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.

Happy Fall Reinforcement Freebie

Does anyone get more excited about dollar bin items than a teacher? I doubt it.

When I was out Target a few weekends ago I perused through their dollar area and found  these little plastic pumpkins. (They also had leaves and acorns.) My kids LOVE anything that is jewel like, so I snatched up 3 of the pumpkin packages. I knew I could use them for some fun reinforcement.

I like fast reinforcers. In therapy, I don’t like to use games that take a million years to set up, take a lot of time per turn, have a lot of pieces, take up a ton of space, are noisy, etc. My goal is always to get the most target sound or language practice out of my kids. I also need items that travel well and are easy to use in a variety of settings.

Here is what I came up with to go along with my pumpkin jewels, but you don’t need the jewels to play this. It works with any tokens, dots, or coloring. I even filled in words on top of the pictures for home reinforcement of speech sounds.

 

I field tested, and the kids LOVED it.

Here is a link to the FREE reinforcement pages in my TPT store.  (The only thing a teacher likes better than a dollar bin find is a freebie.)

Happy fall!

The Carrot Seed - And Some Tips for Using Literature with Lower Functioning Kids

 The Carrot Seed is a classic book by Ruth Krauss and Crockett Johnson. This is a short simple story about a boy planting his carrot seed and waiting for it to grow.

I love to use this book with my younger, lower functioning children. The book is extremely short, has very simple pictures, simple vocabulary, and simple language.

Many years ago, when I first started working as a therapist, I was afraid of the lower functioning kids. Like so many, I like to see that spark in a kids eyes when they "get it." Lower language functioning kids didn't always give me that immediate feedback that I needed. Now, after many years doing this, I feel that working with the lower functioning groups is one of my stronger areas. Silence does not always mean that something is not happening.

So what do I do? Well, some of this is a bit obvious, but there may be a few tips for the less than experienced therapist.

First, know your audience. This book is perfect for ones that can't attend very long or can't handle a lot of busy pages.

Preteach any vocabulary that may be new.  I know I was taught this as a sacred rule somewhere along the way, but here's my confession. I don't always preteach the vocab! Sometimes the vocabulary lends itself to being taught in context of the story. I may ask personal questions about the topic the book covers. For instance, for The Carrot Seed I may ask, "Has anyone every planted anything before?" If I am working with verbal children I may get an answer that we can discuss. Then I tell them we are going to read a book about a little boy who plants a carrot seed. We explore the cover of the book, and if the group is high functioning enough, we may ask for predictions.

Next, and this is obvious, I read with expression. I'm not one to have different voices for every character or to go over the top; that just doesn't feel natural to me. But, I always put some excitement into what I am reading.

One thing I love to do with this book is to act out the actions because they are so simple: plant, water, pull the weeds, etc. This is a great way to keep your kids engaged and can be done hand over hand. I believe movement with language builds strong pathways neurologically.

I try to work with assistive technology as much as possible. This may be as simple as bringing in a single switch device loaded with a repetitive phrase from the story. In this case, "It won't come up," is the phrase I chose.  While one child activated the device I had the others shake their fingers and heads while the phrase was being said.

I ask questions throughout the story. I ask children to identify different objects or people on the page.We make predictions if appropriate.

Finally, when we are done, I go through it again with their help. I make places for pauses so that they can fill in the blanks.


I always try to do some extension activities with my lower functioning kids. I may have a fingerplay or song or rhyme. For this book I bring in different gardening tools, in this case a shovel, rake, pot, seeds, gloves etc.  (The toy lawnmower would have been fun but my thearpy bag was too full so I had to leave it!) We identify and go through the actions of using each device. Because it was the beginning of the year when I did this, I also brought in some school supplies. My higher functioning kids made two piles, one for garden items and one for school supplies. You could also have pictures on your phone or ipad or off the web if you are a traveling therapist.

And, because parent communication is one of my goals this year. I sent home a take home language sheet where the parents can reinforce some of the ideas we covered in class.You can get that FREE sheet from my TPT store here.

Simple book. Simple tips. Maybe a few new ideas.

I also have a language unit to accompany this book that covers sequencing, vocabulary, colors, letters/sounds, categories, counting, comprehension and object function that would be appropriate for lower level kids. You can get that here.

*One thing you should note about the book- it does have the father with a pipe. My kids didn't really even notice, but I would want you to know that ahead of time.

How are you overcoming the challenges of using literature with lower functioning kids?

Happy New (School) Year

At the beginning of every school year I always make some new year's resolutions. I try to pick 2-3 things that I want to improve upon. The past couple of years have been about stepping up my language group planning and how I track their progress. This year communication with parents and teachers is a top priority. I have also had resolutions concerning testing more quickly, making articulation groups more fun, staying more current on research, etc. Just like real New Year's Resolutions I don't meet all of my goals every year. But I am constantly self assessing and seeing the areas that I feel need improvement.

Many times, as a speech therapists, we are on our own. We are not closely supervised in the therapy room nor do we have a set curriculum. Most of the time, as long as our paperwork is done on time and correctly our supervisors are happy.

The endless paperwork is not my favorite part of the job. The way that I can still be creative in the therapy room and have the freedom to change what isn't working are some of my favorite parts of the job. But, I feel like there is a need to be able to honestly assess our own strengths and weaknesses, which can be hard.

Here are a few ways I have found helpful to assess myself.

1.)  Am I aligning what I am doing with what is most important in the classroom, at home, and to the child?

2.)  What was a supervisor or parent not pleased with last year? (This is an obvious one. I think that we all tend to dwell on this beyond what we should.) Recognize when you've made a mistake, take responsibility, try to fix it, and move on.

3.)  Where am I seeing the least amount of progress? What can I do to improve that? Collaboration is key here. What are good therapists doing to be successful in the areas with which I am struggling? Do I need more continuing education in an area or just some fresh ideas? Social media has made it so much easier to find out what others are doing to be successful.

4.)  Where is the greatest amount of my stress at work coming from? What are steps that I can take to reduce that stress? We can't always change the things that stress us out, but I have found that there are many ways to make situations better. (i.e. more parent communication, being more organized, more communication with classroom teachers, etc.)

5.)  What do I need to do to help myself stay excited about what I do?


I have read through ASHA's performance assessment guide. I was scared and inspired at the same time. I don't live up to all of the standards yet. Do I want to? Yes. I hope to live up to these standards and my own by making improvements every year.

Do you make New School Year Resolutions?