like the Jell-O,
I get the job done, yes indeed-o.

10 fingers and toes

Batman tried to convince me he only had 8 toes today. Well, maybe not quite convince me, I think he just considered it a matter-of-fact that he has 8 toes. I couldn't quite make him understand that everyone has 10 toes so he probably does too. I almost made him take his shoes and socks off and count, but he moves like a sloth so I figured the process would be more time-consuming than it was worth.

You can't laugh!

There are times when it is really hard for me to remember that I can't laugh at my kids. Today was definitely one of those times. We were doing an opening "discussion" using a free language worksheet from Super Duper. It basically described how "today is Good Neighbor Day" and had a short paragraph and the question "Who is a good neighbor to you?" I had my kids answer the question and then write what makes the person the chose a good neighbor. One of my darlings wrote this:

"The mexicans is good neighbors cuz they are nice."

Oh, bliss.

Student Self-Evaluation

I have been using this self-evaluation form with 2 of my students. I think I am going to start using it with more. My goal is to make my students more aware of what they are doing in speech instead of just practicing without thinking about it. I have given them an area to take their "data" with checks and minuses, and an area to "assess" their work. I set the kids up with their own mirror, clipboard, pencil, and form and then let them choose their own target words. They get to be the therapist!

I'm still working out a few kinks in it to make it work a little smoother and more intuitive for the kiddos, but here's draft 1:

Jessica’s Speech Therapy Progress
Date:	Goal 1:	Goal 2:	Progress:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:
	Total:	Total:	I did better/worse than last time. What I can do better:

It's more of a snail's pace

I finally, FINALLY have 1 kid "officially" in Tier 2, 1 "officially" in Tier 3, and one "officially" recommended for a speech evaluation. Can't wait until tomorrow, that list will get a little bit longer. This is fortunate and unfortunate. Fortunate in that it has been 3 weeks since K and 2nd screenings were conducted and I am just now getting to the point where I can actually get to the kids! Unfortunate because, if at the end of this RTI process I have to test and place all of these kids,I don't know what I'm going to do. I've got about 17 starting in the process. I definitely do not have the room for all of these kids in my schedule. I'm not sure what to do because I weeded the Kindergarteners from 44 students who failed to 12 who will be put in tiers, so I feel like I really do have it down to the kids who truly need help! I have tried to pick a few kids to tell the teachers that I really think they can and should make progress in Tier 2 and that I don't want to move them any further along in the process. I really think they can, but on the other hand the teachers are extremely concerned and leery about providing speech intervention. And to be perfectly honest, I hate to give them any more responsibility than they've got.

On a good note, I am in the process of dismissing 2 students from speech with another 2 on my "dismissal radar"!

Like I said, finally making progress, and it feels so good!