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!