The New Normal

I'm sorry I have been absent for so long. We have had many life changes in the past few months- mainly the birth of our second child. I thought I was ready, but, whew, was I ever wrong!

I returned to work at the beginning of March and feel like I stepped into a tornado with IEPs and reports and meetings. Not to mention, I have a newborn and toddler at home. I look around at all the co-workers who have so much more going on that I do and wonder how they keep it together. What is their secret? I don't think there is a secret. It is always just one day at a time and one foot in front of another. We don't ever really know the storms other people are wading through.

Finally, I am feeling like I am getting into a new groove and finding our new normal. I hope to be back posting regularly as I have had so many exciting things I have been working on to use in therapy. I have some new literacy units that I am excited to share and some new books that I have come across that I have fallen in love with.

I hope that you are surviving your spring dash to end.

Thanks for your patience, friends.

Happy New Year

I have been absent for a little while due to the holidays and some big family changes. But now I am back.

I hope that my fellow school clinicians enjoyed a break and have come back refreshed. I know that I needed a little break from one of the most difficult starts to a school year I have had. I am eager to finish this year strong and make it my best one yet.

Over the holidays I caught a segment on one of the morning shows about choosing a word to define your year instead of choosing resolutions. You think about what is holding you back, what you need, what you can give, etc. Then when you have that word you apply it your life. I had not heard of this concept before, though when I brought it up to my family, my sister and brother had already heard of it. Most of my family had already chosen their words. I had a difficult time with mine. Today my sister sent me content from Ali Edwards (http://aliedwards.com/blog/one-little-word) where she has monthly prompts and a group to share how the word is evolving in their lives. I will admit; I stole my word from her. When I saw her word it grabbed me: THRIVE. I don't want to just survive in my life and my job; I want to THRIVE.

My beginning of the year post was about school year resolutions. I am still striving to live up to those resolutions but I thought that I would try this in place of my personal/professional New Year's Resolutions.

What would your word be for 2014?

Barn Dance! Language through Literacy

Whew! This is quite a time of year for the speech therapist. In our district we have December 1st deadlines to get children counted towards our teacher units. There is always a great deal of testing to be done in October and November for us, as I'm sure there is for everyone else as well.

So, what did I do before leaving for the break? I'm so glad you want to know.

I used Barn Dance! by Bill Martin Jr. and John Archambault (Authors) and Ted Rand (Illustrator) with my language groups. Most teachers are familiar with Bill Martin Jr. from his work with Eric Carle. This book is more complex in its story, but has a beautiful rhythm for which Mr. Martin seems to be known.

I have criteria for choosing my literature to use with my language groups. I usually try to make sure that my literature is entertaining, has clear characters, that comprehension questions can be asked, and that the story can be retold. (I may have to do another post on all my criteria, but this hits the high points.) It doesn't mean that by not meeting the criteria a book is bad; it just means that I want specific skills addressed when working with my language impaired children, and I look for literature that supports those skills. 

This book was entertaining. It is about a boy who sneaks out of his house in the middle of the night to witness a hoedown hosted by the scarecrow in the barn. The boy and the scarecrow are clear characters but most of the other characters are only mentioned once. The specifics of this story might be hard to retell though the overall events could be retold fairly easily. I mainly chose this book because of the cadence, the fun illustrations, the ability to lead into other activities, and the feeling it evoked. To me, this book is best paired with some other activities.

During the story we identified animals, any unfamiliar vocabulary, identified actions words, and of course, worked on our rhyming. 

With my lower groups I pulled out the ever faithful Fisher-Price Farm. This farm is something I purchased very early on in my speech therapy career and has been invaluable throughout the career. Anyway, after reading the book and identifying animals throughout and talking about what they were doing, I used the fisher price farm animals. I gave the children some directions with the animals. (Put the cow in the hayloft, put the horse in the stable, etc.) For some reason, my kids always need a whole lot of work with directions and the more complex prepositions. My lower functioning kids love to make the animal noises. My barn has the sounds so sometimes we discuss whether the sounds match the animal I have put in place to trigger the sounds. 

We closed by doing our own mini square dance. I downloaded Turkey in the Straw.  Before listening to the song we discussed that the animals in the book danced to music. I told them that there was a type of dancing called square dancing and we were going to try. We made a circle, I called out simple directions (circle left, stop, circle right, stop, in, out, stop, hands down, clap in rhythm, stop, march, etc.)  We practiced all of these directions. Then I put on the music, The kids loved it. Because this can get out of hand quickly, I set the volume low and gave instructions in a soft tone of voice.  

I wanted to make a scarecrow craft incorporating listening and directions, but I ran out of time. I will have to do that next year. I have also heard of other people making haystack snacks to accompany this book. I will have to try that next time.

The kids enjoyed this activity as much as I did. I love to incorporate movement into my therapy as much as I can. 

I have included a link to my rhyming freebie here. I hope you enjoy this and it sparked some ideas for you. 

This post does include amazon affiliate links.

A Time to Be Thankful

I think that we often skip over Thanksgiving as we are rushing towards Christmas. I know that many people post something they are thankful for every day on facebook in the month of November. I won't make an exhaustive facebook list, but I felt like I needed to take some time to say what I was thankful for as far as being a speech therapist.

This school year has been one of the most difficult ones I've had since I have come to the schools. There are more children with more diverse needs and less of us to serve them. There is more paperwork and more accountability and many more extra responsibilities but there are still so many children to see.

I feel like the times that things are difficult are the most important times to stop and give thanks; otherwise, all perspective can be lost.

1.  I am thankful I have a job where I am needed- by the children and by the staff. I feel fairly secure that my job will not be going anywhere any time soon.

2.  I am thankful that for the majority of my children I see progress. Sometimes it feels like I am spinning my wheels, but when I look at the data I can see forward momentum, and that is exciting.

3.  I am thankful I knew what I wanted to do from the time I was in highschool and that I still find joy in this profession.

4.  I am thankful that there are ways to be creative in the therapy room and outside the therapy room The amount of creativity and thoughtfulness going into language and speech therapy at this time is mind blowing.

5.  I am thankful that I am not done learning things yet. Every week brings new challenges but new opportunities to overcome those challenges.


I hope that this November finds you with many blessings and time to reflect on those.

Halloween, Books, Language, and Articulation - An Activity Round-Up

Most of the kids on my caseload LOVE  Halloween. Next to Christmas this may be the best time of year to elicit language and speech from the children. They have so much to talk about. The vocabulary is rich and not very common so is a great way teach vocabulary and context.

Here is a great little articulation resource from SubLime Speech



 It is a great little freebie that you can get here.  Like I've said before- teachers love a good freebie!

So what books do I enjoy using in my therapy classes? I'm so glad you asked. : )

This year I have been digging Click, Clack, Boo : A Tricky Treat a new book by Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin. I was fortunate to be able to hear them present this book and the original Click, Clack, Moo while they were on a book tour.

This book has been a hit for several reasons. First of all, the children love it. They love the sound effects and the art work. I love it because, again, the vocabulary of Halloween is uncommon and provides a rich opportunity to add new interesting vocabulary. Another bonus: there are many opportunities for practicing articulation skills. (I included articulation listening sheets in my TPT packet based on this book.) But, it works just as well to read the book and ask questions based on whatever articulation sound the child is working on. I love to do this for my articulation kids as often times therapy can get boring with straight drills. This is especially great for articulation and language kids. One feature about this book that makes it different is the being able to practice  "reading between the lines." For example, in the first barn party scene it is important to note the prizes being awarded at the party. And, of course, I love anything with humor.

For my lower level kids we have acted out the sound vocabulary in the book: tapping, creaking from opening the door, crunching by running through the leaves, etc. I also put the sound vocabulary on some single switch buttons and have had them activate the switch at the appropriate time in the story.  (My non verbal kids LOVE switches.)

Some of the other books I utilize in October are: Sheep Trick or Treat, The Costume Contest (a Clifford book) and Just Say Boo. (My lower level kids love Just Say Boo!)

What are some of your favorites for Halloween?

Here's a link to my Click, Clack, Boo unit on TPT. 

Supervising and Mentoring

Mentoring and Supervising

Every year since I have been in the public school setting I have had a student clinician or at least shared one from a local graduate program with another therapist in the district. I have always felt like this is an important way that I can give back to the profession that has given so much to me.

I also felt like it was important to provide a thoughtful, well planned, and educational experience for my grad students as they were completing their coursework. I unfortunately had an educational supervisor that did not seem to enjoy her job, was not very helpful, and did not want to hear anything I had to say. I was also fortunate enough to have a medical setting supervisor, Mrs. P.,  that was incredible. She had enthusiasm for the job, connection with her patients, and a compassion I want to emulate. She helped me, pushed me, taught me, and basically instilled a great deal of confidence that I could do this job. I owe a great deal to her.  I had another wonderful CFY supervisor, Mrs. J.,  who gave me some of the best career advice I’ve ever received. She taught me a great deal about professionalism and some important lessons about boundaries and priorities.

As a supervisor, I have had some very good students that I hope I helped or inspired in some small way. I feel like they have gone on to be successful and productive members of our profession. There was one student that I shared with another therapist that we were not so sure about- that will be a topic for another blog post.

I have had one CFY to mentor. That was a great experience. We actually had several CFY’s in our district this year so several of us exchanged ideas and helped one another with supervising.

I thought I would pass along a few tips that worked  for us. Every time I supervise someone whether it be a grad student or a CFY I like to evaluate  what worked and what didn't. 

1. Know ASHA’s guidelines for supervision

This includes your roles and the overview of your CFY’s needs. Check it out here. I had to review this document and accompanying documents several times as it has been over a decade (cough, cough) since I completed mine, and some of the standards have changed. Though we are responsible for knowing our roles, we told our fellows that they were the main people responsible for making sure that all the conditions of their CFY were met. They were responsible for letting us know if we were leaving anything out.

2. Schedule Consistent Times to Mentor/Observe

Part of the requirements is 36 hours of supervision, 18 of which need to be direct observation of client/therapist interaction. I have time slots set aside for my student which is ever changing as we are in the midst of initial testing and scheduling for the year. I have a documentaion page of supervision here. ASHA does not require this but I have found this to be helpful for two reasons. 1: It shows our CFY’s that we are professionals that take fulfilling our work and ethical responsibilities seriously and 2. There’s no way I would remember how much time I spent doing what without this. I plan on keeping a copy and giving one to my student at the end of the year.

3. Have a Plan for the Entire Year

I wrote out a syllabus for the year that we would follow. We are fortunate that we have separate monthly staff meetings for our district speech therapy team. I tried to organize our items as we would need them (i.e. grades/progress reports the first of the year, testing and eligibility early in the year, etc.)

4. Be available.

This is where it is very tricky. You have to be able to observe and mentor. The mentoring includes making sure all paperwork is understood and procedures are followed. If you work in a school system, it is very hard to have open slots in your schedule. Most days we are back to back with therapy. This is where our caseload/workload concept comes into play. Utilizing 5 minutes sessions, consultative services, going into the classroom for collaborative services, etc. This is an area that I am still trying to improve every year seeing what works and what doesn’t. 

If you truly do not have time to meet the requirements of being a good supervisor then you don’t need to have a CFY. That is the bottom line. It is not a fit for everyone, but for those that can do it, you should do it. I think back to Mrs. P and Mrs. J. and the impact they both made on me as a clinician. I don’t think I would be where I am without the time I had with them.

You also don't have to be an official supervisor to be a great mentor to someone younger. Your experience could make all the difference to someone less experienced in the field.

What are some of the things that you have learned from your mentors or by being a mentor?

The Speech Therapist Mother

Everyone tells you that having a child changes everything. And, of course, it does.

I have another cliche to add to the mix. Being a speech therapist changes the way you mother. Every colleague I have ever had shares the same view. From the moment you look at a sonogram and ask if all the craniofacial features look good to popping open your minute-old child's mouth to check for cleft to fretting over every communication milestone - yes, you know that your profession has changed you. We are victims of knowing too much about what can go wrong developmentally. The low percentage children are the ones we see 90% of the time. We know the struggles a child and a family can face.

We beat ourselves up if we are not reading 10 books a day or put on a DVD so that we can have a moment to go to the bathroom in peace. We keep count of how many words our child has at any given moment and cringe at even the developmentally appropriate articulation errors. We parallel talk to the point of being sick of our own voices. We OBSESS over developmental milestones. Our professional knowledge makes us crazy!

But, there is the another side to being a mother who is a speech therapist.

Many friends have said to me that you spend the first year of your child’s life trying to get them to talk and the rest of it trying to get them to shut up. I know that this is meant to be funny, but I can't bring myself to even joke about this. Communication is such an integral part of who we are and how we connect. My child’s words, phrases, vocal play, and sentences,  (though loud and repetitive at times), are a joy to me. I have worked with far too many parents who would do anything to be able to hear their child speak. 

There are many things I take for granted (though I try not to), but communication is not one of them.

I hope it never is.