Why Use AAC for Toddlers or Children?

AAC devices are augmentative/alternative communication systems that allow a person to communicate with those around them without speaking.  There are many different types of AAC but the most common are high-tech AAC Devices that allow a person to push a button to speak a message.  These are helpful for children or adults who have either lost the ability to speak or who are not able to speak well enough to clearly communicate everything that they want to say.

So why would you need to use AAC with a toddler or child and how does it work?

Why to Use AAC Podcast:

Today we’re talking about how, when, and why to use AAC or augmentative-alternative communication devices and systems.  AAC allows children who are not able to talk to use something else to communicate with those around them.  Every child has the right to communication and it is our job as speech-language pathologists to figure out a way for every child to do just that.

This podcast will go over the basics of what is AAC, how to use it to help a child communicate, when it is appropriate to use AAC, and why it should be considered as an option for non-verbal and minimally-verbal children.  Click the play button below to hear the whole podcast, or scroll down to read the quick notes:

AAC Starter Kit

Everything You Need to Trial AAC with a Child

Show Notes:

What is Augmentative/Alternative Communication (AAC)?

AAC is the term used to describe any form of communication that a person can use that is not speech.  This may include pointing to pictures of what the person wants, using sign language, or using a device that will speak a message when a specific button is pushed.

When Should AAC be Considered for a Child?

AAC should be considered for any child when his/her speech output is not adequate to communicate everything that the child wants/needs to communicate.

Things to consider:

 What Prerequisite Skills Does a Child Need Before Trying AAC?

In short, there are no skills that a child MUST have before AAC can be tried.  Though, here are a few of the common misconceptions about this:

These are commonly used as excuses why AAC devices should not be attempted with children but these are WRONG:

For more information about these “prerequisites”, click the link: http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/what-are-the-prerequisites-for-using-an-aac-device-augmentativealternative-communication/

Options for AAC devices, methods, and systems

Download the free PDF cheat sheet of the different types of AAC here:

How to Introduce the System:

Make it as natural as possible.  Think of it as similar to how you would encourage a late talker to talk.

Get Familiar with the Child’s System Model AAC Use Around the Child Encourage the Child When he Attempts to Use it and Provide Differential Reinforcement Have the Device Present at All Times Set Up Opportunities for the Child to Use the AAC Device (in the classroom, at home, in speech, etc.) Train Other Adults on How to Set Up Opportunities and Provide Differential Reinforcement

For more info on getting started, click the link: http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/help-child-use-aac-home-classroom-hint-easier-think/

AAC Starter Kit

Everything You Need to Trial AAC with a Child

AAC Devices Course

Guide to Using AAC with Non-Speaking Children

Free Therapy Materials for Teaching Words with AAC:

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

6 Tips for Encouraging a Child to Use their AAC System

AAC Cheat Sheet

AAC and Autism Handout: Giving a Child a Voice with AAC

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Why Use AAC for Toddlers or Children? appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark discusses the benefits of groups speech therapy for children and why speech therapists group children together.  Carrie also discusses the types of cases that benefit from individual therapy.

Benefits of Group Speech Therapy:

Time Constraints

Peer Support/Normalization

Increased Awareness of Skills

Learning Through Teaching

Benefits of Perspective Taking

Practice with Peers/Better Generalization

When Individual Therapy is Needed:

Children with Severely Limited Attention

Children in Certain Stages of Learning with Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Children who aren’t Making Progress with Group Therapy

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

Carrie’s Best Tools to Simplify your Life:

You have a lot on your plate.  Let me help with that!

I’ve put together my best resources here.  Whether you’re streamlining your job as a speech-language professional, helping your child with his communication challenges, or trying to meet the diverse needs of your students, I’ve got you covered.

Choose the resource that you need most right now:

Watch “Quick Tip” Videos on Instagram

Access Carrie’s Free Material Library

Get Materials and Support in The Hub

Grab our Full Language Curriculum

The post Why Do Speech Therapists Group Children Together? appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of The Speech and Language Kids Podcast, speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark discusses what speech therapists can do to help with literacy (reading and writing) skills in children and adolescents.

What is Literacy?

Why do Children with Speech and Language Delays have Trouble with Literacy?

What Does ASHA Say About our Role?

Roles for Speech-Language Pathologists

Prevention—Communicating risk factors to teachers and parents, and working with them to develop programs to help children acquire explicit, age-appropriate knowledge, skills and strategies of the components of language that contribute to reading and writing development.

Identifying At-Risk Children—Assisting in development and implementation of screening (e.g., instruments and teacher observation checklists) and referral procedures for very young children, as well as older school-age children, including modifying procedures to reduce bias (e.g., dynamic assessment techniques and criterion referenced tasks) for culturally and linguistically diverse populations.

Assessing—Selecting, implementing, adapting, and interpreting assessment tools and methods to evaluate skills in spoken language, reading, writing and spelling.

Providing Intervention—Collaborating with teachers and families to plan intervention goals and activities, as well as modifying curricula to keep students progressing in the general education curriculum.

Documenting Outcomes—Establishing a tracking system for identifying new or re-emerging literacy deficits and documenting outcomes of intervention goals and plans.

Program Development—Directing or participating in teams to develop school or system-wide strategic approaches to early identification and intervention for children with reading deficits.

Advocating for Effective Literacy Practices—Providing information about literacy development to state and local agencies that plan and evaluate curricula, establish comprehensive assessments and set related policies; educating them about relationships between spoken language and written language (i.e., reading, writing and spelling) and the benefits of collaborative instructional approaches.

Advancing the Knowledge Base—Conducting scientifically-based research on early literacy development.

Free Pre-Writing Organizers:

Need more resources for helping children with literacy?  Check out our free pre-writing organizers here:

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

Carrie’s Best Tools to Simplify your Life:

You have a lot on your plate.  Let me help with that!

I’ve put together my best resources here.  Whether you’re streamlining your job as a speech-language professional, helping your child with his communication challenges, or trying to meet the diverse needs of your students, I’ve got you covered.

Choose the resource that you need most right now:

Watch “Quick Tip” Videos on Instagram

Access Carrie’s Free Material Library

Get Materials and Support in The Hub

Grab our Full Language Curriculum

The post The Speech Therapist’s Role in Reading and Writing in Children and Adolescents appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Hypernasality Speech Therapy: Treatment Ideas for Hypernasal Speech

Hypernasality occurs when a child speaks with too much nasal resonance.  Airflow tends to be directed up into the nasal cavity during speech instead of primarily through the oral cavity.  Nasal emission is when that air comes all the way out through the nose.  This can make a puffing or noisy sound in the nose during speech.  Here are the steps for therapy for both hypernasality and nasal emission.

Listen to the Podcast on Hypernasality Speech Therapy:

Hypernasality Therapy Kit

Worksheets for Reducing Nasal Emission and Hypernasality

Hypernasality Speech Therapy Goals:

Check out this sample goal for hypernasality speech therapy!  Keep in mind, you should modify this goal to meet the needs of each individual client or patient that you’re working with:

The patient will demonstrate appropriate oral and nasal resonance during a 30 minute unstructured conversation in 2 speaking settings with no more than 2 instances of hypernasality.

Therapy Phases for Hypernasality Speech Therapy:

Refer to ENT: All clients who exhibit voice issues should be referred to an ENT first to check the structures and functions and be cleared for therapy. If hypernasality is present, it may be secondary to a cleft palate and would need to be addressed first.  Discriminate Between Oral Vs. Hypernasal: The client will be able to discriminate between appropriate oral resonance and hypernasality during speech after listening to a speaker (live or recorded) 85% of the time independently on 3 out of 4 data collection days. Technique Practice: After the effective technique has been identified in therapy, the client will practice that  technique. Oral Resonance in Vowels: The client will use oral resonance when saying vowels  80% of the time with no more than 2 cues on 3 out of 4 data collection days. Oral Resonance in Words: The client will use oral resonance in words  80% of the time with no more than 2 cues on 3 out of 4 data collection days. Oral Resonance in Phrases : The client will use oral resonance in phrases  80% of the time with no more than 2 cues on 3 out of 4 data collection days Oral Resonance in Sentences: The client will use oral resonance in sentences 80% of the time with no more than 2 cues on 3 out of 4 data collection days. Oral Resonance when Reading: The client will use oral resonance when reading aloud independently 80% of the time with no more than 2 cues on 3 out of 4 data collection days. Oral Resonance in Conversation: The client will independently use oral resonance during conversation in the therapy setting with no more than 2 cues on 3 out of 4 data collection days. Generalize Oral Air Flow to Other Environments: Student will use correct oral airflow in a variety of situations and environments.

*** Discontinue Therapy if Not Making Progress: If no progress is made after 6 weeks, client should be re-evaluated by ENT.

Therapy Activities and Techniques for Hypernasality

Source:

The Voice and Voice Therapy, Seventh Edition: By Boone, McFarlane, and Von Berg

Additional Resources for Nasal Emission:

Hypernasality Therapy Kit

Worksheets for Reducing Nasal Emission and Hypernasality

Speech Therapy for Cleft Palate

Cheat Sheet

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Hypernasality Speech Therapy: Treatment Activities appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Stuttering Therapy Techniques:

The purpose of speech therapy for children who stutter is to help them learn how to communicate effectively and easily.  Sometimes that means eliminating the stutter all together, such as with preschoolers experiencing developmental disfluencies.  But often, especially for our older clients, the stuttering may never fully go away.  Our job then is to help them communicate to their best ability and to help them learn how to handle stuttering and disfluencies when they arise.

Take a look at our therapy ideas below.  Scroll down to the age group that you are working with and see what we recommend at each of these ages.  Or, check out our awareness and emotions therapy kit here.

Dealing with Emotions in Stuttering

Workbook to Deal with Negative Emotions

Jump to an Age Group:

Preschoolers

Elementary School

Middle School/High School

Stuttering Therapy Techniques for Preschoolers:

Many preschoolers go through periods of dysfluency where they will stutter off and on for a while.  This happens as their mouths are struggling to keep up with all of the things that their developing minds want to say.  For many children, this stuttering goes away on its own.  For others, they will develop persistent stuttering that will require more therapy.

Here are the “red flags” or warning signs that may indicate that a child is more likely to have persistent stuttering that will require therapy:

Source: http://www.stutteringhelp.org/risk-factors

Stuttering Therapy Activities for Preschoolers

For preschoolers, it’s usually a good idea to begin with indirect therapy as this will promote smoother speech without directly talking about the stutter (which can sometimes upset a child or cause more pressure).  If indirect therapy doesn’t work, or if the child is already upset by his/her stuttering, we can move to direct therapy activities.

Indirect Therapy:

Direct Therapy:

Stuttering Therapy Techniques for Elementary Age Children:

Once children enter school, if they are still stuttering then we are ready to start addressing the stuttering directly.  The stuttering therapy techniques you use at this age will depend on what each child needs.  But here are some simple stuttering therapy activities you can use to help children who stutter communicate more easily:

Stuttering Therapy Activities for Elementary School Aged Children:

1. Learn About the Respiratory System

Start by doing a lesson all about the respiratory system.  Use pictures, charts, models, or whatever you have available to you.  Practice inhalation and exhalation, as well as deep and shallow breathing with the students.  Talk about how we speak on exhalations and practice taking a deep breath in and then slowly exhaling while saying a single word.  Gradually increase to speaking in longer phrases and sentences while using gentle exhalations.  Talk about breathing timing during conversations (when to take a breath).

2. Practice Smooth, Prolonged Speech while Playing Games

Take whatever games you have available and practice using smooth, prolonged speech during those games.  For example, you can have children play “Go Fish” and make sure they slow down and elongate their words when asking “Do you have a…”.  Or, you can have them take a turn in a board game and use their slow, smooth speech to describe what happened (ex: “I rolled a four.  I’m going to move four spaces”).

3. Learn About the Types of Stuttering

Help students learn about the different types of stuttering and which ones they do.  Help them identify when they have stuttered and what type it was. Practice the different types of stutters to desensitize them to it.

4. Practice Fluency Shaping Techniques

Practice different techniques that help a child speak fluently for a period of time.  These include slow/stretchy speech, easy onset, yawn-sigh, etc.

4. Teach the Students Stuttering Modification Techniques

Help the students learn the different techniques they can use if they anticipate a stutter (preparatory set), are in the middle of a stutter (pull-out), or have stuttered and can’t move on (cancellations).  Practice demonstrating these while playing games (pretend to stutter so you can use a technique).

Stuttering Therapy Techniques for Middle School/High School Clients:

Now we’re ready to dive deeper. Older clients who stutter can benefit from learning these stuttering therapy techniques and practicing with these stuttering therapy activities:

Speech Modification (Fluency Shaping) Techniques:

Speech modification (including fluency shaping) strategies (Bothe, 2002; Guitar, 1982, 2013) include a variety of techniques that aim to make changes to the timing and tension of speech production or that alter the timing of pauses between syllables and words. These modifications are used regardless of whether a particular word is expected to be produced fluently. Strategies associated with speech modification include:

Other speech modification strategies, including appropriate use of pausing, are used not only to increase the likelihood of fluent speech production but also to improve overall communication skills (e.g., intelligibility, message clarity, etc.). In addition to being used for improving communication skills, pausing is also an effective method of rate control.

Keep in mind the child may be self-conscious about using these techniques.

Stuttering Modification Strategies (Reducing Physical Tension/Struggle)

Strategies For Reducing Negative Reactions (Personal And Environmental Context)

Click here to access our guided program for addressing negative emotions for clients who stutter (Inside The Hub)

Awareness and Emotions in Stuttering Therapy Kit:

Dealing with Emotions in Stuttering

Workbook to Deal with Negative Emotions

Listen to this as a podcast:

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I have a son with sensory seeking and some sensory avoiding behaviors.  As I type this, he is on my lap while I bounce him up and down on my knees because we are waiting for his brother to be done in a class.  We’ve found that giving him deep pressure is the best way to help his sensory needs.  We do big squeezes, wrap him in blankets, and push down on his head.  That one was the weirdest for me because I don’t enjoy that type of sensory but he LOVES it.  I just push on his head and he calms right down!

Connect with Me:

Carrie’s Best Tools to Simplify your Life:

You have a lot on your plate.  Let me help with that!

I’ve put together my best resources here.  Whether you’re streamlining your job as a speech-language professional, helping your child with his communication challenges, or trying to meet the diverse needs of your students, I’ve got you covered.

Choose the resource that you need most right now:

Watch “Quick Tip” Videos on Instagram

Access Carrie’s Free Material Library

Get Materials and Support in The Hub

Grab our Full Language Curriculum

The post Stuttering Therapy Techniques | Exercises and Activities appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Childhood Apraxia of Speech: How to Do Speech Therapy for CAS

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a rare, neurologically-based speech disorder where the child knows what he wants to say but the message gets mixed up in the motor-planning and execution phase so the sounds come out all wrong.

What are the Symptoms of Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

Though the diagnosis of CAS is relatively new, experts have agreed that CAS usually includes these 3 generally-agreed upon components:

No-Prep Therapy Kit for Apraxia

Teach CV, VC, and CVC Words to Children with Apraxia

Listen to the Podcast on Childhood Apraxia of Speech:

Sometimes it can be difficult to know exactly what you should be working on with your children with childhood apraxia of speech.  In this podcast episode, I break down speech sound learning in different levels.  Then, I give practical therapy activities that can be used for each level.  Click the play button below to listen to the entire episode.  Or, scroll down to see the notes below.

Free Therapy Levels Chart:

To get started, download the free PDF of the Skill Set Charts for Childhood Apraxia of Speech.  This will break down a nice order to help you determine what speech skill to work on next with a child with CAS:

Phases of Speech Therapy for Apraxia of Speech:

Apraxia of Speech Level 1:
Imitating Actions

Start Here For…

Therapy Activities

Apraxia of Speech Level 2:
Functional Sounds, Sound Effects, Vocalizations

Start Here For…

Therapy Activities

Apraxia of Speech Level 3:
Sound Combinations (CV, VC)

Start Here For…

Therapy Activities

Apraxia of Speech Level 4:
Repeated Strings of CV or VC

Start Here For…

Therapy Activities

Apraxia of Speech Level 5:
Add a Structure, Add a Sound

Start Here For…

Therapy Activities

Apraxia of Speech Level 6:
Sound Accuracy in Phrases and Sentences

Start Here For…

Therapy Activities

Apraxia of Speech Level 7:
Sound Accuracy in Connected Speech

Start Here For…

Therapy Activities (work on speaking clearly in tasks with increasing complexity, don’t move on until the previous level is clear)

Have the child describe pictures using full sentences (“the girl is walking her dog in the park”). Have the child complete automatic speech tasks like saying the pledge of allegiance or the months of the year. Have the child answer open-ended questions like “tell me about your last birthday party”. Have the child read a short paragraph. Have a conversation with the child about a specific topic with the expectation that you will be listening for his speech sounds. Listen for correct speech sounds in conversational speech and correct using feedback as needed.

No-Prep Therapy Kit for Apraxia

Teach CV, VC, and CVC Words to Children with Apraxia

Childhood Apraxia of Speech Course

2-Hour Course on How to Help Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Apraxia of Speech: Speech Therapy Activities for CAS appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Therapy for Non-Speaking Children: How to Boost Functional Communication Skills

Do you know a child with autism who isn’t able to communicate basic wants and needs?  Does the child lack the social skills to participate in social interactions?  Do you need a guide for how to improve functional communication in a young child with autism?

Well don’t you worry, you’ve come to the right place!  I’m going to show you the top four skills to start targeting to improve functional communication in a young children with autism or suspected autism.  Let me show you what those four skills are and how to work on them.  Click “play” on the player below to hear the entire episode, or scroll down to get the show notes below.

Therapy Kits for Non-Speaking Children

No-Prep Activities and Resources for Helping Non-Speaking Children Learn to Speak

Non-Speaking Therapy 1:
Establishing a Functional Communication System

All children have the right to communicate.  No disorder, disease, or physical limitation should be able to take that right away from them.  For that reason, it is our obligation to make sure that all children with autism have SOME way to communicate with us.  Speaking may be too hard for them so sometimes we need to come up with other ways of helping them communicate.  Here’s how we can do that:

Step One: Will Speech Work?

The first thing that we need to consider for a non-verbal or minimally-verbal child with autism is whether or not speaking is real option for them.  We can do this by asking the child to imitate basic speech tasks, like saying words or making sounds.  If the child is able to say words or make sounds in order to get something that he or she really wants, then we can say that speaking is definitely the best way to go to help that child communicate with us.  Speech is always the first option and we would love for all of our students with autism to speak to us.  However, some children simply aren’t able to talk right now, but that doesn’t mean that we give up on them and don’t provide them with an alternative.  If speech isn’t a viable option for the child you’re working with, move on to step two:

Step Two: Find an Alternative Means

Options for AAC Devices, Methods,
and Systems:

Step Three: Teach the AAC Method

Once you’ve found what works, use these steps to teach it:

How to Help a Child Use AAC at Home or in the Classroom (Hint: It’s easier than you think!)

Get Familiar with the Child’s Device Model use of the device around the child Encourage the child’s exploration of and attempts to use the AAC Have the device present at all times Set up opportunities for the child to use the device Get all adults on board

Non-Speaking Therapy Part Two:
Following Simple Directions

Click Here to Learn More about Teaching Following Directions

Make a list of common directions given to the child throughout the day Take/Make pictures of those directions Teach each direction individually Work those directions into daily routines using picture cues Fade the picture cues Work on following directions with more than one step

Non-Speaking Therapy Part Three:
Improving Imitation Skills

Start with imitation of easy, whole-body actions.  Reinforce with highly preferred objects or activities Work on more complex actions like fine motor, speech/communication, or play (depending on what the child needs to work on) Work imitation into daily, functional activities

Non-Speaking Therapy Part Four:
Basic Turn-Taking and Requesting

Help the child take turns with adults by helping the child say or use AAC to communicate “my turn” when it’s the child’s turn Increase the amount of time that the child will tolerate the adult having the item and get the child to communicate “my turn” independently Introduce turn-taking with another child including handing it over when the other child says “my turn” (or saying “in a minute” for older children) Work on games that require each player to wait for a turn and work on knowing whose turn it is

Therapy Kits for Non-Speaking Children

No-Prep Activities and Resources for Helping Non-Speaking Children Learn to Speak

AAC Starter Kit

Everything You Need to Trial AAC with a Child

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Speech Therapy for Non-Verbal Children: Building Functional Communication appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

How to Help a Child Repair Communication Breakdown

“Communication Breakdown” is what we call it when something goes wrong in a conversation and there is a misunderstanding.  Our communication can break down for a number of reasons but most of the time, we are able to clarify the confusion and keep going.

Children with communication challenges or social interaction difficulties may have trouble with this.  They may not recognize that the communication has broken down.  Or they may not know how to get it back on track once they’ve lost the thread.

We can help children learn to recognize and repair the communication by teaching them this skill directly.

Listen to the Podcast Version Here:

Repairing Communication Breakdowns Kit

Training Video and Kit for Teaching a Child to Recognize and Repair Communication Breakdowns

Repairing Communication Breakdowns
Activity One: Introduction

Repairing Communication Breakdowns
Activity Two: Outline Rules for Standard Behavior

Repairing Communication Breakdowns
Activity Three: Practice

Repairing Communication Breakdowns
ActivityFour: Assign Homework

Repairing Communication Breakdowns
Activity Five: Review During Next Session

Additional Resources for Teaching a Child to Repair Communication Breakdowns:

Repairing Communication Breakdowns Kit

Training Video and Kit for Teaching a Child to Recognize and Repair Communication Breakdowns

Social Skills Therapy Course

How to Teach Social Communication Skills to Children and Teens

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I sunburn very easily, it’s kind of ridiculous.  I have to be very careful when out in the sun, especially if we travel South at all.

Connect with Me:

The post Teaching Children to Repair Communication Breakdowns appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Today, speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark explains how to help a child learn to summarize an event or story through the use of literacy activities.  Listen below!

Show Notes:

Step One: Teach Main Idea

Step Two: Sequencing Two Events from a Picture Book

Step Three: Sequencing Pictures of 3-5 Events from a Picture Book

**For younger children, work on taking the pictures out and summarizing the story without seeing the pictures.  This is a good place to stop for younger children.

Step Four: Pulling Important Details from a Story and Sequencing Them

Step Five: Is it Too Long?

**At this point, you can work on having the student summarize events and stories verbally since he knows the entire process now (if that’s one of his goals)

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

Carrie’s Best Tools to Simplify your Life:

You have a lot on your plate.  Let me help with that!

I’ve put together my best resources here.  Whether you’re streamlining your job as a speech-language professional, helping your child with his communication challenges, or trying to meet the diverse needs of your students, I’ve got you covered.

Choose the resource that you need most right now:

Watch “Quick Tip” Videos on Instagram

Access Carrie’s Free Material Library

Get Materials and Support in The Hub

Grab our Full Language Curriculum

The post Improving Summarizing Skills in Children Through Literacy appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Learn how to reduce burn-out and stress whether you’re a speech therapist or a parent of a child with speech and language delays.  (Episode 55 of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast)

Manage Your Time

Parents:

Therapists:

Prepare your Environment

Parents:

Therapists:

Keep Track of Your Progress

Parents:

Therapists:

Find Pre-Made Activities to Make Planning Easier

Parents:

Therapists:

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Working Smarter to Help Children with Speech and Language Skills appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Articulation and Phonological Therapy Approaches: What is the Best Speech Sound Therapy?

It can be very difficult to figure out what type of speech sound therapy to do with a child.  Today, I’m going to walk you through the four main types of therapy and when to use them.  Plus, I’ll touch on some of the less common types of speech sound therapy in case you’ve tried all of the mainstream approaches with no success.

No-Prep Therapy Kits

Worksheets for articulation, phonology, cycles approach, and more!

Speech Therapy Approach Flow Chart:

While there is no one right or wrong way to choose a speech sound therapy, this flow chart will give you a basic logic to get you started.  Not all children will fall neatly into one of these categories but you can start here and move on from there.

Articulation Therapy Approach

Click Here to Start by Teaching Sounds in Isolation Using the Articulation Therapy Approach

Phonological Therapy Approach

Click Here to Learn More About Therapy for Phonological Disorders

Cycles Therapy Approach

Click Here to Learn More About Using the Cycles Approach

Core Word Therapy Approach

Other Speech Sound Therapy Approaches

More Information on the Additional Approaches Here: https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology/#collapse_6

Additional Resources for Speech Sound Therapy:

Need some pre-made materials for working with these therapy approaches?  Check out our best materials here:

Articulation Approach Materials

Worksheets and Training Videos for Each Individual Sound

Cycles Approach Materials Kit

Worksheets and Homework for Cycles

Phonological Approach Bundle

No-Prep Therapy Materials for Phonology

Courses for Speech Sound Therapy:

Need more ideas?  We have some amazing courses that will walk you through how to conduct speech sound therapy in a variety of ways.

Cycles Approach Course

Includes Materials Kit, Free!

Eliciting Speech Sounds Course

Training on How to Teach a Child to Pronounce Sounds Correctly and Generalize to Conversation

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: At the last ASHA convention I went to, I purchased a double-wide booth so I could fill it with inflatable lounge chairs and phone chargers to create a hangout space.  Did you see me there???

Connect with Me:

Listen to the Podcast Version of this Info Here:

The post Articulation and Phonological Therapy Approaches: How to Choose appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Social Skills Activities for Middle Schoolers:
Speech Therapy Goals and Ideas

Many of our children with language delays also have trouble with social skills. This may be due to certain conditions that impair social skills, like autism, or it may just be because these children have trouble learning language and social interactions rely heavily on language skills. Whatever the cause, one of the best ways to help improve social skills is through the use of social skills groups. Doing social skills training in a group setting allows children to practice new skills with their peers instead of just talking about them theoretically. Practice is crucial for these children to actually be able to use those skills in real life.

However, knowing exactly how to run a social skills group can be tricky. I’m going to present you with some great social skills activities for middle schoolers (ages 11-14 years).

Social Skills Therapy Kits

No-Prep PDFs for Teaching Social Skills

Listen to the Social Skills for Middle Schoolers Podcast:

Social Skills for Middle School:
Skills to Target

How to Figure Out what Social Skills to Target for Middle Schoolers:

How to Run a Social Skills Group for Middle Schoolers:

Choose one topic per session (or one topic for several sessions) Read a story or watch a video about the topic or give a scenario where the skill was not used correctly and have the students identify what went wrong Explain the skill to the children and write out rules for the situation or scenario Have one or two students come up to the front to demonstrate the skill in a staged scenario that you control and plan out Ask the students questions about the rules of this topic Have students pair off and practice the skill while you watch and provide feedback Come back together and ask questions again to ensure comprehension.  Watch the video again or read the book again. Assign each student to write in a journal about one time that they used the skill (either correctly or incorrectly) and review at the beginning of your next session Check to see if the students retained the info during the next session.  If not, repeat these steps.

The Amazing Tool that’s Going to Make all of this A LOT Easier!

Everyday Speech Social Skills Video Library

They’ve made the videos for you!  Videos will include:

Videos cover a variety of topics for middle schoolers (and some for younger kids as well), including:

More Resources with Social Skills activities for Middle School:

If you’d like more resources for middle schoolers, check out this page on my site:

Click Here for More Middle School Resources (including a free middle school therapy material bundle!)

Social Skills Therapy Kits

No-Prep PDFs for Teaching Social Skills

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: When my son was three, he once got mad at me and told me he was going to send me to Antarctica in nothing but a t-shirt.  He had an overly large vocabulary for a 3-year-old….along with an overly large amount of sass.  He still has both to this day.

Connect with Me:

The post Social Skills Activities for Middle Schoolers: Speech Therapy Goals and Ideas appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What is Autism?

According to Autism Speaks, the term “autism” or “autism spectrum disorder (ASD), refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with social skills, repetitive behaviors, speech and nonverbal communication.  In order to be diagnosed with autism, a child must have each of the following two conditions present in early developmental life:

Autism Courses

Access all of our autism courses and resources inside The Hub

Speech Therapy for Autism

Since social communication impairments are a defined feature of the autism diagnosis, speech therapy is a common recommendation for children with autism.  Speech therapy for autism will target improving the child’s social communication and interaction skills and helping them become more independent and confident in their environment.  The following speech therapy goals that should be considered for all clients with autism spectrum disorders.

Speech Therapy Goal 1: Establish Functional, Spontaneous Communication

The first goal with any child who has autism is to make sure that he or she can communicate functionally, and spontaneously. This means that the child needs to be able to communicate his basic wants and needs to those around him without needing to be prompted through it (the adult shouldn’t have to say “what do you want?” or “use your words”).

If the child already has that down, awesome! You can move on. If not, stop here! Do not pass go, do not collect $200! This step is a MUST!

Each child with autism will need this area of speech therapy to look slightly different. Some children will need alternative means to communicate because they won’t be able to speak. Others will speak just fine but will help learning the right words to use in the right situation. A speech-language pathologist will be able to customize therapy to meet the needs of each individual child with autism.

Using AAC for Children with Autism

If a child’s speech is not adequate for functional speech (meaning that the child isn’t talking or isn’t able to communicate all of his/her wants and needs), it can be helpful to introduce various forms of augmentative-alternative communication (AAC) until you find a method that works for the child. Remember, each child is different so different methods will work differently for each child. Here are a few options to try:

Helping Children Use Language Spontaneously (without being prompted):

Children with autism often have difficulty with using language spontaneously. They may speak when told to or in response to specific questions but won’t speak up when they need something or when they are upset.

For these children, it’s important to work on fading the amount of prompts that you are giving so that the child does more and more independently each time. For example, at first you may have to tell the child exactly what to say in each situation. Then, you can fade back to a prompt like “use your words”. Then, you can fade back to a visual cue like a picture that says “use your words” or shows someone talking. There are many ways to fade cues so that is just an example.

Another alternative for helping children who are having trouble using language spontaneously is to use a PECS system like mentioned before. This structured program has been very successful with increasing spontaneous communication in children with autism.

It also may be helpful to start with teaching the child basic requests (as those will be the most motivating for him) and then move on to other types of communication such as commenting, greeting, asking, etc. once requesting has been established.

Speech Therapy for Echolalia

Echolalia is the term for when a child repeats what we say back to us instead of coming up with his/her own sentences. This is common in children with autism who are learning to speak. Sometimes, we hear parents say “he didn’t speak at all and then one day he started speaking in full sentences”. This is because these children are learning sentences as one unit. Later, they will learn how to break those sentences down into single words and then rearrange them to create their own sentences.

For more resources on helping children with echolalia, click here

Functional Communication Training for SLPs and Others:

Need some more help with learning how to improve functional communication in children with autism? Check out our functional communication course bundle here. It includes video training courses along with printable therapy materials and activities.

Click Here to Join The Hub to Access all of our Courses and Materials

Speech Therapy Goal 2: Improve Social Communication Throughout the Day

The next thing that all children with autism will need to some degree is social instruction. Children with autism often have a problem with understanding socially acceptable behavior. They don’t always know how to act or behave in various social situations. Since school is basically just one big social situation, that can make learning environments especially hard for them.

Again, the specific therapy techniques and strategies for this area will vary depending on the child and their individual needs.  But the key is for this social instruction and support to continue throughout the day.  Children with autism often have difficulty transferring skills learned in one setting to a different setting.  For that reason, they need to work on social interactions in more places than just during speech therapy sessions.  Educators and caregivers should carry-over social instruction in other settings as well.

Direct Instruction of Socially Acceptable Behaviors:

It is important to teach children what behavior is socially acceptable in various environments. This includes what the child should do and say in social situations as well as how he should listen and attend. For young children, you will choose goals for basic skills like listening to a teacher, answering questions, and following directions. For older children, you will choose goals like group conversations and being a good friend.  Again, the social skills chosen will depend on the needs of the child.

Here are several strategies that have been proven effective methods of social instruction for children with autism:

Speech Therapy Goal 3: Improve Peer Interactions

Since children with autism often have a difficult time with peer interactions, these skills must also be directly taught. All children with autism struggle with this to some extent as part of the nature of autism. However, you will target significantly different skills depending on the age and developmental level of the child you are working with.

Peer Interaction Goals for Younger Children:

Here are some goals for children who are just beginning their peer interaction training:

Peer Interaction Goals for Older Children:

These activities are better for older children who are struggling with peer interactions:

Speech Therapy Goal 4: Generalize Skills to the Regular Education Environment

One of the most common requests I hear from parents of children with autism is “My child needs more time with the speech-language pathologist”. I completely understand why they want this! The speech therapist is the person who is helping their child communicate better so more time with that person should equal better communication, right?

Unfortunately, that’s not exactly how it works.

The Trouble with Generalizing

Children with autism tend to have trouble generalizing skills. For example, if you teach a child with autism to count to 5 using the same 5 yellow cups at the kitchen table and you never practice counting anywhere else, the child will do great at counting to 5 in that exact situation but may not be able to transfer that to counting anything else.

The same goes for communication. If a speech-language pathologist teaches a child with autism to communicate with her in the speech therapy room, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the child will then start communicating with other people and in other settings.

Instead, the child must practice the same communication skills with a variety of different people and in a variety of different settings. For that reason, it is vital that the child does not spend every waking moment with the speech therapist. We want the child to communicate in any situation, not just when the speech therapist is present.

How to Help Children with Autism Generalize Communication Skills

If the child needs to work on communicating better, then the answer is not necessarily just to add more time with the speech-language pathologist. Instead, the speech therapist must train the other adults that interact with the child on how to do the same types of instruction, prompting, and modeling that she does.

When the speech therapist trains the other adults, the child will make faster progress with his communication skills because he will be getting the same instruction from multiple sources and he’ll be able to practice those skills in the natural environment (at home and in the classroom as opposed to just in the therapy room).

Educator and Caregiver Training for Children with Autism

Speech therapy services for children with autism can look very different depending on a lot of factors. Each speech therapist will need to determine which services will be best for each child. Here are some different ways that speech therapy services may be assigned to help the child make optimal progress:

As you can see, there are many different ways to serve children with autism and adding more direct therapy minutes isn’t always the best solution. Each student needs an individualized plan including a combination of different services.

Speech Therapy Goal 5: Target Remaining Speech/Language Skill Deficits

Finally, we look at other communication skills that may be impacting the child with autism. Once the child begins to make progress on these larger items, we can begin to address some of the smaller issues that may also be impacting the child’s communication.   Here are a few areas that may need to be addressed:

Source: http://www.asha.org/Practice-Portal/Clinical-Topics/Autism/

Additional Resources for Autism Speech Therapy:

Check out our additional resources for working with autistic children here:

Autism Courses

Access all of our autism courses and resources inside The Hub

Therapy Kit for Gestalt Language Processors

How to Help Children with Delayed Echolalia and Scripting

Free Therapy Materials for Working with Children with Autism:

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

Autism Therapy Cheat Sheet

AAC and Autism Handout

Initiating Interactions Social Story

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: My family’s favorite vacation spot when I was a kid was Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.  My favorite restaurant there is Sea Captain’s House.  They used to have a shrimp in phyllo dish that was my favorite, but sadly they stopped serving it!  We still love going though and it’s been fun to bring my kids there now, too!

Connect with Me:

The post Speech Therapy for Autism | Goals and Strategies appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Speech Therapy Materials and Tools:  What Do I Need?

Speech-language pathologists and assistants use a lot of tools and resources to teach speech and language skills to children.  What speech therapy materials and tools do we need to do our jobs?  And how can we find free speech therapy materials?  We all know we don’t have a huge budget (or any at all!).  This page will show you exactly what speech therapy materials you need as a speech-language pathologist along with links to our best freebies available.

SLP Reboot

The Course for SLPs to Get Organized and Streamline Your Job

Essential Speech Therapy Materials and Tools:

Check out our speech therapy materials list below for our recommendations on what speech therapy materials and speech therapy tools that you need as an SLP or SLPa.

Speech Therapy Materials and Flashcards:

Speech therapy materials and flashcards are resources that are designed to teach a specific speech/language skill.  These are especially helpful if you’re not quite sure the best way to teach a new skill and you’d like something that is already laid out for you.  Here are some ideas for essential speech therapy materials:

Speech Sound (Articulation) Flashcards:

We work on teaching speech sounds a lot.  The therapy can go much quicker if we already have a deck of flashcards that contain the target sounds.  I suggest having one deck for each sound in our language.  Then you can pull those out whenever you need them.  Here are the free flashcards that we have available:

Click here to access these flashcards in our free materials library

Or, click here to purchase our full set of articulation cards and materials

Language Worksheets and Flashcards:

Another essential speech therapy material is worksheets and flashcards that will allow you target various language skills.  You can keep worksheets in a binder with plastic page protectors so your students can fill them out with dry erase marker.  Flashcards can be kept in a carrying case like the one we show in our Speech-in-a-Box Kit!

Here is a list of some of our free flashcards and worksheets in the Free Speech Therapy Material Library:

Click here to access the language freebies in our Free Material Library

Therapy Kits for Specific Skills:

If you’re really feeling stumped on how to treat a specific skill, you can access all of our no-prep therapy kits on our TPT store.  Each of these kits will walk you through how to do therapy for a specific skill from start to finish.  And best of all, you won’t need any prep time to get ready.  Just print (or open on your device) and go!

Click Here to View our No-Prep Kits in our TPT Store

Speech Therapy Tools and Equipment:

There are several different types of tools, equipment, and manipulatives that help us do our jobs as speech-language pathologists.  Here are a few of our must-haves:

Tools for Better Speech Sounds:

Tools for Smoother Sessions:

Click Here to View All of our Recommendations for Tools and Equipment

Speech Therapy Games, Toys, and General Activities:

The bulk of my speech therapy materials consist of games and general activities that can be used while I target various skills.  I’m a big fan of “no-prep therapy” or “child led therapy” where I go into the session knowing what skill I want to work on but I let the child choose the activity.  For that, I need toys, games, crafts, and other activities that keep us engaged and allow us to practice communication skills.

Here are some great ideas for toys, games, and other general activities for speech therapy:

For more information on how to organize all of your speech therapy materials, click here!

Our Most Popular Free Speech Therapy Materials:

Who doesn’t love free speech therapy materials??? Here’s a round up of our top 11 freebies based on web traffic. The one with the most downloads will be at the top!

1. CV, VC, CVC, CVCV Cards

Download a free set of articulation cards for words of the following structures: consonant-vowel (CV – like me or no), vowel-consonant (VC – like up and on), consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC – like cat and bike), and consonant-vowel-consonant-vowel (CVCV – like happy). These are great for children who need to practice speech by working on short words first and gradually increasing in length, such as children with childhood apraxia of speech!

2. Visual Aids for Teaching Children to Self-Calm

These visual aids and strategies will help you teach a child how to calm himself down when he’s mid-tantrum or melt-down. This is great for children who have trouble regulating their emotions, like those with autism.
These visual aids and strategies will help you teach a child how to calm himself down when he’s mid-tantrum or melt-down. This is great for children who have trouble regulating their emotions, like those with autism.

3. Tell Me about it Adjectives Game

Use your five senses to describe common objects! This free file folder game will allow you to choose the descriptors for an object and assemble them on a board organized by the 5 senses. This is great for working with children who are having trouble learning and using adjectives.

4. Sequencing and Following Directions Game

This sequencing board file folder game comes with a set of simple directions to follow like clap your hands and touch your nose. These can be used for helping children learn to follow multi-step directions. Plus, you’ll also get cards that sequence common events into 3, 4, or 5-step sequences, like washing your hands and making a sandwich. Great for children who are learning how to sequence and put events in order.

5. Preschool Vocabulary and Question Cards

These flashcards include common preschool vocabulary divided up by category, such as vehicles, clothes, food, toys, etc. Plus, each card has a back side which includes a set of questions that can be asked about the card. These include yes/no questions as well as all types of wh- questions. Great for children who are working on vocabulary or questions!

6. Data Collection Forms for Speech Therapists

Having trouble thinking of great ways to collect data on your kiddos? Check out my examples of different ways to collect data. All forms are editable in Microsoft Word so you can adapt them to meet your needs!

7. Verb Flashcards for Speech Therapy

These action cards portray people doing various actions. These are great for building action word vocabulary or for eliciting sentences. I also use these frequently for grammar, such as by having the children say “she is dancing” or “he is sitting”.

8. Where Does it Go? Spatial Concepts Game

Position the faces or the objects at various locations in relation to the car, the boat, the sky, or the sea. Children can practice various spatial concepts receptively (put the fish under the boat) or expressively (where is the fish?). Great for children with language delays who are working on understanding and using spatial concepts.

9. He Does, She Does Pronoun Game

Who wants the ball? He does! She does! This game is a great way to practice gender-specific pronouns like “he” and “she” as well as “his” and “her”. Assign each of the small objects to either the boy or the girl and use the correct pronoun as you do so! Great for children with language delays who are working on pronouns and possessive pronouns.

10. Sign Language Flashcards for Common First Words

Check out the real photos of people performing American Sign Language signs for about 60 of the most common first words in children. These are great words to teach children first as they are commonly found in the first words of typically-developing children. These are great for teaching staff, parents, and students who need to learn how to use sign language.

11. Funny Faces File Folder Grammar Game

Make funny faces on this boy and girl inside the file folder game. This provides another great opportunity to work on gender-specific pronouns like “he”, “she”, “his”, and “her”. Plus, it’s also great for working on vocabulary like body parts, colors, shapes, and sizes.

Get Organized and Stay Organized:

Are you feeling stressed out and like you’re never quite on top of things?  You’re not alone!  Being a school speech-language pathologist is harder than ever.  That’s why we’ve created an amazing course that will help you streamline and simplify your job as a speech-language pathologist so you can get organized and STAY organized.  Check out our SLP Reboot Course here:

SLP Reboot

The Course for SLPs to Get Organized and Streamline Your Job

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I feel the most at peace when walking on a trail in the woods at my local State Park.  There’s something magical about leaving the rush and hustle of modern life to spend time in nature.

Connect with Me:

The post Speech Therapy Materials: What do I Need? (11 Free Therapy Materials) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Screen Time: The Savior of our Eardrums

Let’s face it: children don’t like wait time. Make a young child wait for something and it won’t be long until you’ve reached a full-on meltdown. (Trust me, I have a 18-month-old, I know!)

Enter: Screen Time! Screen time has appeared on the scene and seems to be a magic cure for this age-old parenting dilemma. Pop a screen in front of a toddler and he’s instantly quiet and calm. He’ll sit happily while you drive across town, finish your meal, or get some housework done. Woo Hoo!

Why Our Children Can’t Sit and Wait:

Unfortunately, there’s an unseen problem with this plan. It turns out that forcing a child to wait (through meltdowns, tears, etc.) actually ends up teaching the children how to wait. It’s not a skill that comes easily to them so it takes many battles during the toddler and preschool years, but eventually they learn how to wait and how to entertain themselves when they do have to wait.

When you give a child a screen instead of forcing them to wait and entertain himself, you’re taking away that opportunity he had to learn to wait. What we’re seeing is a whole generation of children who are 5, 6, or 7 years old and have never had to wait for something without being constantly entertained by a screen.

Learning to wait is developed in the toddler years. By the time children are 7 years old, it’s way too late to try to learn that. They’ve never had to wait so trying to do so now is WAY harder!

What’s the Alternative?

So what can we do as parents to help our children learn how to wait?

TURN OFF THE SCREENS!!

(If I don’t have you convinced yet, click here to read my article about how screen time could be damaging your child’s language skills and potential)

In order for us to help children learn how to wait, we must show them things that they can do to entertain themselves when it’s time to wait. These must be things that require the child to think and do something as opposed to just sit passively in front of something that will entertain them.

The added bonus of this is that they get to learn, develop, and grow as a person during this time, as well!

What to Use to Help Children Wait

The following items are great ideas for helping children entertain themselves while they wait. You can pack a bag full of these items whenever you go somewhere that the child will have to wait:

Enter Waiting Cards

In an effort to help my 18-month-old through wait time, I have created a set of waiting cards for him. These are cards that ask him questions or give him directions. They contain a variety of skills including a nice mix of things I know he can do easily and skills that are slightly harder for him.

I keep these cards in a small pack in my purse that I can pull out whenever I need them. They have been a LIFESAVER! Plus, my son loves them and he’s learned a few new words and skills from them already.

Here’s the video of our waiting cards so you can see how they work:

How to Make Your Own Waiting Cards

It’s quite easy to make your own waiting cards. You’ll just need to get some index cards and write questions on them. For older children, you can just write the questions but for younger children, you may want to include pictures to keep them interested. I used simple clip art or pictures I found on Google Image Search.

Try to include a good mix of skills that will be easy for the child (confidence boosters) and skills that will challenge him. This will be entirely dependent on the language skills of your child and what he can and can’t do.

Below, I am going to list the types of cards that may be good for children of different ages. However, feel free to use questions from older or younger age brackets if your child is working on different skills. Every child develops at different rates!

I also recommend including cards in your set for other family members as well so that the child can learn how to take turns.

1-2 Years:

2-3 Years:

3-4 Years:

4-5 Years:

Ages 5+:

At this age, you can start using questions that target similar things to what they are working on at school. Use school/unit vocabulary and concepts as the basis for your cards. You can also get store-made cards for kids aged 5+ that will allow you to ask even more questions. Products like Brain Quest are a good example of this!

How to Use the Cards:

Once you have your waiting cards ready, just bring them with you wherever you go. Whenever your child needs to wait, pull out the cards and start asking. As your child gets older, you’ll be able to pass more of the responsibility off to your child and have him start asking himself the questions.

You may need to create more cards as your child gets better at them or cycle through a few sets of cards so they don’t get boring.

Also, make sure you include everyone in the fun and let each person take turns doing cards. This will help your child learn how to take turns, even with Mom and Dad!

Your Next Steps:

Ok, you know what to do, get going!

Make your own card deck, or start with my question cards if you’re feeling stuck. These are cards with pictures of various objects plus all types of questions to go along with each card. It will give you ideas of the types of questions you can ask!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you'll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Waiting Cards: Language-Boosting Alternatives for Screen Time appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

This fun therapy activity will let you work on grammar skills like pronouns and verb tenses while you’re playing with sock puppets. It’s cheap, it’s easy, and it’s SUPER fun! Check it out:

Materials:

Set Up:

Put one puppet on each hand Keep the food in a separate container that the child doesn’t have access to. You want to give him the food one piece at a time.

Target Skills:

This activity is good for working on all kinds of grammar, but specifically these goals:

Use of “he” or ”she” in response to “who will eat this one?” Use of “his” or “her” in response to “whose ___ is this?” Use of possessive ‘s in response to “whose ___ is this?” Use of proper verb tenses like future tense (he is going to eat), present tense (he is eating), and past tense (he ate).

Video Example:

This video shows how to use the sock puppets to work on “he” and “she” as well as to model verb tenses:

How to Work on He/She:

Ask the child “who is going to eat the ___? Is HE going to eat it or is SHE going to eat it?” When the child indicates which puppet will eat it, respond with “HE is going to eat it” or “SHE is going to eat it”. Then, tell the child why you say he or she (example: “This is a boy so we say “he”). Encourage the child to imitate the sentence (he is going to eat it) or just the pronoun by itself (he). Let the child feed the puppet and then start over again.

How to Work on His/Her:

Ask the child “Whose ___ is this? Is it HIS ___ or HER ____?” When the child indicates which puppet it belongs to, respond with “It’s HIS ___” or “It’s HER ____”. Then, tell the child why you say his or her (example: “This is a boy so we say “his”). Encourage the child to imitate the sentence (it’s his banana) or just the pronoun by itself (his). Let the child feed the puppet and then start over again.

How to Work on Possessive ‘s:

Give the puppet random names. Ask the child “Whose ___ is this? Is it Bobby’s ___ or Sally’s ____?” When the child indicates which puppet it belongs to, respond with “It’s Bobby’s ___” or “It’s Sally’s ____”. Then, tell the child why you say the /s/ sound (example: “When we’re talking about something that belongs to someone, we add a /s/ sound”). Encourage the child to imitate the sentence (it’s Bobby’s banana) or just the word by itself (Bobby’s). Let the child feed the puppet and then start over again.

How to Work on Verb Tenses:

** You can model this during any of the other activities or do this separately.

Choose one puppet to use for this activity. You can choose a name for the puppet or use the pronouns “he” and “she”. Put one piece of food in front of the puppet. Say “he is going to eat the ___” or “he will eat the ____”. Then, have the child put the food in the puppet’s mouth and while it’s in the mouth say “he is eating the ____”. Then, “swallow” the food by pushing it down the hole and show the child that the puppet’s mouth is empty. Say “He ate the ____”. Do this again but this time, ask the child “what’s happening?” each step of the way and see if he can use the correct verb forms.

Your Next Steps:

Click the button below to download the PDF instructions for how to make the puppets and how to do the activities. It also includes printable pictures for miniature food you can use during this activity.

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you'll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post How to Use Sock Puppets to Improve Grammar (Pronouns and Verb Tenses) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What is Perspective Taking?

A child’s inability to understand a situation from another person’s point of view is called “perspective taking”.  Perspective taking allows us to feel what it would be like to be in the other person’s shoes during a situation.  It requires you to put yourself in the other person’s position and imagine what you would feel, think, or do if you were in that situation.  When you are able to imagine a situation from someone else’s perspective, you can gain a better understanding of someone else’s motives or change your own behavior so you don’t offend someone.

Often, children need help developing perspective taking.  This is especially true for children who have language delays or social communication impairments, such as autism.  This page will break down what types of perspective taking skills a child should have at different ages and will give you perspective taking activities for each age.

Making Inferences Therapy Kit

Inferencing as a Tool for Perspective Taking

Perspective Taking Activities by Age:

Preschoolers and Perspective Taking

Perspective Taking Examples for Preschoolers:

Have you ever seen 2 babies in a room and when one starts crying, the other starts crying too? That’s because babies don’t know that someone else’s discomfort is not their own. They don’t have the ability to take the perspective of someone else. We call this theory of mind (meaning that the child understands that other people have other perspectives than their own). Babies don’t have theory of mind yet.

Around 2-3 years of age, children start to gain an understanding that each person is experiencing different things. During the preschool years, we should see a child start to show concern for others who are upset. They may show concern for someone who is crying or try to do something to help that person.

However, at this stage, children still often confuse their own perspective with others. A preschooler may think that since she likes ice cream, everyone likes ice cream. This may lead to actions like giving someone who is crying a favorite toy because the child knows that would cheer him up if he had it himself.

Perspective Taking Activities for Preschoolers:

Here are some ideas of what you can do with preschoolers who are not yet showing signs of understanding that other people have different perspectives and feelings than we do:

Perspective Taking in Grades K-2

Perspective Taking Examples in K-2

During these years, the child’s perspective-taking skills should continue to grow. The child should develop the ability to guess what people are thinking or feeling based on their behaviors and understand their motivation for certain behaviors.

Keep in mind that this is still happening at a very simplistic level. For example, if the child you’re working with watches another child hit his teacher, the K-2^nd grader should be able to guess that the child hit his teacher because he was mad. He probably wouldn’t be able to tell you though that the other child was frustrated because the task that the teacher asked him to do was too difficult.

Perspective Taking Activities in K-2

Perspective Taking in Grades 3-5

Perspective Taking Examples in 3-5th Grade

During these grades, children begin to develop the understanding that everyone sees situations from a different perspective and that people may therefore misinterpret what’s going on. For example, the child will understand if you explain to him that when he walked up to his friend and hit him on the back, he meant it as a greeting but his friend interpreted it as anger.

Children in these grades also begin to understand that a person may be hiding his/her true feelings. For example, they would begin to understand that if a child said “I’m okay” but still had tears in her eyes, she may not really be ok but she just wants others to think she is.

Perspective Taking Activities for 3-5th Grade

Perspective Taking in Grades 6-8

Perspective Taking Examples in Middle School

At this point, children continue to fine-tune their ability to take the perspective of others and understand someone else’s thoughts, feelings, and motives. They continue to develop the skills we’ve mentioned previously but in more complex ways.

These children are also beginning to understand that people often have multiple motives for their behavior and sometimes those motives are conflicting. For example, the child may understand that a teenager may be tempted to smoke because it will make him look cooler (peer pressure) but that he may be reluctant to do so because it is unhealthy and gross.

Perspective Taking Activities for Middle Schoolers

Perspective Taking in Grades 9-12 (High School)

Perspective Taking Examples in High Schoolers

At this point, these young adults begin to understand that a person’s culture and environment impact their personality, behavior, and perspectives. They begin to see how we are all a product of our environment and that past events and present circumstances all affect how we see the world. For example, young adults may begin to see that a person who has always been discriminated against is more likely to assume he’s being discriminated against than someone who has never known discrimination.

These young adults are also beginning to understand that people may not always be fully aware of why they act the way they do. They may be acting a certain way because they were brought up that way or they are repressing some feelings that they don’t want to deal with.

Perspective Taking Activities for High Schoolers

Additional Resources for Perspective Taking

Making social inferences goes right along with perspective taking.  Download our making inferences therapy kit below to help a child learn how to better read a situation.

Making Inferences Therapy Kit

Inferencing as a Tool for Perspective Taking

Abstract Language Course

How to Teach Inferencing and Other Abstract Language

Listen to the Podcast Version of this Info Here:

Sources:

http://www.education.com/reference/article/perspective-taking-theory-mind-different/

https://jillkuzma.wordpress.com/perspective-taking-skills/

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I play the cello.  I took lessons for cello and piano for most of my childhood, though I’m way better at cello than I ever got a piano.  I also taught myself guitar as an adult.  I have a super fun bright blue electric guitar that I get out every once in a while and play around on.  And then I curse the fact that since I don’t play consistently, I don’t have my callouses built up.

Connect with Me:

The post Perspective Taking Activities for Kids | Examples and Lessons appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Establishing and Improving Joint Attention in Children

Improving Joint Attention

No-Prep Therapy Kit

Johnny doesn’t pay attention to other people.  He doesn’t notice the other children that play around him and when an adult tries to get his attention, he doesn’t seem to hear.  The doctor said his hearing is fine but he just doesn’t seem to notice or care when someone is talking to him or trying to show him something.  He just seems to be tuned out.  No matter how hard you try, you can’t get him to pay attention to anything.  You can’t get any “joint attention”.

How can you do speech therapy with a child like Johnny?  How can you teach him anything?  You can’t even get him to respond to his name!

Well, the first thing you must do is establish joint attention.  Without joint attention, no learning can occur.

How do we Establish Joint Attention?

Ok, so we know we need joint attention, but how do we get it?  Follow these steps to establish joint attention for speech therapy, school, or at home:

Copy what the Child Does:

The first thing you can do to try to get joint attention is to copy exactly what the child is doing.  If the child is playing with toys, get down on the floor and play with those toys in the exact same manner.  If the child is stacking blocks, you stack blocks.  If the child is lining up cars, you line up cars.  If the child is spinning in circles, you spin in circles (just don’t get sick!).

Start quietly at first, just to see if the child will notice.  Just play along beside him or imitate his actions.  If he looks at you or notices what you’re doing, just smile and act like you’re enjoying yourself.

Gradually, draw more and more attention to yourself and what you’re doing.  See if you can get the child to start paying attention to you and reinforce him if he does (praise him and offer hugs or high fives if he’s into that sort of thing).

Then, start to comment on what he is doing.  Point out the cars he’s lining up.  Or talk about what actions he’s doing.  Talk about what he may be thinking, feeling, or experiencing.

Find Something Motivating to the Child:

For the next part, you’ll need something that the child loves.  Perhaps you already know what that is.  Does he love grapes?  Or toys that light up?  If you know what he loves, fill a tub with those things.

If you don’t already know what the child loves, you’ll want to do a reinforcer probe.  Find a bunch of toys/items that you think may be motivating to the child and present them to the child two at a time.  For example, hold up a flashing toy and a shakey toy.  Show him what each one does and then hold them both up in front of him.  Let him reach toward one.  Give him the one he reaches toward.  Put the other one aside.

Let him play with the toy for a moment and then take it back.  Introduce a new toy and then hold that toy up alongside the one he chose before.  Let him pick again.  Continue to do this until you have a pretty good idea of the types of items the child typically picks.  These will be the items you will put in the reinforcement tub.

If you’d like some ideas of different types of reinforcers that can be used in therapy, please click the button below:

Reinforce Proximity:

Ok, now that you have a selection of things you know the child likes, put those things away (out of sight) for a few days.  You want them to be new and exciting when you pull them out to work with the child.

Stand away from the child (not right next to him) and pull out one thing from the bin and hold it so the child can see that you have it.  If it is a toy that does something (lights up or makes sound), activate it once so the child gets interested.

If the child moves close to you (and the object), say “you see my ___” and then give it to him.  At this point, you want to reinforce the child for just coming close to you.  This is the first step of joint attention.

Let him play with it for a few moments and then say “my turn” and take it away and walk a few feet away.  Once the child comes close to you again, say “you see my ___” and give it to him again.  Keep doing this until he will consistently come close to you to share in what you have.  If he loses interest, switch to a different reinforcer.  With some children, you’ll need to switch each time.

**ALTERNATIVE**  If the reinforcement is an activity, like getting tickled, you can start by doing the activity and then walking a few feet away.  For example, tickle the child until he is smiling, and then walk a few feet away and wait.  If the child comes toward you, tickle him again.

Gradually Increase the Level of Engagement You Expect

Once the child is consistently moving toward you to share in what you have, you’ll want to increase your expectations.  Start requiring to the child to do something slightly more difficult before you give him the reinforcer.

Here is a suggested order of “next steps” when trying to gradually increase a child’s engagement or join

[if !supportLists]–>·       Look in your general direction/face you

You should tell the child what you want him to do and then provide assistance if you can.  For example, you can say “look at me” or “look over here” to encourage the child to look in your direction.

Gradually Increase the Amount of Time the Child is Engaged

Once the child is sharing joint attention with you, you’ll want to try to stretch out the amount of time it lasts.  Up until now, you have given the child the object as soon as he establishes joint attention.

Now, you’ll want to try to get the child to keep looking at the object with you before you give it to him.  The next time the child establishes the joint attention (by looking at the object with you), say “look at this” and point to something on the object.  Then, give the child the object.  By doing this, you’ve added a few seconds on to the amount of time that the child looks at it with you.

Once you can do that without the child having a meltdown or getting upset, try adding a few more seconds.  Say “look at this!  Wow, that’s cool” and then give it to him.  Continue gradually adding seconds by pointing out more features, talking about it, or anything else that will keep the child’s attention momentarily.  There’s no magic number here, just keep trying to stretch it out until you feel like the child is sharing attention with you on an object.

** ALTERNATIVE **  If the reinforcement is an activity, like getting tickled, you will want to try to stretch out the amount of time that the child is looking at you and happy about the activity.  Try talking to the child while you’re doing the activity and provide more of the activity if the child keeps looking at you or maintaining the interaction in some way.  Take little pauses and say something silly (like “here comes the tickle monster”) and then provide more tickles if the child continues to watch you or stay engaged while you said it.

Gradually Increase the Variety of Activities that the Child will Share Attention During:

Now that the child is able to share attention with you on a highly preferred activity (such as a preferred toy or snack), see if you can get him to share attention with you on something of your choosing.

My personal favorite for doing this is with book-reading activities.  Reading books with children is one of the best ways to increase language so if you can only get the child do to one non-preferred activity with you, it should be book-reading.    Start with books that contain real photographs of your child’s favorite things (for example, my son loves trucks).

Start by bringing out something from the child’s reinforcer tub (like a fun toy) but also have the other thing you want the child to attend to with you as well (the book in this example).  When the child tries to get the reinforcer, say “look at this” and point to the other thing (the book).  If the child looks at the other item that you have, reinforce by saying “good looking” and then give him the original reinforcer (the toy).  If the child doesn’t look at the other item, hold it up in front of him so he has no choice but to look at it, and then say “good looking” and reinforce with the toy.  Keep doing this until you no longer have to hold it up in his face.

Once the child gets better at this, try to elongate the amount of time the child is paying attention to the other item (the book) by saying “look at this.  Cool!”  or “Look at this!  Oh, look at this one, too!”.  Just keep stretching it out just like we did in the last step until the child will look at more and more of the book before getting his reinforcement.

Joint Attention Established!  Let the Teaching Begin!

If you keep working on this, you should get to the point where the child will easily sit down with you and pay attention to something that you pick out.  This will allow you to start teaching the child new skills and new concepts.

Don’t forget to download the free cheat sheet full of ideas for great reinforcers!

Improving Joint Attention

No-Prep Therapy Kit

The post Establishing Joint Attention: Therapy for Children Who Aren’t Tuned In appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

RTI Speech Therapy:
How to Use 5-Minute Sessions for MTSS Tier 2

Response to Intervention (RTI) is an approach to supporting children who are struggling to learn something from the general education curriculum.  It is when we provide additional supports to those children outside of the special education process.  This is often implemented as part of a multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS).

The focus of an RTI program is to provide each student with the level of support he needs. For some children, this will be special education services provided under an Individualized Education Plan (IEP-the traditional way of providing speech therapy).

However, a new model of providing services has been identified for children who are struggling in an area but may not be involved enough to require full special education services. For these children, services are provided in the regular education environment or with small amounts of “pull-out” sessions without requiring the child to go through the full IEP process.

These RTI services may look like changing up instruction techniques for a particular child, providing speech therapy on a short-term basis, or providing hearing assistive technology.

5-Minute Speech Therapy Course

Make Faster Progress in Less Time

Listen to the Podcast on 5-Minute Sessions for Speech Sound RTI

How is RTI Used for Speech Sound Errors?

Have you ever known a child who was missing a few speech sounds so the IEP team spent 90 days evaluating the child and writing a plan; only to find out that he fixed those errors in about 30 days of speech therapy?

The evaluation took longer than the actual therapy! These are the types of kids who benefit from an RTI approach to speech therapy.

If a child only has a few errors and is stimulable for those sounds (can say them when prompted), he will likely make very quick progress in speech therapy and will be dismissed quickly. For these children, the law has provided us with a way to provide them the short amount of therapy they need without the child having to wait months for the paperwork to get done.

I’m not going to get into how you qualify a child for an RTI program or how to do the paperwork because it will be different for every school district. But I can tell you how to structure an RTI session for maximum success.

While my suggested therapy plan (as follows) is based on evidence-based therapy techniques, it has not been specifically tested or researched so keep in mind that this is just a suggested template and is not the only way to do RTI.

How to Do 5-Minute RTI Speech Therapy:

Step One: Schedule 5-Minute Blocks

The first thing you must do is work out a schedule with the child’s teacher. You will want to pull the child out of his classroom for 5 minutes at a time.   Check with the teacher to see which times of the day will be the least distracting for the child.

Try to schedule all of your RTI kids in blocks. For example, if you have 4 RTI kids to see, you can set aside 30 minutes to see all of them. You will pull each one out into the hallway right next to his classroom for exactly 5 minutes and then send him on his way. The only transition time you’ll have is getting yourself between classrooms and waiting for the child to walk into the hall with you. You should easily be able to get 4 5-minute sessions into a 30-minute block.

Keep in mind that you can also be doing this right before school while they’re waiting to get started or during the “pack-up” minutes at the end of the day.

I would recommend starting with 3-5 sessions per week and then determining from there if the child needs more or fewer sessions.

Step Two: Create an Organizational System

Each child that is an RTI child should have a folder with his or her data sheets (more details about data collection below). For each new RTI student, start him a folder and throw in a few data sheets. You can color code them by grade to make it easier to locate the correct child’s folder.

Place these folders in some sort of a box that can easily be transported between classes.   You can use a rolling box like this for easy transport:

Click picture above or HERE to purchase.

You will also need your articulation materials in your rolling file box. I recommend you keep the following items in the box:

I know it seems like all of that would take up way too much room, but check out my compact All-In-One Articulation Program and Materials Kit. It has all of those things and they are compact enough that they’ll easily fit in a rolling file box.

Plus, it’s all done for you, you don’t have to do ANYTHING (except for print it out and stick it in the files)!

Click Here to Purchase my All-In-One Articulation Program and Materials Kit

Step Three: Choose One Speech Sound Target

Next, you’ll need to decide which sound to target first. Since you don’t have very long with each child, you’ll need to choose just one sound at a time. You could also choose to target one phonological process at a time but I’m just going to focus on an articulation approach.

If you need help figuring out which sounds the child is having trouble with, do a quick speech screening. My All-In-One Articulation Program and Materials Kit has a quick screener inside if you need one.

I recommend starting with sounds the child is stimulable for so you can make quick progress.

Step Four: Therapy Sessions

Here’s how each therapy session will break down:

Minute 1:Run through 20 trials of the target sound in the target context.   Don’t provide any feedback, just see how the child does and take 20 data points.

At first, just start with the sound in isolation. If the child is able to get 80% of isolation, move up to syllables. Keep progressing through the stages until you get 80% in conversation. Once you get to the conversational levels, you’ll just sit down for the first minute and have the child tell you about a past event and record correct/incorrect productions of the sound.

If you’re working on single words and you don’t have enough flashcards of a certain position to get to 20 trials, repeat the deck.

Here’s a great video showing you how to use my RTI data collection sheets:

Minutes 2-4:Provide feedback and help the child either improve accuracy at the current level or work on the next level up. Focus on getting in as many repetitions as possible.

Do something simple like use a clicker and tell the child you’ll click once for every word he says correctly. Tell him he’s going for a high score and keep record of who is winning. Or, have the student push a gold coin through a slot in a Tupperware container for each word (or 5) that he says correctly.

The goal is to keep it fun so the child stays motivated without having the “fun” part take too much time away from the practicing.

Minute 5:Provide homework and send him on his way. Pull out a worksheet that is something that works on the child’s target skill but that he can do somewhat independently. You don’t want to assign something that will be too hard because then he may practice the sound incorrectly at home.

If you have organized your materials well, you should have a file full of worksheets that you can pull out at a moment’s notice. My All-In-One Articulation Program and Materials Kit has worksheets that you can send home for every sound in every word position along with worksheets for syllables and conversational level as well.

Step Five: Rinse and Repeat

Once the student reaches 80% at each level, you’ll move up to the next level. Once the student is using the sound correctly in conversation with 80% accuracy, you’ll move on to a new sound and repeat all of the steps.

Download the Materials:

I know you don’t have much time so I’ve created all of the materials you need to do this for you. All you need to do is print and organize. I know that’s time consuming too, but at least you’re not reinventing the wheel! Here are the downloads:

Click Here to Download the RTI for Speech Data Sheets

Sources:

http://www.asha.org/advocacy/federal/idea/04-law-early-services/

http://www.asha.org/slp/schools/prof-consult/RtoI/

Additional Resources for RTI Speech Therapy:

5-Minute Speech Therapy Course

Make Faster Progress in Less Time

No-Prep Therapy Kits for Every Sound

No-Prep Worksheets for Teaching Each Speech Sound

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post RTI Speech Therapy: How to Use 5-Minute Sessions for MTSS Tier 2 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What is an SLPA?

**This first part is about the roles of an SLPA. For resources, materials, and support: scroll down!

Here’s what the American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) defines as a speech-language pathology assistant (SLPA):

“Speech-language pathology assistants are support personnel who, following academic coursework, fieldwork, and on-the-job training, perform tasks prescribed, directed, and supervised by ASHA-certified speech-language pathologists.”

In other words, they get some amount of training and do something that a speech therapist tells them to do.

Helpful, right?

ASHA actually has an entire document dedicated to outlining what an SLPA can and cannot do so I’ll try to pull out the good parts here.

What Training Does an SLPA Need?

Again, here’s what ASHA says you must have to be a licensed SLPA:

an associate’s degree in an SLPA program

or

a bachelor’s degree in a speech-language pathology or communication disorders program

and

successful completion of a minimum of one hundred (100) hours of supervised field work experience or its clinical experience equivalent

and

demonstration of competency in the skills required of an SLPA.

What Can an SLPA Do?

Basically, the SLP should evaluate the child (though the SLPA can help with that assessment) and then write a treatment plan. This would include goals and therapy techniques/methods. The SLP should also provide any necessary training so the SLPA knows how to do those therapies.

Then, the SLPA would perform the actual therapy as prescribed by the therapy plan and report the results back to the supervising SLP.

Also, SLPAs can assist with paperwork and prepping materials for therapy.

Requirements for a Supervisor of an SLPA

The supervising SLP must have the following qualifications:

current ASHA certification and/or state licensure, completion of at least 2 years of practice following ASHA certification, completion of an academic course or at least 10 hours of continuing education credits in the area of supervision, completed prior to or concurrent with the first SLPA supervision experience.

In addition, the SLP must:

Conduct ongoing competency evaluations of the SLPAs. Provide and encourage ongoing education and training opportunities for the SLPA consistent with competency and skills and needs of the students, patients, or clients served. Develop, review, and modify treatment plans for students, patients, and clients that SLPAs implement under the supervision of the SLP. Make all case management decisions. Adhere to the supervisory responsibilities for SLPs. Retain the legal and ethical responsibility for all students, patients, and clients served. Adhere to the principles and rules of the ASHA Code of Ethics. Adhere to applicable licensure laws and rules regulating the practice of speech-language pathology.

Also, one SLP is only allowed to supervise the equivalent of 2 full time SLPAs. None of this one SLP for 10 SLPAs in the district nonsense!

How Should an SLPA be Supervised?

This is best left in the exact wording from ASHA:

First 90 workdays: A total of at least 30% supervision, including at least 20% direct and 10% indirect supervision, is required weekly. Direct supervision of student, patient, and client care should be no less than 20% of the actual student, patient, and client contact time weekly for each SLPA. This ensures that the supervisor will have direct contact time with the SLPA as well as with the student, patient, or client. During each week, data on every student, patient, and client seen by the SLPA should be reviewed by the supervisor. In addition, the direct supervision should be scheduled so that all students, patients, and clients seen by the assistant are directly supervised in a timely manner. Supervision days and time of day (morning/afternoon) may be alternated to ensure that all students, patients, and clients receive some direct contact with the SLP at least once every 2 weeks.

After first 90 workdays: The amount of supervision can be adjusted if the supervising SLP determines the SLPA has met appropriate competencies and skill levels with a variety of communication and related disorders.

Minimum ongoing supervision must always include documentation of direct supervision provided by the SLP to each student, patient, or client at least every 60 calendar days.

A minimum of 1 hour of direct supervision weekly and as much indirect supervision as needed to facilitate the delivery of quality services must be maintained.

Documentation of all supervisory activities, both direct and indirect, must be accurately recorded.

Further, 100% direct supervision of SLPAs for medically fragile students, patients, or clients is required.

Support and Training For SLPAs

Based on the feedback I’m getting from my readers who are SLPAs, this level of support and training is not often occurring in the field. SLPs are overworked and busy and SLPAs are left feeling unsure of how to do the therapy. This isn’t always the case but it seems to me that our SLPAs could use a little more support in general.

Here are the three levels of support that I have for SLPAs on my website:

1) Basic Support: Free Articles and Materials from Speech and Language Kids

I have a plethora of free articles and materials for speech therapy sessions that are written with parents in mind so there is no technical jargon and I don’t assume that you already know some skills first. You’ll find that all of my materials are easy-to-follow and many are step-by-step guides on exactly how to treat specific delays or disorders.

Browse through my free resources and see if anything will be helpful to you!

Browse Free Resources by Topic

Browse Free Resources by Student Age

Browse Free Printable Therapy Games and Activities

Click To Get Free Resources Sent to you by Email

2) Advanced Support: eBooks and Materials

The next level of support that I have available is through my eBooks. I currently have 3 eBooks (at the time of writing this) that will show you exactly how to teach certain skills from start to finish. They also provide materials that you can print and use in therapy or send home as homework.

Here are the eBooks that will be helpful to SLPAs:

The Speech and Language Therapy Guide: Lesson Plans and Worksheets for 39 Different Speech and Language Skills

This eBook will walk you step-by-step through how to teach 39 different speech and language skills. I chose the 39 skills that come up most often for speech therapy with children. I also include worksheets and handouts that you can print out and send home as homework or use in therapy. This is my most popular eBook!

All-In-One Articulation Program and Materials Kit: Everything You Need to Do Articulation Therapy

Articulation errors are probably the most common problem that speech therapists (and speech therapy assistants) will deal with. This eBook will walk you through exactly how to teach a child a new sound using articulation therapy from start to finish. I will show you everything you need to do and give you all of the materials. The kit includes articulation cards, sound flash cards, syllable and sentence creators, conversational carry-over strategies, and worksheets that can be sent home. You can download the file immediately and print out what you need.

Jump Start Your Late Talker: The 8-Week Program to Encourage a Late Talker to Communicate

If you work with late talkers or minimally verbal preschoolers, this program is for you! This program was written for parents to use at home but is equally effective in therapy sessions. Plus, since it’s written for parents, you can send home the worksheets so that everyone is working on the same thing. This will show you which communication strategies will work best for late talkers and will also give you specific activities that you can do in therapy to build vocabulary.

3) Premium Support: Monthly Webinars and Daily How-To Videos

If you find yourself struggling in your position as an SLPA and need more direct help, this program is perfect for you! Each week day, I answer a question from a member with a how-to video.

That means you can ask me questions about your tough cases and I’ll make you a video showing you exactly how to treat that problem. Plus, you can watch the entire library of videos from other members’ questions.

Also, there is a monthly webinar which will take you deep into one specific topic. The webinar topics are chosen by the members and you’ll be able to watch recordings of past webinars as well.

AND, you’ll get access to an exclusive Facebook group where you can ask questions and get help immediately from all group members.

If you’re feeling less than confident in your role as an SLPA, you NEED this membership site.

Click Here to Join my Membership Site!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Resources for Speech-Language Pathology Assistants (SLPAs) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Breaking Down the Common Core Standards for Working on Written Narratives

The common core standards are the set of curriculum guidelines that the department of education has set forth as a method of making sure that all students are taught the skills needed to be successful in college or in the job force. Whether they love them or hate them, many speech therapists are bound to follow them as most states have adopted them.

The common core standards have set standards on how well students should be able to write narratives at each grade level.

However, many of our students with language delays and disorders are struggling to meet these guidelines because they struggle with the language that is the very foundation for these skills.

As speech therapists, we can teach these children pre-requisite skills that will give them a better chance of achieving the same level of mastery of written narratives as their grade-level peers.

This article will give you ideas of what you can work on with language delayed students to help them meet grade-level expectations for written narratives.

Listen To Podcast Or Continue Reading:

1^st Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work on:

Student will discuss details of what happened in past events by answering questions about an event that recently happened (e.g. “who was there?” “what did he do?” “where did he go?”) When given a set of 2 past events (presented verbally, in writing, or using picture representations), Student will identify which event happened first and which happened last.

~or~
When given a set of 3 past events (presented verbally, in writing, or using picture representations), Student will sequence the events into the order in which they occurred.

When verbally describing two or more past events, Student will use temporal words like “first”, “next”, “then”, and “last” to signal the order of the events (use picture or written cues as necessary). After verbally describing two or more past events (see above), Student will write down the past events while including details of at least 2 past events in sequenced order and temporal words like “first”, “next”, “then”, and “last” to signal the order of those events (using picture or written cues as necessary). After reading a short sequence of past events, Student will provide a closing statement, such as a statement of emotion (e.g. “I had fun”) or summary (e.g. “The pool is a good place to swim”). Student will write a simple narrative about at least 2 appropriately sequenced events that includes details of what happened, uses temporal words to signal event order, and provides some sense of closure.

2^nd Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work On:

Student will answer questions about the actions, thoughts, and feelings associated with past events (e.g. “What did he do?” “What were you thinking?” and “How did it make you feel?”). When given 3 steps to an event, either past or recurring (presented verbally, in writing, or using picture representations), Student will sequence the steps to that event into the order in which they occurr(ed). For example, Student will sequence the steps to brushing your teeth or the steps that he took to get ready that morning. When verbally describing an elaborated event or short sequence of events, Student will use temporal words like “first”, “next”, “then”, and “last” to signal the order of the events (use picture or written cues as necessary). After verbally describing an elaborated event or short sequence of events (see above), Student will write down the steps to the event in sequenced order and temporal words like “first”, “next”, “then”, and “last” to signal the order of those events (using picture or written cues as necessary). When writing a short narrative about the steps to a past event, Student will elaborate on the steps by including details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings when prompted by an adult. After reading a short sequence of past events, Student will provide a closing statement, such as a statement of emotion (e.g. “I had fun”) or summary (e.g. “The pool is a good place to swim”). Student will write a simple narrative that recounts a well elaborated event or short sequence of events that includes details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, uses temporal words to signal event order, and provides some sense of closure.

3^rd Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work On:

Prior to writing a narrative about a past event or imagined experience, Student will fill out a pre-writing organizational worksheet with an adult that will include the topic/situation, the narrator/characters, the details or steps, and the logical order of those steps.

Here’s an example of my pre-writing worksheets:

Click Here to Download the Narratives Pre-Writing Worksheets for Free!

After creating an outline of a written narrative (see above), Student will write the narrative down and use temporal words like “first”, “next”, “then”, and “last” to signal the order of events. After creating an outline of a written narrative (see above), Student will write the narrative down and add one extra piece of information for each detail in the sequence, such as dialogue or descriptions of actions, thoughts, or feelings.

4^th Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work On:

Prior to writing a narrative about a past event or imagined experience, Student will fill out a pre-writing organizational worksheet with an adult that will include the topic/situation, the narrator/characters, the details or steps, and the logical order of those steps. When told a scenario or situation (with characters), Student will make up dialogue that show the responses of the characters to that situation. After creating an outline of a written narrative (see above), Student will write the narrative down and add one extra piece of information for each detail in the sequence, such as dialogue or descriptions of actions, thoughts, or feelings. When prompted, Student will provide 3 examples of different temporal words or phrases that can be used in written text to manage the sequence of events (e.g. “first”, “next”, “last”).

Click Here to Download the Narratives Pre-Writing Worksheets for Free!

ith Temporal Words: Click Here to Download the Temporal Words Worksheet

Student will answer questions about sensory details of events currently happening or past events using descriptive language (e.g. “How did it feel to go swimming”). After creating an outline of a written narrative (see above), Student will write the narrative down and add one extra piece of information for each detail in the sequence, such as using concrete words and phrases and sensory details to convey experiences and events precisely. After being told a narrated sequence of events or experience, Student will identify the main idea of the sequence and create a conclusion statement that logically follows the sequence (such as a summary, opinion, or evaluation).

 5^th Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work On: Same steps as 4^th grade (see above). Plus…

Student will discuss how to use appropriate pacing in written narratives by not being too wordy but still providing enough details to make the story interesting.

 6^th Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work On:Same steps as 5^th grade (see above). Plus…

Student will identify story elements that establish a context, such as the location, time, and situation (setting of the story) and will include this element in an opening statement of a written narrative. Student will use dialogue and description to develop a character from a narrative. For example, the adult will set up a character (a boy at the swimming pool) and the student will write three sentences that will provide more information about the character. Student will read a written narrative and mark where there are shifts from one time frame or setting to another. Student will then add transition words, phrases, and clauses to the work to signal those shifts.

7^th Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work On: Same Steps from 6^th Grade (see above). Plus…

Student will identify the different types of point of view in written narratives and be able to identify which point of view is used in a narrative that the child reads. Student will write a narrative using a consistent point of view and will edit his work after completion to ensure a consistent point of view was used throughout. After reading a written narrative, Student will create a conclusion statement that reflects on the narrated experiences or events.

8^th Grade

Common Core Standards:

What to Work on:Same steps from 7^th Grade (see above). Plus…

When given a written statement or short narrative, Student will add one sentence to the statement that reflects on the event or character. When told two events or experiences, Student will use appropriate transition words, phrases, and clauses to show the relationship between those two things (such as saying that one caused the other).

9^th-12^th Grades

Common Core Standards:

What to Work On:

Prior to writing a narrative, Student will fill out a pre-writing organizational worksheet with an adult that will include the problem, situation, or observation, the narrator/characters, the point of view, the details or steps, and the logical order of those steps.

Here’s an example of my pre-writing worksheets: Click Here to Download the Narratives Pre-Writing Worksheets for Free!

When told a situation/scenario and characters, Student will write appropriate dialogue between the characters to develop the events or characters. Student will identify pacing that is too slow, too fast, or appropriate when reading written narratives and will identify strategies to change pacing (taking out extra wording to speed it up or adding more details to slow it down). When told a situation/scenario and what occurred, Student will write one sentence to reflect on the event/occurrence. Student will identify and map out multiple plot lines in a written narrative. Mapping out would include drawing a line for each plot line and writing events from the story on the appropriate line. When given a list of events from a written narrative or past event, Student will arrange them into the correct sequential order. When given a sequence of events, Student will use temporal language and other descriptive language to signal the order of those events and build on one another to connect them into a logical whole. When given a written narrative with non-specific words and simple vocabulary, Student will rewrite the passage using synonyms and figurative language (including sensory language) to convey a vivid picture of the experiences, events, setting, and/or characters. When given a written narrative without an ending, Student will write a conclusion that follows from and reflects on what is experienced, observed, or resolved over the course of the narrative. After filling out a pre-writing worksheet (see above), Student will write a narrative with a smooth progression of experiences and events while including all elements from the pre-writing worksheet. After writing a narrative, Student will edit his own work to include dialogue, appropriate pacing, reflections, multiple plot lines, sequencing techniques and language, and descriptive language (Student should edit for one of these things at a time). Student should be able to map out the writing process including the following steps:

Printable Activities for These Skills

Here are some links that may help you to teach these skills. These are free downloads that you can print out and use to create the activities.

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

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The post Ultimate Guide to Teaching Written Narratives by Grade Level appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Dyslexia Speech Therapy: How SLPs Can Help with Dyslexia

Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that is neurobiological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically result from a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can impede growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

Adopted by the IDA Board of Directors, Nov. 12, 2002. Many state education codes, including New Jersey, Ohio and Utah, have adopted this definition. Learn more about how consensus was reached on this definition: Definition Consensus Project

Listen to the Dyslexia Podcast Episode:

Dyslexia Speech Therapy Course

Learn How to Help Students with Dyslexia

What is Dyslexia?

This word-reading difficulty is often caused by a deficit in the phonological component of language. That means, the student has difficulty understanding how sounds go together to create words. This makes it difficult for the student to decode a printed word (sound out the letters and put them together to form a word) as well as to spell words. Also, the student with dyslexia has average or above average intelligence so the disability is not due to lack of intelligence.

Since the child with dyslexia has difficulty reading printed words, he or she may also have difficulty understanding what was read, even if he does manage to eventually read the words. This is because fluent reading (or reading without unnecessary pauses and gaps) increases comprehension and understanding of what is read.

You may notice that a child with dyslexia understands text when it is read out loud to him but he has trouble understanding it if he reads it himself. For example, the child would be able to answer comprehension questions about a grade-level story read aloud but not if he only read the story to himself.

You may also notice that children with dyslexia do not develop phonological awareness skills as quickly as their peers. These would be skills like rhyming, segmenting, blending, etc. For more information on phonological awareness, click the link below:

Carrie’s Ultimate Guide to Phonological Awareness

(Lyon et. al. 2003)

How Does Speech Therapy Help Students with Dyslexia?

As speech-language pathologists, we have extensive training and knowledge about phonological skills. Many students with speech sound errors have phonological errors. This means they have trouble understanding which sounds should be put together to form words. They may use phonological processes where they replace one class of sounds with another (such as replacing all long sounds like “s” with short sounds like “t”). These same children with phonological speech errors may have phonological reading problems as well (a.k.a. dyslexia).

For more information about phonological processes (speech errors), click here!

That means that speech therapists should be an integral part of a student’s reading intervention team, even if the child is only having difficulty with reading and not speech. We can help these students improve their overall phonological systems and understand how sounds go together to make words.

Also, some children with dyslexia also have language learning problems which should be addressed by a speech therapist as well.

What Type of Speech Therapy Should be Provided for Children with Dyslexia

The speech therapist should first conduct a full assessment to determine which areas are in need of therapy. The following skill areas should be assessed by a speech-language pathologist:

Based on the results of this evaluation, therapy should be provided to address the areas with concerns. No one area should be targeted first but rather all areas should be addressed in therapy together to help the child make changes to his entire phonological system. However, if a student is unable to focus on multiple tasks at once, the most severe limitations should be addressed first with other skills be added as possible.

Below are explanations of what type of therapy should be provided based on which areas the child is having trouble:

Speech Sound Errors

A child who is having trouble with speech sounds due to phonological problems will have trouble with entire groups of sounds. You will see patterns in the child’s speech. For example, all long sounds (sounds that can be held out like “s”) may be replaced with shorter sounds (like “t”). Or, all sounds at the ends or beginnings of words will be deleted. A child may have just one phonological process (sound error pattern) or she may have many going on at one time. This can make a child’s speech very difficult to understand.

It is normal for children to use certain phonological processes when they are very young (ending between the ages of 3-5 years) but if a child continues to use these patterns beyond the ages at which they should stop, he may have a phonological disorder.

Phonological disorders should be treated by showing the child the difference between the correct productions and his incorrect productions. For more information about treating phonological disorders, click the link below:

For more information about phonological processes (speech errors), click here!

Phonological Awareness Skills:

Phonological awareness skills are the pre-reading skills that are so crucial to reading printed words and spelling them. These are skills that allow us to manipulate sounds and put them together to form words. Or, they allow us to take words apart and understand which sounds make up that word. Here are some examples of phonological awareness skills:

As you have read above, dyslexia is a problem that is typically caused by trouble with these underlying pre-reading skills. If a child has trouble with these skills, he will have trouble with decoding and spelling words.

Therapy for children with phonological awareness difficulties should target increasing their ability to participate in activities that include these skills. For activity ideas for increasing phonological awareness skills (and a free worksheets download), click the link below:

How to do Phonological Awareness Therapy and Improve Phonological Awareness Skills

Language Skill Deficits:

If a child with reading difficulties also scores low on expressive and receptive language tests, there may be other problems going on aside from dyslexia. Other language problems, such as problems with comprehension or problems putting together grammatically correct sentences, should be addressed alongside phonological awareness therapy in order to help the child make the greatest gains possible.

For more information about expressive and receptive language delays along with articles on how to treat specific language deficits, click the links below:

Expressive Language Delay Resource Page

Receptive Language Delay Resource Page

Parents/Caretakers Sign Up Here!

Educators and Other Professionals Sign Up Here!

References:

Lyon, G. R., Shaywitz, S. E., & Shaywitz, B. A. (2003). Defining dyslexia, comorbidity, teachers’ knowledge of language and reading. Annals of Dyslexia, 53, 1‐14.

Dyslexia Speech Therapy Course

Learn How to Help Students with Dyslexia

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Dyslexia Speech Therapy: How SLPs Can Help with Dyslexia appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What is Echolalia?

Echolalia Meaning:Echolalia is the term used to describe when a child repeats or imitates what someone else has said.

Echolalia Examples:

If you are working with a child who uses imitated speech to communicate, keep reading to learn how to treat echolalia.  Or, click here to view our Echolalia Treatment Course.

Echolalia Course and Materials Kit

Therapy materials and trainings on echolalia, gestalt language processing, and more! | Inside The Hub

Is Echolalia Normal?

In short: sometimes.

Echolalia, or repeating what is heard, is a very normal part of language development. Children that are learning to speak use this constantly. If I ask my 1-yr-old son if he wants a bath (one of his favorite activities), he will consistently say “baa” (he’s still working on final consonants). He doesn’t say “yes” yet, he just repeats the last word of the question. Children learn to use language by repeating what they hear around them. Then, as their language skills increase, they start making up their own utterances more and you see the use of echoing or repeating decline.

However, some children don’t move past this echolalia stage. Some children will only repeat what others have said and very rarely come up with their own thoughts or sentences. Some children don’t speak at all unless it is a movie script or tv script that they have heard before. This type of echolalia is not part of typical development and could indicate that the child is having trouble learning to use language.

When Should Echolalia Stop?

Children between the ages of 1-2 years should be echoing or imitating you a lot. That’s how they are learning. However, by age two you should see them begin using their own utterances as well. You may see them continuing to imitate you or use echolalia when you ask a complex question or when you’re giving directions but they should also be using a lot of their own utterances as well. A 2-year-old shouldn’t be only using imitated speech to talk.

By three years of age, you should see pretty minimal echolalia. 3-year-olds should be creating their own simple sentences to communicate with the world around them. You may still see a little echolalia here and there but the child’s speech should be predominantly their own thoughts.

Delayed Echolalia Definition:

Delayed echolalia occurs when a child repeats something they have heard before (such as quoting movies or repeating something often said to them) but the child didn’t recently hear it.  There is an amount of delay.  This used by many children but relying on it too heavily can be a problem. You may hear movie lines or tv show quotes as your preschooler plays because he is acting out and rehearsing certain scenes that he liked. That’s ok! However, if your preschooler seems to be stuck on one scene or quote and repeats it over and over again, there may be a problem.

Now, obviously there’s nothing wrong with a kid getting SUPER excited about a certain new movie and focusing a lot of his conversations on it for a while, but it should fade as the novelty wears off. For example, there are a lot of little girls running around singing “Let it Go” from the movie Frozen right now but I wouldn’t say they have a language problem. But if a child is always quoting or scripting something or if the child doesn’t have much other language that he uses aside from these scripts, then there may be an underlying language problem.

Echolalia, Autism, and Gestalt Language Processing:

Many children with autism use echolalia as a way to learn to communicate.  This is also called “gestalt language processing”.  This occurs when a child repeats phrases or even whole sentences to communicate with those around them.  They learn these sentences as language “chunks”, instead of learning language one word at a time.  Often, we will hear parents of children who are learning language this way say “he wasn’t talking at all, and then he suddenly started speaking in full sentences”.  That’s because these children didn’t start by speaking single words and then work their way up.  They started with full sentences.  Later, they will break those sentences down and rearrange the words to create new sentences.  This is a great way for children with autism and other neurodiversities to learn language and should be encouraged if this is the way a child is naturally developing language.

Therapy Kit for Gestalt Language Processors

Activities for Increasing Communication for Early Gestalt Language Processors (GLPs)

Treatment for Echolalia:

Speech/language therapy can help a child who uses echolalia learn to create their own spontaneous utterances as well.  However, there is no one-size-fits-all treatment plan for children with echolalia.   That’s because echolalia can serve a lot of different purposes. In order to treat echolalia correctly, you need to know why the child is repeating or echoing. If it is because he doesn’t know the correct language to use, you will treat it differently than if it’s because he finds it soothing to repeat familiar movie lines.

For that reason, I highly recommend that echolalia be treated by a licensed speech-language pathologist who can tease out exactly why the echolalia is being used. That being said, here are some strategies that will help reduce a child’s use of echolalia either in therapy or in conjunction with therapy.

When Echolalia is a Result of Poor Language Skills

The most common reason that I see children using echolalia is because they don’t have strong enough language skills to know what to say instead. This is the same reason toddlers use echolalia. They doesn’t know what they should say so they just repeats what they hear around them. This is not a problem for a 1-yr-old because it’s still appropriate for him to be in that stage of development. But if you have an older child who is using echolalia, he may need some therapy to increase his other language skills so he relies less on the echolalia.

If this is the case, I generally don’t “treat” the echolalia specifically. Instead, I treat the language delays. I look at which language skills the child is missing and teach those instead. For example, if the child doesn’t know enough words to be able to spontaneously use them to request, answer, etc., I will work on building that child’s vocabulary skills.

Click Here for Vocabulary-Building Resources

If the child is echoing when answering questions, I will look to see if the child knows how to answer questions at all. If not, then we will work on this skill.

Click Here for Resources on Answering Questions

Basically, I’ll work on whatever skills the child is missing and hope that the echolalia decreases as the child’s other language skills increase. If it doesn’t, then I’ll address it more specifically after we have those other skills in place.

Check out our eBook with Step-by-Step Plans for Teaching Children 39 Different Speech and Language Skills

When the Child Uses Echolalia to Request

Have you ever had a young child come up to you and say “hold you” or ask you if you want to sit on his lap? Chances are he means that he wants you to hold him or he wants to sit on your lap, but he’s just echoing what he’s heard other say (Do you want me to hold you?or Do you want to sit on my lap?).

If you are working with a child who is using delayed echolalia with entire phrases or sentences that you have said to him, you can correct this by modeling the correct sentence for him to repeat it. For example, if the child comes up to you and says “hold you?”. You can say “Will you hold me?” and encourage the child to repeat it back to you.

After you’ve done this for a while, you can start to respond to what your child says so he knows that it doesn’t make sense. For example, if he says “do you want a cookie?” when he means “I want a cookie”, you can say “No, I don’t want a cookie but you do. Say, ‘I want a cookie’.” This will start to bring awareness to the fact that what your child is saying is not the same as what he means.

When the Child Repeats your Question Instead of Answering

Echolalia when responding to questions is extremely common. This usually stems from the child not knowing how to answer the question appropriately but it can be very difficult to teach the child to answer the question if all he does is repeat the last word. Here’s what I do for this in therapy (keep in mind these steps may take weeks to master, this won’t happen all during one session):

Choose one question type (like “do you want it?” or “what’s this?”) to address at first. Ask the question and then immediately say the answer with a single word (without pausing). It sounds like this “Do you want it? Yes.” Ideally, the child will just imitate the “yes” part of it. If not, encourage the child to imitate “yes” (or whatever the answer is). Keep doing this until the child is consistently repeating just the one-word answer. Ask the question again but now just say the first sound of the answer, like this: “Do you want it? Yyyy-“. Encourage the child to say the word “yes” by getting her started with the first sound. If you have to say the whole word with her a few times, that’s ok, but hold out the first sound until she starts it. Keep doing this until she is consistently saying the answer after you give her the first sound. Ask the question again but now just mouth the first sound but don’t say it out loud. You should just look like you’re about to say it. Direct the child’s attention to your mouth by pointing so she sees you starting to say the sound. Encourage the child to say the word after you mouth the first sound. Keep doing this but gradually fade the amount that you’re mouthing the sound until she will just say the answer without you needing to mouth it at all. Once she’s mastered one question form, start over again with a different question. Keep doing this until you’ve taught a variety of questions and she starts answering them spontaneously without using echolalia.

When the Child is Echoing Your Praise

This is my favorite because it’s so darn cute. It sounds like this:

Therapist: “Kevin, what does a puppy say?”

Kevin: “Woof woof. Good job, Kevin!”

That’s the moment when you realize, “Man, I must say “good job, Kevin” every time he gets it correct!” As cute as this is, it’s not very functional so it’s important to fade it out. The first thing you need to do, is stop saying whatever it is your child has associated with the next thing that comes after his response. Instead, just repeat the correct answer, pause, and then give your praise. So it would sound like this:

Therapist “Kevin, what does a puppy say?”

Kevin: “Woof woof. Good job, Kevin!”

Therapist: “Woof woof. A dog does say ‘woof woof’, you’re right.”

If that doesn’t fix the problem after several tries, then you can go back to the numbered steps above and use the same type of cuing system. For example, you would say “What does a puppy say? Woof woof.” Then, try to jump in and say “woof woof” again after he says it but before he can go on to say “good job”. It may take a while for him to get used to not saying the whole thing so just keep trying this and eventually it should fade out.

Echolalia as Gestalt Language Processing in Autistic Children

Some children with autism use echolalia as their primary means of learning to speak. They begin by speaking in full sentences that they use as a single unit, called “language gestalts”. For example, a child may say “do you want it” every time they want something or “don’t you do it” before they are about to do something that they often get in trouble for. These children aren’t learning language one word at a time, they are learning it in chunks. Once the child has learned a certain number of language gestalts, or sentences, he/she will begin to break those down into single words and rearrange them to make new sentences.

To help a child who is learning language in gestalts, we can make use of their echolalia by modeling sentences for them to repeat. Make sure these sentences are easy to use in a variety of settings and can be swapped into new sentences. For example, if a child knows how to say “let’s eat” and “it’s time to go”. Then later, they can recombine those sentences to say “it’s time to eat” and “let’s go”.

We can also help children who are learning language this way by modeling sentences the way we want them to repeat it back. For example, if the child is reaching for something we have, we should say “I want it” instead of asking the child “do you want it”.

For more strategies and language modeling techniques for GLPs, check out our no-prep therapy kit for increasing communication in early GLPs. It’s available inside the Speech and Language Kids Hub.

When Children Repeat Words while Stimming

Some children use echolalia because they find it comforting. We call this self-stimulatory because they are finding ways to provide themselves with stimulation that makes them feel good. Some children flap their hands or rock back and forth as a self-stimulatory behavior. We call this “stimming” for short. There are also children who use echolalia as a form of stimming.

I often see this from children when they are stressed out because they find their movie scripts or tv show scripts to be comforting because they are predictable. If a child doesn’t understand the world around him or why something is happening, he may prefer to do something that he is familiar with and that is predictable, like reciting an entire movie for memory. It’s comforting to him because he knows that movie script will always sound the same no matter what.

Other children may use this delayed echolalia as stimming because they are bored or are not tuned into the world around them so they retreat into their own world where Frozen is playing non-stop in their head and they can just tap into that and recite the character’s lines for entertainment.

Should we Stop a Child from Using Echolalia as Stimming?

Keep in mind that this is a pleasurable activity that the child enjoys and there’s nothing wrong with that. The child should be allowed to have some time during his day to use this echolalia as down time, just like you would allow a boy who loves playing ball some time to play with his basketball outside for some down time.

However, there are certain times when it is not OK for a child to be using echolalia. This may be while the child is in class and the teacher is talking, or when the child is in a quiet location like the library or at church. It is not fair to exclude a child from these situations because he doesn’t know how to stop using echolalia so it can be important to help him understand when it’s OK and when it should wait.

How to Help a Child with Disruptive Echolalia as Stimming

The key to stopping echolalia that is self-stimulatory is to figure out why it’s happening. If the child is stimming with echolalia because he is stressed out, see if you can find alternative ways to de-stress the child. This may include reading him a social story about what’s going on around him or teaching him some calming strategies that will help him self-soothe in a quieter manner.

If the child is using echolalia because he is bored or tuned out, it may be helpful to remind him to tune back in. For example, if he’s quoting movie scripts during class time, you could have an adult sitting next to him reminding him to focus on the teacher. Or, the teacher could frequently ask the child questions about what she is talking about to focus his attention back on her. You could also give the child a small fidget toy that will allow him to move his hands so he can focus on the teacher better.

Helping a Child Remember Appropriate Times to Use Echolalia

If the child doesn’t realize that he is using echolalia but is just doing it out of habit, you may need to teach the child rules about when it is ok to be talking and when it is not ok to talk. Then, have the teacher gently remind him of those rules when he is talking during a “no talk” time. Bringing his awareness to this and setting limits or rules may be enough to keep the child on track.

Click here to learn more aboutmanaging stimming and other self-stimulatory behaviors.

Download the Echolalia Cheat Sheet!

You can download my free cheat sheet that will remind you how to treat each of these different types of echolalia. Click the button below to download.

Additional Echolalia Resources:

Need more in-depth help with working with a child with echolalia?  Check out our courses and therapy kits here:

Echolalia Course and Materials Kit

Courses on working with children who use echolalia and scripting, including gestalt language processors | Available inside The Hub (free trial)

No-Prep Therapy Kit

Language Modeling Strategies for Use with GLPs and Delayed Echolalia

Free Therapy Materials for Working with Echolalia:

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

Echolalia Cheat Sheet

Vocab Flashcards and Question Cards

Where Questions File Folder Game

Listen to the Podcast about Echolalia:

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: When I was in elementary school, there was a boy at my school with Down Syndrome.  Everyone thought he was my brother because I had already decided that I loved helping others and was always helping him with anything and everything he needed.  This love of helping blossomed into the amazing profession I have today!

Connect with Me:

The post Echolalia: What is Echolalia and How Can We Help? appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Selective Mutism Speech Therapy and Treatment for Children

Selective mutism is a complex anxiety disorder that is characterized by a child’s consistent failure to speak in specific social situations in which there is an expectation for speaking (e.g., at school), despite speaking in other situations (e.g., at home).

As this is primarily an anxiety disorder, treatment for selective mutism should be conducted by a full team that includes a mental health provider along with the speech-language pathologist, the child’s caregivers, and the child’s teachers. This kit should be completed with that full team.

Listen to the Podcast on Selective Mutism Treatment:

Selective Mutism Speech Therapy Kit

No-Prep Worksheets to Increase Speech for Children with Selective Mutism

Sample IEP Goal for Selective Mutism

By the end of the IEP cycle, Client will increase spoken communication in the classroom by achieving at least a 4 out of 5 on the following rubric scale as reported by her classroom teacher: 

Rubric Scale: Over the past two weeks in the classroom, the student…
1 = Did not speak or communicate in other ways (pointing, gesturing, making sounds)
2 = Did not speak but did communicate in other ways (pointing, gesturing, making sounds)
3 = Spoke every once in a while and also communicated in other ways
4 = Sometimes spoke to participate in school/social activities, but not often
5 = Spoke frequently in the classroom, enough to participate in many school and social activities

Sample Benchmark Goals for Selective Mutism

Environmental Modifications: A variety of environmental modifications will be made to increase the client’s sense of control and self-sufficiency in order to reduce anxiety about speaking situations.  These strategies include: increasing predictability of their routine, increasing their sense of control about what happens to them, and increasing their sense of self-sufficiency and independence.

Identifying Motivation: Client will work with trusted adults to identify three reasons for them to speak to others and three relaxation techniques that can be used to self-calm during anxious moments.  *Note: Client will not be required to speak to participate in these activities.  The client will be allowed to identify these strategies with pointing, gesturing, and nodding/shaking head (for yes/no questions) if needed.

Gradual Changes: Client will gradually increase their ability to communicate in more challenging situations through strategies such as exposure-based practice, desensitization, and shaping.

4 Components of Treatment for Children Selective Mutism:

In 1996, Holly Harris wrote an article called “Elective Mutism” for the Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools Journal. In this article, she outlined the 4 main components of treatment methods for selective mutism. Although you could just select one component to use as your entire treatment plan, it makes more sense to select multiple components and combine them together based on the needs of the individual child.

Component One: Psychodynamic Treatment Approaches

This first component of treatment is what we would call “psychotherapy” or therapy that is conducted by a psychologist or psychiatrist to address psychological concerns in the child. The speech-language pathologist would not be heavily involved in this type of therapy unless additional communication concerns arose during the treatment. However, the other components of selective mutism treatment can be combined with this component (with appropriate collaboration) to create a balanced and cohesive treatment plan. Since I am not a psychotherapist, I will refrain from commenting any more on this component of treatment.

Component Two: Family Intervention Approaches

Some children experience selective mutism as a result of family conflict and problematic family dynamics. If this is the case, family counseling should be provided to alleviate some of these concerns. Again, this would be done by a counselor and not a speech therapist, but the speech therapist does have an important role in family counseling when it comes to teaching appropriate communication strategies and techniques to families.

Families should be kept informed of strategies that are being used at school or in therapy so they can use those strategies at home or in other settings.

To download my handout for parents and teachers on what selective mutism is and how they can help at home and in the classroom, click the button below:

Component Three: Behavior Modification Approaches

Enter: The Speech Therapist! Ok folks, here’s where we jump in. Behavior modification can be added to a treatment plan as a way for speech therapists to help improve functional communication in the school environment (or other settings if working in private practice). For this we will use our trusty sidekick of “Operant Conditioning”. Remember him? Ok, maybe he’s more of a rusty sidekick. Let’s brush off the ole’ college textbook and refresh our memories on this one.

Operant Conditioning comes from our buddy BF Skinner and is based on the premise that behavior which is reinforced tends to be repeated (i.e. strengthened); behavior which is not reinforced tends to die out-or be extinguished (i.e. weakened). Therefore, Operant Conditioning is simply when we change a child’s behavior by reinforcing desired responses and not reinforcing (or sometimes punishing) non-desired responses. Ok, not so rusty, huh? You probably do this every day, you just don’t think about it in such formal terms.

Stimulus Fading for Selective Mutism:

One type of behavioral modification therapy that has been described in the literature is called “Stimulus Fading”. In this approach, you create an environment that the child will be comfortable communicating in. This may include bringing the parent into the school setting (if the child speaks only with the parent) or taking the therapy to the child’s house (if the child only speaks at the home).

Once the child is comfortable and communicating, you gradually make the communication situation more like your target situation (which is usually communicating in the classroom). You will start by gradually introducing a new person to the room (like a teacher or a peer) by first having them in the room but not participating and slowly have them come closer and closer to the child (over a course of several sessions). Then, you have that person interact with the child through the therapist or parent and then eventually get to the point where that person is interacting with the child directly.

Once the child is communicating with several communication partners, then you move those exact people to a new location. For example, you would move the therapy back to school if it was being done at home or you move from the therapy room to the hallway and gradually move closer to the child’s classroom. This gradual transition helps the child become comfortable communicating with different people and in different settings.

Shaping for Selective Mutism

A second behavior modification technique is called “shaping”. In this approach, the child is reinforced for any attempts at communication, starting with gestures or non-verbal communication and those attempts are gradually shaped to audible speech. Once the child is used to being reinforced for non-verbal communication, the child is encouraged to try mouthing words, then whispering, and eventually speaking. This transition is done gradually and at a pace that the child is comfortable with.

When using the shaping technique, the child is reinforced more heavily for communication attempts that are farther along this continuum. For example, if the child merely points to the M&M, she gets one piece of candy. If she mouths the word, she gets two. If she whispers the word, she gets 3. And if she says the word out loud, she gets a whole handful of candy. Keep in mind that the reinforcement must be motivating to that particular child. You may think that getting super excited and loud and hugging a child would reinforce the behavior but if she has some social anxiety already and doesn’t like that kind of attention, it may actually encourage her not to speak out loud again. Some of these children may just want you to very quietly give them a whole bunch of what they wanted as a reward. Just judge what you think the child will like based on his/her reactions.

Component Four: Drug Treatments

The final treatment approach which has been mentioned in the literature is certain medications that are designed to alleviate anxiety symptoms in children (or adults). Again, this is not my area of expertise so I will not be speaking more on that topic, but I wanted you to know what’s available.

Combining Therapy Methods

A complete therapy program should be designed through collaboration with the child’s family, speech therapist, psychologist/psychiatrist/counselor, and teachers/educators. The components listed above should be combined in any manner that best suits the needs of the individual child. For example, the psychologist could be doing psychotherapy and family counseling while the speech therapist is doing behavior modification at the school.

Download the Handout:

Click the button below to download a handout that will explain what selective mutism is and give suggestions for how to help a child with selective mutism:

Source: http://lshss.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=1780095

Selective Mutism Speech Therapy Kit

No-Prep Worksheets to Increase Speech for Children with Selective Mutism

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Selective Mutism Speech Therapy and Treatment for Children appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Early Childhood Podcast Episode appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Today we are joined by Karli Koning from http://www.behaviorpc.com/ to talk about challenging behavior problems in children. Karli explains how to figure out the function of a child’s behavior and use that information to help correct it.Listen to the interview here or keep scrolling to view the notes:

Show Notes:

Get the Worksheets!

Don’t forget to download my awesome worksheets that will give you a place to collect data about the behaviors you are seeing and make your hypothesis about what the function of the behaviors is. Also, this handout includes replacement behaviors for each of the different functions so you can quickly and easily know what replacement behaviors to teach the child. Click the button below to download the handouts:

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post How to Deal with Challenging Behaviors in the Classroom and Speech Therapy Room appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

How to Help Children Learn to Make Inferences

An inference is when you use clues present (in text or in real life) along with your background knowledge to make a guess about something that’s not explicitly known.

For example, if you see an “out of order” sign, you can use that clue and combine it with your background knowledge that “out of order” means something is broken.  You can then make an inference that the toilet or sink is broken in that bathroom.  This can be a tricky skill for our children with language delays to learn.  Here are our resources for teaching this skill.

Listen to the Podcast of this Info:

Making Inferences Therapy Kit

Inferencing as a Tool for Perspective Taking

How to Teach a Child to Make Inferences:

Clues from Text or Pictures + Background Knowledge = Assumption of what has happened or what is happening

Let me give you an example. You walk up to the bathroom and see this:

From this text, you gather the clue that someone has placed an “out of order” sign on the bathroom door. You combine this with your background knowledge that “out of order” means something typically isn’t working and the main working part of a bathroom is the toilet. Using these two parts, you can reasonably assume that the toilet is not working and they therefore do not want anyone to use it. That, my friend, is an inference.

What Do We Use Inferences For?

Inferences come in handy frequently throughout our day. Not only do we make inferences about text that we are reading, we also using inferences to “read” our environment and make inferences about what’s going on around us. Also, we use inferences to “read” other people and try to make assumptions on what they’re thinking or feeling so we can adjust our actions accordingly.

Inference Vs. Prediction

Keep in mind that inferences are made about past events or events that are currently happening. If you make an assumption or guess on what is about to happen (something in the future), you’re actually making a prediction, not an inference.

When to Work on Inferences (Common Core State Standards)?

Our students with language delays often have trouble with inferencing because it requires them to use language at a higher level than the straight-forward way that they are used to. For that reason, making inferences can be a great target for speech therapy sessions or home practice.

So when is it appropriate to work on these skills? When should we assume to see them in our students? Great question! Since most of the United States are adopting the Common Core Curriculum State Standards, I am going to use their guidelines for when and how children should be using inferences.

Here’s what the common core says children should be able to do in the different grades:

Grade 4 (Reading Standard): Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Simply Stated: Read a text, tell you what inference they drew from it, and then circle or underline the words that helped them make that inference

Grade 5 (Reading Standard):Quote accurately from a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.

Simply Stated: Read a text, tell you what inference they drew from it, and speak or write the sentence(s) that helped them make that inference

Grade 6 (Reading Standard): Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Simply Stated: Read a text, tell you what inference they drew from it, and summarize what information from the text helped them make that inference

Grade 7 (Reading Standard): Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Simply Stated: Read a text, tell you what inference they drew from it, summarize several points that helped them make that inference

Grade 8 (Reading Standard): Reading Grade 8: Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Simply Stated: Read a text, tell you what inference they drew from it, summarize the points from the text that were the most helpful to making that inference (prioritize out the most important)

Grades 9-10 (Reading Standard): Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.

Simply Stated: Read a text, tell you what inference they drew from it, summarize the points from the text that were the most helpful to making that inference and as many points as are necessary to thoroughly demonstrate the basis for that inference

Grades 11-12 (Reading Standard): Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.

Simply Stated: Same as 9-10 but include information about where the text doesn’t provide enough information to fully support the inference

Sample IEP Goals for Making Inferences

So what exactly will we be teaching and measuring then? You’ll need to look at the common core standards (or whatever standards your school goes by) and then look at how well the student can currently perform the skill. Write a goal that will get as close as possible to the target skill with added supports as needed. Here are a few examples to get you started (Click Here if you need help with writing goals).

Sample Goals:

By the end of the IEP cycle, CHILD will read a grade-level text (informational or literature) and make one inference from the text on 4 of 5 opportunities in the speech therapy setting with one reminder of the definition of an inference as needed.

By the end of the IEP cycle, after making an inference about a grade-level text (or being helped to find one if needed), CHILD will underline the pieces of the text that gave clues to the inference on 4 of 5 observed opportunities with one verbal hint from the therapist as needed during a speech therapy session.

Step One: Making Inferences from Pictures

Since it is typically easier to make an inference from a picture than from a text, we’ll start with that. Have the child look at a picture. You can find pictures in books that are good for inferencing or download my worksheets of 12 pictures for making inferences by clicking the button below:

If you are using your own pictures, try to take pictures of things that are out of place or pictures that clearly define an event that just happened.

How to Teach It:

Take each picture and show it to the child. Ask the child to guess what is going on in the picture or what happened before the picture was taken. Then, talk to the child about what an inference is. You can say something like “an inference is when we find clues in the picture and combine them with our own background knowledge to make an assumption about what is happening or what just happened”.

Then, show the child the picture again and talk through the inference that was made. For example, in the bathroom example above, you would explain to the child that the inference is that the toilet is broken. You figured that out because you used the clues from the picture (out of order sign) and combined that with your background knowledge that “out of order” means broken and the toilet is the main working part of the bathroom.

Walk the child through several examples like that until the child can identify the two pieces that contribute to the inference on his or her own.

Step Two: Making Inferences from Text and Pictures Combined

Since it can be quite the jump from making inferences about pictures to inferences about text only, I like to include an in between step where they make inferences about text and pictures combined. You can use children’s books that have a simple story along with pictures or something like a comic strip that uses text within a picture. Comic strips (like from your Sunday Funnies section of the newspaper) can be very good because they rely heavily on inferences to make the strips funny.

Take this comic strip for example:

Observations/Clues: The pets are running around like crazy. The owner says he wished he had the receipt for the pets.

Background Knowledge: You need the receipt when you return something that you don’t want anymore.

Inference: The owner wishes he could take back his pets sometimes.

How To Teach It:

For this step, read the text and look at the pictures with the child. Then, have them make an inference and back it up by telling you what in the text or pictures they used as clues/observations and what background knowledge they had to add to come up with their assumption.

Step Three: Making Inferences about Text

Finally! We’ve made it to the actual skill that kids are expected to use in school. These children must read a grade level text (literature and informational) and then make inferences based on the information provided. The child you’re working with may not be ready for something on grade level yet so you may have to adapt this skill down at first. Start with steps one and two from this tutorial before you go into this step because you want them to have a good working knowledge of what an inference is and how to come up with one.

How to Teach It:

Show the child a few sentences that are written down that could lead to an inference. Ask the child to read the text and then make an inference about what just happened or what is currently happening. Once the child has made his inference, have him circle or underline the parts of the sentence that he used for clues/observations and then have him write down what background knowledge he added to come up with his inference.

For example, here is the sentence:

“Johnny walked into the room and saw a birthday cake with his name on it, presents, and all of his friends standing around the table”.

Inference: It is Johnny’s birthday.

Observations/Clues:

“Johnnywalked into the room and saw a birthday cake with his name on it, presents, and all of his friends standing around the table”.

Background Knowledge: You get presents and a birthday cake with your name on it when it’s your birthday.

Once you have done several examples like this and the child is able to come up with an inference and tell you how he got there, you’re ready to gradually increase the difficulty level of the text. Work your way up to being able to do this in the readings or texts that the child has been assigned for his classes. Provide support for the child by walking him through the steps of picking out the clues and adding background knowledge as needed.

Using Inferences for Social Skills

If you are working with a child who purely needs to use inferencing for reading activities, you can stop here. However, many children with social problems also need help with making inferences in social situations. If a child doesn’t understand how to “read” a situation to figure out how to act or “read” a person’s body language to get a good idea of what’s going on, they may need some inferencing help.

Children who have trouble with this skill are often having difficulty with both parts of the formula. Let’s look at an example.

Johnny starts talking to Fred about trains. Johnny loves trains so he tells Fred everything that he knows about trains. He has been talking about trains for 5 minutes. Fred starts to look at his watch and tap his foot. He starts looking around and he stops responding to what Johnny is saying. Johnny keeps talking anyway.

Know anyone like that?

Well, poor Johnny has a few problems here. Chances are, he doesn’t notice that Fred looks disinterested. He hasn’t noticed him looking at his watch or tapping his foot. Furthermore, Johnny doesn’t even know that those signs typically mean that someone is not interested. So even if Johnny had noticed Fred looking around, he doesn’t have the background knowledge to tell him that when someone starts looking around, they aren’t interested in what you’re saying.

How to Teach It:

In order to teach making inferences for social skills, you need to teach the child not only to start paying attention and making observations, but also to know what to look for. You must give the child the background knowledge necessary to know what nonverbal behaviors mean.

Start by choosing one social skill that the child has trouble with, like knowing when someone is no longer interested in what he has to say. Teach the child what to look for (what observations or clues to look for) and then teach him what those clues mean. Role play situations where you demonstrate the clues for the child and the child has to recognize them. Then, you’ll also need to teach the child what to do when he notices those signs, like ask the other person a question about himself or herself.

Practice those situations and then take the child to a situation where those kinds of things may happen and signal him to pay attention to the clues when you see them arise. You can also video tape interactions and play them back to the child to help him see the clues when they arise.

Free Inferencing Worksheets:

Don’t forget to download my free inferencing worksheets with 12 different pictures for you to make inferences about along with places to write out your observations and your background knowledge. Click the button below to download!

Making Inferences Therapy Kit

Inferencing as a Tool for Perspective Taking

Abstract Language Course

How to Teach Inferencing and Other Abstract Language

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I play the cello.  I took lessons for cello and piano for most of my childhood, though I’m way better at cello than I ever got a piano.  I also taught myself guitar as an adult.  I have a super fun bright blue electric guitar that I get out every once in a while and play around on.  And then I curse the fact that since I don’t play consistently, I don’t have my callouses built up.

Connect with Me:

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What is Video Modeling?

Video modeling is a fun instructional technique where the child watches a video of himself or herself doing a desired behavior or skill. For example, let’s say Johnny always throws a fit on the way from the bus to his classroom at the beginning of each day. You could use video modeling to show Johnny a video of himself walking all the way from the bus to the classroom without having a meltdown and without any assistance.

You may be asking, how is this possible? If I could take a video of Johnny doing this, I wouldn’t need the video!

Well, the power of technology has allowed us to create these videos through the magic of editing, and I’m going to show you how!

You take a video of a child doing a skill and you give him as much help as you need to so he can get through it. Then, you edit out all of the parts where you had to help him. The end result is a video that looks like he did it all by himself even if he didn’t.

Listen to the Audio Version Here or scroll down to keep reading:

Does Video Modeling Work?

The American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) website has links to a systematic review where researchers looked at all of the research on video modeling for children with autism. Here’s what they found:

“Overall, results of the review indicated positive gains in social-communicative skills, functional skill, perspective-taking skills, and problem behavior. However, the authors cautioned that: “A small pool of studies was reviewed, and treatment effects were not measured. Consequently, it is unclear at this time whether video modeling is more or less effective than other models of instruction for learners with autism, and too soon to make detailed recommendations for practitioners” (p. 41).”
Link:http://www.asha.org/Members/ebp/compendium/reviews/Video-Modeling-Interventions-for-Individuals-with-Autism.htm

Furthermore, video modeling works the same way that social stories work. (For more information on using social stories with children with language disorders, click here!) And social stories have been shown to be helpful for children with autism, learning disabilities, cognitive impairments, and language impairments.

What Can You Use Video Modeling For?

Video modeling is used to teach a child to do a new skill or to perform a current skill at a higher level or with fewer supports. This can be applied to behaviors that you would like the child to learn as well as behaviors that you would like the child to stop. Here are some examples of challenges that can be addressed using video modeling:

How to Use Video Modeling

Step One: Choose a Target

The first thing you will need to do is choose a target behavior. What skill do you want the child to learn how to do? Map out exactly what you will want the child to do in steps.

Step Two: Video Tape the Target

Next, you will want to video tape the child doing that skill. Since the child cannot actually do the skill yet (or at least not independently), you will need to stage the situation so that he is most likely to do it on his own and then provide prompts, guidance, and support as needed. You may have to break the overall skill down into smaller steps and record each step separately. Break it down into the smallest parts necessary to make it look like the child is doing it on his own.

For example, if the target behavior is cleaning up the play room, you may set it up so that the child is holding a toy and the basket is right in front of him, then you video tape him putting that one toy into the basket. Then, you have to take another video of him putting a second toy in the basket. Don’t expect him to do the whole skill in one go.

I recommend that you video tape the entire process because we will be editing it down later.

I use my smart phone to video tape but you could use any device that you have to record video.

Step Three: Edit the Video Down

This is probably the intimidating part for you. Well don’t worry, it doesn’t need to be!

First, upload the video to your computer. If you’re using your camera, you should have a cord that will connect to your computer and allow you to upload. If you used a smart phone, you should be able to email the video to yourself and then open it on a computer.

If you used an iPhone or iPad to record the video, you can download the iMovie app from the app store and edit it right on your device, no need to transfer to your computer unless you really want to.

Once you get it on the computer, open the video in whatever video editing software your computer already has. Most computers come with some basic video editing software. If you cannot find any such software on your computer, you can search the internet for “free video editing software”. Just make sure what you download is legitimate and not a scam. I use Camtasia Studio but that is a paid video editing software.

Once you’ve put the video into your video editing software, you’ll want to edit out (delete) any parts where it looks like you’re helping the child. You should be left with a video that just includes the parts where the child did the skill independently. It may be a bit choppy but don’t worry, the child won’t mind. He’ll be too focused on the fact that he’s watching himself do something awesome!

Here’s a video that will show you how to edit down the videos:

Would you like the step-by-step instructions for how to edit down a video to use for video modeling? Click this button to download my free PDF guide to creating video modeling videos:

How to Use Video Modeling in Instruction

Once you get your video done, it’s time to show it to the child.

Step One: Show the Video at a Different Time

Show the child the video during a low-stress time that is not near the time that you want the target skill to occur. Show the video and then talk to the child about what happened in the video. Have the child watch the video as many times as he wants. Show the video to him several different times (different days) before attempting the actual routine with it.

Step Two: Show the Video Right Before the Expected Behavior

Once the child is familiar with the video, you’ll want to try to use it to make that actual routine or activity go smoothly. Show the child the video right before you are going to expect him to do it. For example, if the video is about getting the child off the bus, you will get on the bus with the video and show him the video before you unbuckle him.

Step Three: Show the Video While the Child is Doing the Behavior

As soon as you’ve shown the video to the child, tell him that it’s time to do what he saw in the video. Help him go through the steps just as they were presented in the video. If it’s at all possible, let him watch the video of him doing the skill while he’s actually doing it. In our example above, this would look like you holding the iPad with the video playing in front of him as he walks down the hallway toward his classroom.

Step Four: Reinforce and Practice!

Reinforce any success that the child had during the activity and then practice, practice, practice. You will want to have the child continue watching the video multiple times per day as well as right before and during the activity. Keep doing this until the child can complete the behavior successfully.

Success!

There you have it! That’s all the steps to use video modeling. Just like any therapy technique, this isn’t guaranteed to work for every child and on every behavior, but it’s definitely a great tool to try, especially if you have a low functioning kiddo who isn’t responding well to more traditional instruction.

If you’d like to download my PDF guide to creating and using Video Modeling videos, please click the button below:

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Using Video Modeling For Kids With Autism appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

How to Teach Idioms and Figurative Language to Kids and Teens

Have you been bending over backwards trying to teach your students idioms? Are they left high and dry when idioms are used in their classrooms? Well I’m going to take the bull by the horns and knock your socks off with some fabulous activities for working on figurative language in speech therapy!

What is Figurative Language?

Figurative language, also called abstract language or non-literal language, is anything we say where what we mean is not exactly the same as the literal meaning of those words.  For example, when I say I will knock your socks off, I don’t mean that your socks will literally come off of your feet.  I mean that I will impress you.  Figurative language is specific to each language and even to specific groups of people who use that language.  Each culture has its own sayings and expressions that have different meanings to them.

The following are all types of figurative language/abstract language:

Idioms/Figurative Language Activities

Therapy Kit with Quiz

What is an Idiom in Figurative Language?

An idiom is a type of figurative language that is a phrase that people say that is commonly accepted as having a different meaning that the individual words may lead you to believe.  For example, stating that “it’s raining cats and dogs” does not mean that there are literally cats and dogs falling from the sky.  Instead, it means that it is raining heavily.  Many of the idioms in English have roots back to older ways of saying things.

Idioms are a form of figurative language and are often not well-understood by children with language disorders.  While there is no magical age by which children should understand idioms, it is reasonable to generalize that a 5-year-old knows very few idioms and an adult knows (and uses) a ton.  Children should gradually get better at using idioms and should be able to use quite a few idioms in the middle school years and even more in the high school years.

Idiom Examples (Figurative Language):

Idioms Speech Therapy:

For children who are struggling to learn or understand idioms, speech therapy can help.  Idioms speech therapy will focus on helping children understand the meaning of these common (and sometimes uncommon) figures of speech that have non-literal meanings.  Here are the steps to doing speech therapy to help a child learn idioms:

Have the child read a passage (or read it aloud for him) that contains an idiom.  Ask the child to guess the meaning of the idiom based on the context in which it is given. Have the child come up with a scenario in which that idiom might be used (aside from the example already given).  Role play the scenario and have the child use the idiom. Give the child an assignment to use the idiom at an appropriate time sometime before your next session.  Ask him to write down in a journal when he used it and what the context was.  Review during the next session. During your next session, ask the child to tell you the true meaning of the idiom.  For this, just say the idiom out loud, don’t give it in context.  If the child is unable to tell you the meaning, repeat the steps above. Repeat the steps above with a new idiom.

Examples of Idioms in Passages:

John was super busy. He was talking on the phone with his office while he stirred the soup that was cooking on the stove and starting to burn.  His son Billy walked up to him and said “Dad, I need help with my homework”.  John replied with “Hang on!” The children walked into the classroom and found their teacher, Ms. Donna waiting for them. All of the chairs were arranged in a circle around Ms. Donna.  As they approached the circle of chairs, Ms. Donna said “Have a seat” and waved her hand toward the chairs. Batson was clearly having a rough day. The children in her class were running around the classroom and screaming.  There were toys and art supplies everywhere.  Three children were pulling on her clothes and singing as loudly as they could.  Mrs. Batson looked at the children and said “You’re driving me up the wall!”

What are Similes and Metaphors in Figurative Language?

What is a Simile?

A simile is a comparison between two unlike things that uses the word “like” or “as”.  For example, you could say your Grandma is as friendly as a grizzly bear (meaning that she’s not very friendly) or that your socks are as warm as a fireplace (meaning that they are very warm).

How to Teach Similes to Children:

Step One:On a piece of paper, write an adjective in the middle.  On the left side of the paper, write objects that can be described by that adjective.  On the right side of the paper, write objects that are not described by that adjective.  You should have a list like this:

Step Two:Have the child choose two items from either side of the paper and create a simile for them.  For example, you could use “this blanket is as rough as a kitten”.  You can also do this with a verb in the middle and the word “like” in the simile, such as “you jump like a kangaroo”.

Step Three:Practice using some of the similes that the child created in written or spoken language.  Come up with scenarios or situations where it would be appropriate to use those similes and either role play scenarios or write out paragraphs that include them.

What is a Metaphor?

A metaphor is a comparison between two unlike things but instead of using “like” or “as”, you just replace one word with another word.  For example, you might say that your child is a doll, or that your chocolate bar is heaven.

Literature is full of metaphors.  Go through a pleasure-reading book with the child and pick out any metaphors that come up.  Talk with the child about what the literal meaning of the metaphor would mean and ask if he thinks the author meant that.  Then, decide on the figurative meaning that the author was going for.  For example, if the author wrote, “Jason was a pig at dinner”, ask your child if the author meant that he actually turned into a pig.  No, probably not.  Then help the child determine that the author really meant he ate sloppily like a pig would.

Additional Resources on Idioms, Figurative Language, and Abstract Language:

Idioms/Figurative Language Activities

Therapy Kit with Quiz

Abstract/Figurative Language Course

Learn How to Teach Figurative Language

Listen to this Information on Idioms, Figurative Language as a Podcast:

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: Peanut M&Ms are my favorite guilty pleasure food.  I could eat them all day.  Mmmmmm….

Connect with Me:

The post Idiom, Figurative Language Speech Therapy Activities appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

“You’re kid sounds funny”

“He’s so weird”

“What’s wrong with that kid?”

“Why is he doing that?”

“Is she dumb or something?”

Sticks and stones may break bones but words can be just as painful if you are the parent of a child with special needs.  Those insults may come from other kids, other parents, or random people in the community who don’t know a thing about kids.

The fact of the matter is, we as humans tend to make fun of that which we don’t understand.  And we tend to judge others based on our own narrow views of the world.  That means, our precious little ones who have special needs are going to get insulted.  They’re going to get teased.  And they may even get bullied.

As a parent, you want to protect your child from any harm and it can be hard to know what to do in a situation such as this.  Do you ignore it?  Do you say something?  Do you punch the guy in the face? (Ok, don’t do that one…legal disclaimer…)

I am a parent, but so far my child does not have any delays, so I’m not going to pretend to know what you’re going through.  But I am a speech therapist and I have spent a lot of time with kids who look, sound, and act different than everyone else.  I’ve also been around when those children have been picked on, teased, or asked very uncomfortable questions.

My advice on dealing with bullying, teasing, and questions is based on my own experiences.  It’s not a perfect plan, but it’s a plan.  Take from it what will help you and your child and leave what doesn’t match up with your beliefs.  But I truly hope this helps you deal with those difficult situations:

Click the Player Below to Listen to This in Podcast Form.  Or, keep scrolling to read on:

Your Child is Watching for Your Reaction

When someone says something negative about your child in front of you, your child probably won’t know how to respond.  In that moment, he will be watching your response.  And how you respond to the situation will tell him a lot.  It will tell him what you think of him (even if he’s wrong).  It will also tell him what he should do if that situation arises when you aren’t around.

Let’s pretend that someone says to you “Your kid sounds funny”.  Your child will look at you and watch your reaction.  If you ignore the comment and don’t say anything about it, your child may think that means that you also think he sounds funny and that you’re ashamed of him.  This can create guilt in your child which can weigh quite heavily on him.

Whatever you decide, you must do something!  If you decide to ignore the stranger’s remarks, that is completely fine.  However, if you don’t respond to the stranger, then you have to respond to your child.  You can wait to do this until you’re alone, but you must explain to him why you didn’t say anything. You can tell him that those sorts of comments don’t deserve a response because they are disrespectful, or whatever other reason you had for ignoring the comment.

But then, make sure to follow up by talking to your child about what was said and how you feel about it.  Be honest with your child.  If he does sound funny, you can say “I know some speech sounds are hard for you to get out and that’s not your fault.  But you’ve been working really hard in speech therapy and I am so proud of the progress you’ve made!  Plus, you’re really good at basketball and there are tons of people who have trouble with that.”

Not only does your reaction tell your child what you think of him, it also shows him what to do in similar situations.  If you think it’s best for your child to ignore comments like that, then show him how to ignore (instead of getting mad).  If you think it’s best for your child to address comments like that, then you should show your child how to do that as well.  There’s no right or wrong here.  Each child will need a different approach so decide what will work for your child.

What You Should Say in Response to Something Negative

As I mentioned before, you don’t have to say anything to the speaker if you don’t want to.  You can tastefully ignore the rudeness and reassure your child that you don’t think any less of him because of it.  However, you may also want to say something back.  This should not be just so you can retaliate and feel better.  Think about it as a way to show your child how he can respond in the future.  Make sure you are polite and respectful in your response.  If you are nothing but kind to them, they will surely feel bad about making their remark in the first place!

1. Try a Little Education

Let’s go back for a moment to my comment about making fun of things that we don’t understand.  Most likely, the rude comments or questions are probably happening because they don’t understand.  Think about it, if a mom of a child with autism walked by another autistic child, she wouldn’t say “what’s wrong with that child?”.  No, she’d be more likely to give that parent a high five of solidarity or a sympathetic look if the child was in the middle of a meltdown.

If someone says something negative, try educating them about what’s going on with your child.  If it is another child, use simple language that can help him/her understand why your child sounds, looks, or acts different.  If it’s an adult, talk to them just like you would talk to a friend about what’s going on.

2. Explain that your Child Does Things Differently

When you are educating the other person on what’s going on, you don’t have to say that there’s something wrong with your child.  You can describe the way your child does things differently.  If your child is in a wheelchair, you can say “you move around using your feet, but his feet don’t work like yours.  He moves around using these wheels”.  If you have a child with autism who is stimming by staring at his fingers, you can say “He has autism.  That means he learns things differently and he sees things differently.  To him, his fingers look really cool when he looks at them like that”.

You can also explain that your child is still learning a certain skill.  If a child asks why he keeps hugging her, you can say “Johnny is still learning how to talk to kids.  Since he doesn’t always know what to say, he hugs people instead.  That’s his way of saying hello”.  That way, you are explaining what your child does differently but without making it sound to your child like you think he’s messed up.

3. Highlight Something that your Child Does Well

Since you’ve now spent time talking about what’s different or abnormal about your child, you should make sure to follow up by talking about something that your child does well.  If your child only hears you talk about the negative, that’s all he’ll think about himself.  I recommend having at least a few different positive things that you can say about your child ready to go at all times, just in case.  Think of these ahead of time so you’re not fumbling for a thought.

Creating Widespread Understanding

I talked before about how education can be all it takes to stop someone’s comments, questions, or teasing.  Once people understand what’s going on and get to know your child as a person, they are much less likely to pick on him.  Of course, there are always those people who will continue to be rude, and that’s a great time to teach your child the power of ignoring.  However, most people will change their tune with a little education.  This is especially true of children.  Many kids will stand up for their friend with special needs if others pick on him, but only if they are given the chance to understand and love him first.

That is why I am a big proponent of educating people who will be around your child ahead of time, so there will be fewer comments and teasing.  You may be able to prevent your child from being bullied at school by educating his classmates before it happens.

Here’s what I recommend:

Think about the places that your child will spend time. School?  Church?  Daycare?  Family?  Playgroups? Offer to teach the people at each location about your child’s disability or delay and provide some education. You can offer to do this at your child’s school by talking to your child’s teacher or the principal. If you get the chance to speak to the group, let them know what’s going on with your child, including what the diagnosis is, what caused it (if you know), what it looks like, and what kinds of things they may notice your child doing. You may also want to tell them that they can’t catch it if it’s something that looks like it could be contagious, or if you’re talking to young children. Tell them all of the positive things about your child as well! Tell them what he’s good at and what he loves to do. Give them a few ways that they can interact with him in an appropriate manner. Maybe they just don’t know what to say!  Tell them some questions they can ask him that he knows the answers to, or tell them how to say hello and offer him a toy.  You can also tell them how they can respond if he does certain things.  For example, if your child hits to get attention, instruct your listeners to tell him “Safe hands.  You can say ‘hi’” when he hits (or whatever you guys say at home). Thank them for listening and accepting your child into their community.

You can also record a video of yourself saying these things and share it on your Facebook or social media pages if you have certain friends or family members who don’t understand your child and are creating negative situations.

For most people, once they understand what’s going on and how they can help, they are all on board!  They just need a little education first.

Get Some Examples:

If you’d like some examples of what these things may sound like, I’ve created a PDF guide full of scripts for how to deal with teasing.  Click the button below to download the scripts that you can use around your child.

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

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Writing IEP Goals…The SMART Way!

Writing IEP goals can be frustrating and intimidating…but it doesn’t have to be!  Imagine that you show up to an IEP (Individualized Education Plan) meeting, whether you are a parent or a professional, and you see a goal like this:

“Bonnie will learn the letters of the alphabet.”

What would you think?

I hope you would think, “What does that even mean??”.  What exactly is she supposed to learn?  What they’re called?  What sounds they make?  How to sing the song?  And how will you know that she has “learned” them?  And when does she need to have this done by?

All in all, this is a terrible goal.

So how does one write a decent IEP goal?  Well, I’m going to explain it to you and give you the formula for writing IEP goals.  Whether you are a speech-language pathologist or another educator/professional, this information will help you in writing IEP goals for your student.

SLP Reboot

Write Better Goals, Get Organized, and Streamline Your Job! 6-Week Course ~ Include inside The Hub

The Formula for Writing IEP Goals:

We’re going to break down exactly how to write an IEP with great goals but here’s the basic overview.  If your IEP goals have these essential parts, then you’re doing great!  Click the button to access a PDF version of this formula in our free materials library!  Or, keep scrolling to learn more about each of these components.

The Process for Writing IEP Goals:

Writing IEP Goals Step One:
Identify the Areas of Concern

The first step for writing IEP goals is to identify the area of concern.  These concerns should be written in the “Present Level of Academic Performance” area of the IEP (some schools/states name that area something slightly different).  You can figure out what areas are of concern by using standardized tests, developmental checklists, common core curriculum benchmarks/standards, or any other skills assessments that you have access to.  This section should also include information on how that area of concern impacts the child in the educational setting.

For example, you could say “Jimmy is not able to stand on his head for more than 3 minutes.”  That is definitely an area of concern for poor Jimmy.  However, it is not educationally relevant.  That is to say, his lack of head-stand skills is very unlikely to cause him problems in the classroom.  Unless, of course, there is a head-stand competition and his grade depends on it…but let’s assume that’s probably not going to happen.  For that reason, Jimmy’s head-stand disability should not be included in the present level of academic performance.

IEP Goals:  Examples of Impact Statements

Instead, we should be writing IEP goals like “In spontaneous speech, Jimmy does not include any grammatical markers in his utterances.  This makes his speech sound ‘telegraphic’ which causes him to be very difficult to understand.  This impacts Jimmy’s ability to communicate his wants and needs with teachers and peers, participate in classroom discussions, and initiate and maintain appropriate relationships with peers.”

The key to this section is to write what the child is having difficulty with (specifically) and then how it impacts him in the classroom.

Here are a few examples of how communication delays may impact a child in the classroom (use these in your impact statements!):

Writing IEP Goals Step Two:
Each Area of Concern Should be Addressed in the IEP

Ok, here’s a big takeaway.  If you write a concern in the Present Level of Academic Performance, you need to address it somewhere in the IEP.  That means, you can write a goal for how you will help the child overcome that concern.  You could also write an accommodation or modification that will address the area of concern (such as sitting a child closer to the teacher to accommodate for attention or hearing problems).  Just keep in mind that each area needs to be addressed.  You can’t just say that something is a problem and then never say what you’re going to do about it.

Writing IEP Goals Step Three:
Choose an Area of Concern and Write a Goal

Ok, so now that you know all of the areas you are going to write goals for, you need to sit down and write the goal.  Don’t stress, I’ll help you!  Here is a general framework that will help you think about writing IEP goals.  Maybe you’ve heard of it, it’s called “S.M.A.R.T. Goal-Writing”.  Every goal you write should be:

Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Relevant
Time-Bound

Let’s break it down:

Specific:

Each goal should specifically state what the child will do.  It should be so specific that a substitute could walk in, read the goal, watch the child, and then know exactly if the child can do that skill or not.  Your goal should include what the child will do, in what setting he will do it, what accuracy he should do it with, and what kinds of support he should need.

Measurable:

Each goal should specifically state how the skill will be measured.  Make sure that you state not only how data will be collected but exactly what percentage/accuracy will be attained.  You should also write this section so a substitute could come in and assess it without you explaining how.

Attainable:

Make sure that the goal you set is something that you reasonably expect that the child will accomplish in the given time frame.  I know this can be hard to do if you’re doing an evaluation and don’t know how quickly the child will progress, but take a good guess.  The IEP can (and should) be revised halfway through the IEP cycle if the child is making faster or slower progress than expected.

Relevant:

The goal should be relevant to each child’s individual needs.  This means, you can’t just use the same goal for everyone on your caseload.  Each goal should be customized to what that child needs.  Also, the goals should be relevant to the child’s educational needs.  We can go back to our example of head-stands as a goal that would not be relevant to a child’s educational needs.

Time-Bound:

Each goal should explicitly say what time frame it will be achieved in.  You can say things like “by the end of the IEP cycle…” or “in one year…” or “by ___ date…”.  This allows you to specify if this is a goal that will take the child all year to accomplish or if you expect it to be mastered and knocked out of the way early on to leave time for working on harder skills.

IEP Goals Examples:

Now let’s take a look at how this looks on actual IEP goals.  Again, here’s the formula:

Bam!  There it is!  Each of those 6 boxes is one thing that you must include in your goal although you can arrange them in any order that you like.  Here are the parts written out in case you can’t read the graphic:

IEP Goals Example:

By the end of the IEP cycle, Johnny will correctly produce the pronouns “he” and “she” when retelling a story that has just been read aloud in the speech therapy room as measured by data collection with at least 80% accuracy and no more than 2 reminders as needed.

Ok, I know that is quite a mouthful.  But when you break it down, it has all of the information we need.  These are not designed to be great conversational pieces.  They are designed to convey enough information that if you passed your IEP on to another professional, they could pick up with exactly what you were intending to do.  And remember, many children change schools or move mid-IEP cycle so that very well could happen to you!  If you get a new kiddo, you’re going to want his goals to be written like this as well.

Including Baselines:

Some schools and states require that baselines be included in each IEP goal so it is clear where the child started and how far they’ve come.  If you want or need to include baseline, you can add it to the above formula by replacing your “Student will”, “supports”, and “accuracy” sections with this:

“…student will increase/decrease ______ from a baseline of ____ accuracy with ____ supports to ____accuracy with _____ supports…”

IEP Goal Example with Baseline:

By the end of the IEP cycle, Johnny will increase correct production of the pronouns “he” and “she” when retelling a story that has just been read aloud in the speech therapy room from a baseline of 57% accuracy with 3 reminders to at least 80% accuracy with no more than 2 reminders as needed.

You also may want to change the location of the goal from your baseline as well.  For example, you could say that the child will go from doing a skill in the speech therapy room with 80% accuracy to in the classroom with 80% accuracy.

IEP Goals Examples with Benchmarks

So what are benchmark goals for?  Benchmark goals are “mini” goals that are the steps leading up to a bigger goal.  Think of these as the skills that the child will need to learn before he can do the larger goal.  For example, if a child is going to answer a variety of “where” questions about a story read aloud, then some benchmark goals may be to answer “where” questions by pointing (where’s the ball) and then answer “where” questions verbally about the location of objects immediately present (such as “where is the block? Under the table).

The key here is to include time stamps on when you expect these benchmark goals to be met by.  If you do this right, you’ll be able to easily see if the child is making adequate progress to meet the overall goal.

Let’s take my example above and assume that your school district tracks and updates progress once per trimester.  If that were the case, you could write the following goal and benchmark goals to get you there:

Example Benchmarks:

Overall Goal: By the end of the IEP cycle, Juliet will independently answer “where” questions about a book that has been read aloud in the therapy room with 80% accuracy as measured by data collection.

Benchmark 1: By the end of the first trimester of this IEP cycle, Juliet will independently answer a “where’s the ___” question by pointing to the correct object in the therapy room with 80% accuracy as measured by data collection.

Benchmark 2: By the end of the second trimester of this IEP cycle, Juliet will independently answer a “where’s the ____” question by verbally describing the location of the object in the therapy room with 80% accuracy as measured by data collection.

As you can see, the benchmarks follow the logical progression of skills that the child will need to learn how to answer “where” questions and can easily by measured by you or anyone else looking at the IEP.  You’ll easily be able to tell at progress-reporting time if she’s on track to meet the goal.  If she’s not, you can modify the IEP accordingly (during a formal IEP meeting!).

Speech and Language IEP Goal Bank:

Time for some IEP goals examples!  Check out our sample speech and language IEP goals in the goal bank below.  When writing IEP goals, you will need to modify these to meet the needs of each individual child, but these should be a great starting place to get you going.

Speech Sound Goals Examples:

These sample goals could be used for children with speech sound disorders.

Language Goals Examples:

Sample goals for children with language disorders.

Social Skills Goals Examples:

Sample goals for working on social skills with children.

Fluency Goals Examples:

Sample goals for working on fluency and stuttering.

Need More Help with Writing IEP Goals?

Our organizational course for school-based SLPs is all about getting you organized and saving you time.  There is an entire module dedicated to writing great goals that will make data collection a breeze and help your clients make faster progress.  Sign up today:

SLP Reboot

Write Better Goals, Get Organized, and Streamline Your Job! 6-Week Course ~ Include inside The Hub

To Listen to the Podcast Version of this Info, Click Play Below:

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I come from a long line of musicians.  My grandfather was the choral director at the local university for many years and my parents both taught music as well.  I was in choir up through high school (I sang alto) and played cello and piano as well.  I even once sang in a Dickenson-style Christmas Carole choir as an adult.  And yes, we dressed up!

Connect with Me:

The post Writing IEP Goals | SMART Goals and Examples appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What Is a Frontal Lisp?

Let’s start at the beginning. A frontal lisp, also known as an interdental lisp, occurs when a child says the /s/ and /z/ sounds with the tongue pushed too far forward. This causes /s/ and /z/ to sound more like “th”. Frontal lisps are sometimes caused by tongue thrust, which is when the tongue is consistently too far forward, including during swallowing and at rest (when the tongue is not doing anything at all). Not all frontal lisps are caused by tongue thrust but some are. Tongue thrust requires additional types of therapy that are not discussed in this article. Today’s article will just focus on treatment for a plain old frontal lisp.

Alternatively, there is another type of lisp called a lateral lisp.  This is where air comes out the sides of the mouth, making the /s/ and /z/ sounds “slushy”.  There is also often a lot of saliva associated with a lateral lisp.  For more information about treating lateral lisps, click here.

How Do You Treat Frontal Lisp?

I’m so glad you asked! Frontal lisp therapy can be broken down into six steps.

/s/ Articulation Worksheets and Homework

No-Prep Therapy Kit for Help with Lisps

1. Assessment for a Frontal Lisp:

The first thing you will need to do for frontal lisp therapy is to assess the lisp. You don’t need any standardized tests for this, you just need a lot of words for the child to say so you can see if there are any words where the child is already producing a good /s/ or /z/ sound. I recommend you test both the /s/ and /z/ in all word positions. This means testing when the sound is at the beginning, middle, and end of the word as well as in consonant clusters (blends) at both the beginning and end of the word.

Simply have the child say words with the sounds in all of those different positions. If the child can read, just have him read word lists. If the child cannot read, you can have him label pictures that represent the words. Below are my word lists for /s/ and /z/ in all positions, or you can download my articulation cards which contain pictures of /s/ and /z/ words in the initial, medial, and final position as well as /s/ blends in the initial position of words. Just write down which words the child can say correctly and which words are lisped.

Lisp Words: Word Lists for Assessing Frontal Lisps

Initial /s/

Medial /s/

Final /s/

Initial /s/ Blends

Final /s/ Blends

Initial /z/

Medial /z/

Final /z/

2) Find a Natural Tongue Placement to Eliminate Frontal Lisp

Ok, take a look at your results. Was the child able to say the /s/ or /z/ sound correctly in any of those words? If so, that’s where you’re going to start! Have the child say that word (or words if the child had multiple words he could say) and ask him to feel where his tongue is for the /s/ sound when he says it. Talk about how the tongue is behind the teeth. Ask the child to tell you if his tongue tip is up or down. Either way is acceptable and some children do it with the tongue tip up behind the top front teeth and some do it with the tongue tip down behind the bottom front teeth.

Make sure the child is saying the /s/ sound in the word in a very crisp, clear manner without any lisp. If he starts to lisp on it, try a different word. Practice this correct /s/ sound (in those words if necessary) until the child knows exactly what his tongue is doing. If the child does not have any correct productions after testing all of those words, you can either keep trying new words to try to find a good one, or try some elicitation techniques to get an /s/ without having a word that he can already produce correctly.

Elicitation Techniques for /s/ and /z/:

If the client is having a hard time getting a good /s/ placement, try some of these tips.  Watch the video below for tips for speech-language pathologists to help a child produce this sound.

Exploding /t/ Sound:

Start by having the child say the /t/ sound. Have him say it over and over again (“t…t…t..t…t”). Then, tell him that you want him to say it 5 times but explode the last one. Take that last /t/ and force it out as hard and long as you can. It should sound like this “t…t…t…t…tsssss”. You should get a nice /s/ sound after the /t/. Don’t tell the child that’s the /s/ sound right away.

Practice it a few times until you know he can do it and then say “Hey, that makes an /s/ sound at the end”. If you can get the exploding “t” sound, then you can practice it in words that end in “ts” like “bets” and “cats”. Or, you can practice holding out the /s/ part of it and then putting a pause in the middle of the /s/ so that the child gets practice starting the /s/ sound again, like “tssss…sssss”.

The Straw Technique for Teaching the /s/ Sound:

This is a great strategy for teaching the /s/ sound. Use a straw to get help the child keep their tongue back and blow the air right through the middle.

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Coarticulation:

Coarticulation is when you put a different sound next to the target sound so it comes out more clearly. In the above example, we used the /t/ to facilitate the /s/ sound because the /t/ sound is produced in the same place in the mouth as the /s/ sound. You can use coarticulation by saying a word that ends in /t/ right before a word that starts with /s/.

For example, you could say “cat soup” to try to get a good placement for /s/. You could also use the /n/ sound, like “tan silo” because the /n/ sound is also produced in the same place as the /s/. Or, you may find that other sounds work well to help the child say the /s/ or /z/ sound, such as sounds that require the tongue to be in the back of the mouth like /r/ (bear soup) or /k/ (black sock). Try a bunch of different sounds to see if any help.

Turning Voice on for /z/:

If you are able to get the /s/ sound but are struggling to get /z/, have the child practice turning his voice on by humming. Have the child place his hand on his throat so he can feel the vibrations when he turns his voice on and hums. Then, have him say the /s/ sound and then turn his voice on or hum. If he’s having trouble with this, have him hum a simple tune while saying the /s/ sound.

3. Eliminate Frontal Lisp in Single Words

Once you are able to get the child to say a good /s/ or /z/ sound (either in single words or by itself), you want to start working on saying that sound in single words. If you were able to get the child to say either /s/ or /z/ in one or more of the words from the assessment, start with those words and other words like them. For example, if the child was able to say “bus”, try other words that have the “uh” vowel and then the /s/ sound, like “us”, “Gus”, “Rus” (you may have to get creative). Then, slowly branch out to words that are slightly less similar. For this example, you could start trying other words with /s/ at the end but with different vowels.

If you weren’t able to get any of the words before but were able to get a good /s/ using the elicitation techniques, try having him put that good /s/ into some words and see what’s the easiest. For example, if you used the exploding /t/, you’ll want to start with words that have /ts/ in them. If you need to, go through the list again and see if any words are easier now that the child has a good /s/ in isolation. Then, start with those words.

Gradually shift to other words that are similar. Once you pick where to start, focus on just that sound in just that position. For example, if you start with “bus”, you should only work on /s/ at the ends of words until the child can do that one well. Or, if you choose “best” to start with, you should only use /st/ at the ends of words until the child has mastered it.

4. Practice that Sound/Position in Sentences

Once the child can say that one sound in that one position or context, practice saying those words in sentences. You can have the child repeat simple sentences that you say or make up his own sentences. Just make sure that he’s really mastered that sound in that position before you move on.

5. Go Back and Do It Again: Eliminate Frontal Lisp in a New Position

Now that the child has mastered that sound in that position in sentences, you’ll want to go back and pick a new target to practice in single words again. You’ll want to do another mini assessment because some of the other /s/ or /z/ words may have fixed themselves while you were working on that one context. From your quick re-assessment, look for words that are getting close but aren’t quite there. Or, choose a position that’s similar to what you already worked on.

I would stick with the same sound you chose to work on first instead of switching back and forth between /s/ and /z/. Just pick a new position (like /s/ at the beginning of words or /s/ in /st/ initial blends) and practice it in single words and then sentences. Keep repeating this process until the child can produce the /s/ or /z/ sound in sentences in any position or context. At this point, you can either repeat the process for the other sound or move on to conversational carry-over with the first sound.

6. Eliminate Frontal Lisp and Interdental Lisp in Conversation

Once the child is able to say the sound in sentences, you’ll want to work on the sound in conversation. For more information on practicing sounds in conversation, check out my post on increasing self-awareness and carry-over: Click Here to Learn About Teaching Sounds in Conversation

Voila!

There you go! All the steps to doing speech therapy for frontal lisps/interdental lisps. I hope you found that information helpful. Don’t forget to download the /s/ and /z/ articulation cards below.

Additional Resources for Lisp Speech Therapy:

/s/ Articulation Worksheets and Homework

No-Prep Therapy Kit for Help with Lisps

Lisp Course

Webinar Recordings on Treatment for Frontal and Lateral Lisps in Children

Free Therapy Materials for Treating Lisps:

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

/s/ and /z/ Articulation Cards

/s/ Blends Worksheets

Carry-Over and Generalization Materials

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: In college, I did a brief stent as the secretary of the Herpetology club….which in case you were wondering is all the creepy crawly reptiles and amphibians like snakes, lizards, frogs, etc.  Can’t say I had more than a passing interest in those things but my friend was in the club and there were only 5 members so I got drafted into a leadership position.

Connect with Me:

The post Frontal Lisp/Interdental Lisp | Speech Therapy Ideas & Word Lists appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What is Final Consonant Deletion?

Final consonant deletion is a phonological process (pattern of speech errors) where a child drops off the ending consonants of all words.

Final Consonant Deletion Examples:

Final Consonant Deletion Age of Elimination:

Final consonant deletion is a very normal speech pattern for young children.  By dropping off the last sounds of words, young children are able to let us know what they need without over-taxing their speech systems.  However, after a certain age, we expect children to stop using this process/pattern and start including all of their sounds.

The age of elimination for final consonant deletion is 3 years.  We expect that by a child’s 3rd birthday, they are not still continuing to drop final consonants off of their words.  If a child continues to use final consonant deletion much past this age, he/she may need speech therapy to learn to include final consonants on words.

Final Consonant Deletion Kit

Auditory Bombardment Through Carry-Over ~ Included in Hub

Final Consonant Deletion Goals:

Here’s an example of a great set of goals you can write for a child who needs to eliminate the process of final consonant deletion:

By the end of the IEP cycle, Client will eliminate the phonological process of final consonant deletion by producing final consonants in the therapy room with no more than 5 omissions of final consonants in 15 minutes of conversation with 2 verbal reminders as needed on 3 consecutive data collection days.

Benchmarks: 

Auditory Discrimination: Student will receptively identify the difference between two minimal pair words where the words sound the same except that one word has a final consonant and the other does not (example: bee and beak) with at least 80% accuracy. Production in Single Words: Student will produce single words with final consonants with at least 80% accuracy. Production in Phrases: Student will produce final consonants in 2-3 word phrases with at least 80% accuracy. Production in Sentences: Student will produce final consonants in sentences with at least 80% accuracy.

Final Consonant Deletion Activities

Fortunately, the therapy to fix final consonant deletion is pretty straight forward.  You just need to help the children hear that there definitely are consonants on the ends of many words and then help them say those final consonants.  These final consonant deletion activities will gradually help a child learn to use those final consonants.  Use the activities below in order.  Don’t move on to the next activity until the child has mastered the previous one.

1: Auditory Discrimination for Final Consonant Deletion

The first thing you will need to do is help the child hear the difference between words that have final consonants and words that do not.  To do this, you will need to come up with some pairs of words that are exactly the same except that one has a final consonant, and one does not. Fortunately for you, I have listed as many as I can think of here:

Final Consonant Deletion Words:

This final consonant deletion word list shows examples of minimal pairs – words that are exactly the same except that one word has a final consonant and the other does not.  Use these word pairs to help the child hear the difference between words with and without final consonants.

Or, download three free final consonant deletion worksheets with minimal pairs here:

Auditory Discrimination Game:

Place two pictures in front of the child from the same pair.  Tell the child what each picture is called and then have him close his eyes.  Hide a penny (or a piece of candy) under one of the pictures.  If it sticks up and is obvious to the child, use two paper cups and put the cards on top of the cups and the candy/penny under one.  Then, have the child uncover his eyes and tell him which picture to look under.  (Or, if you don’t want to do the penny game, just tell the child to point to one picture or the other).

For example, if you had “bee” and “beak” out, you could say “look under ‘bee”.  Make sure you exaggerate the final consonant when you say it.  If he looks under the wrong picture, say “Oh listen, that word has a final/end sound (or doesn’t have a final/end sound)” and exaggerate the sound for him again.  Keep doing this until the child can correctly pick the right picture each time.  The child may be able to do this right away or it may take several weeks.  Keep at it!

2: Eliminate Final Consonant Deletion in Single Words

Once the child can hear the difference between words that have final consonants and those that do not, it’s time to start having the child say those sounds in single words.

Put two words from a pair in front of the child again, but this time, tell the child that he will have to tell you which picture to look under.   Have the child close his eyes and then you hide the penny (or candy) under the picture with the final consonant (always under the one with the final consonant).  Have the child open his eyes and this time have him tell you where to look.

The child will probably say the word without a final consonant first so repeat the word back to the child and look under that picture.  (For example, if you’re doing long and short sounds with the pair “bee” and “beak”, hide it under the “beak”.  When the child tells you to look under “bee”, say “bee.  Ok, I’ll look under “bee”.  Oh, it’s not under bee”).  Then, have the child guess again.  If he says the word without the final consonant again, repeat his error back to him, and then model the correct pronunciation of the word.  In our example, you would say “you said ‘bee’ but it’s not there.  Do you mean, beaK?”  Then, help the child say the word with the final consonant so you can look under that picture.

3: Final Consonants in Phrases and Sentences

Now that the child is able to produce the class of sounds in single words, you are ready to move on to having the child say final sounds in phrases and sentences.

Use the card pairs from before and have the child say two sentences, one with each word in the pair.  For example, he could say “I see a bee.  I see a beak”.  You could also have the child say one sentence with both words.  Make sure that the child correctly produces any final consonants that occur in the sentence.  Continue to ask the child to make up sentences with other words and make sure that all final consonants are present and accounted for.  Keep practicing this until the child is consistently using final consonants in simple sentences.

4. Final Consonants in Conversational Speech

Once the child knows how to produce final consonants in sentences, you can start working on conversational speech.  Here is some information about working on sounds in conversation:

How to Work on Sounds in Conversational Speech

Additional Resources for Final Consonant Deletion:

Check out my additional resources for eliminating final consonant deletion here:

Final Consonant Deletion Kit

Auditory Bombardment Through Carry-Over ~ Included in Hub

Cycles Approach Course

1-Hour Long Webinar Recording + Materials Kit ~ Great Therapy Approach for Children with Multiple Phonological Processes

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I enjoy yoga and meditation.  I’m not particularly good at either but I don’t let that get in my way.  I do the poses that feel good and I spend a few minutes focusing on my breath even if I can’t meditate for very long.  I am perfectly fine with my imperfect practice as long as I’m focusing on taking care of my body.

Connect with Me:

Listen to the Podcast Version of this Information Here:

The post Final Consonant Deletion | Activities, Words, and Goals appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

The inspiration for this post came to me while I was laying in my 10-month-old’s crib with him.  Yeah, I’m that mom.  But let me explain!

My sweet baby boy was an excellent sleeper until he hit the 6-month mark.  Then, suddenly we went from one night waking to like 7…or more.  I tried everything I could think of to get him back on track but nothing worked.  Finally, I just gave up and started bed-sharing with him in the guest bedroom of our house.  With him in the same bed as me, at least I got some sleep while he nursed every 1-2 hours.

Now, I’m not trying to start a discussion or debate on the safety or benefits/dangers of bed-sharing so let’s not go there.  Let’s stay focused.

The point is, I gave up trying to teach my son how to sleep in his crib.  But after a few months of this, I had an “Aha!” moment when I realized that what I really wanted to do was to teach my son a new skill (sleeping in his bed), and as a speech therapist, I know a formula for teaching a child anything.  (Plus, I really wasn’t getting much sleep with him in the bed with me so that was pretty motivating)

The Magic Formula for Teaching a Child a New Skill

The concept is easy, though implementing it can be a long process that involves a lot of work, depending on the skill.  Here’s the basic idea:

To teach a child a new skill, figure out what supports they need to do the skill successfully, and then gradually fade those supports until the child is doing the target skill on his own.

I know, easier said that done.  That’s why I’m going to show you the formula that will make this process a piece of cake.  Here’s the formula:

Step One: Identify the Target Skill

What is the target skill?  What do you want the child to do?

The first thing you need to do is figure out exactly what it is you want the child to do.  Be as specific as possible.

In my case, I wanted my child to sleep in his crib by himself and it sure would be nice if he would sleep through the night, too (but that would just be icing on the cake).

Step Two: Identify How the Child is Currently Doing the Skill (or the closest that they can come)

What supports (prompts, help, assistance, cues) does the child currently need to do the skill?

How much help do you have to give the child before he’s able to do the skill on his own.  Or, if he can’t do the skill no matter how much help, what is the closest he can come to the skill?  Well, first you may want to make sure that the skill you’re targeting is appropriate for that child.   For example, what if the target skill is answering “where” questions but the child is not doing anything close to that?  Then, maybe the closest that you can come with the child is saying “Where’s your nose?” and then helping him move his finger to his nose.  See what I did there?  I came up with the closest approximation that I could to the desired skill and with as much support as necessary.  Sometimes the support is you actually doing the skill for them.  Other times, the support is just a verbal reminder or a knowing look from Mom.

In my example, my child was able to sleep if he was in a separate bed with me nursing him and staying beside him the whole night.

Step Three: Compare the Supports to the Target Skill

The next thing you want to do is to list out all of the supports that the child needs and then compare each one to how it would look if the child was doing the skill independently.  This will help you see what path you need to take to eliminate each support (gradually, of course).

Let’s take a look at how my son’s supports compared to his target skill:

Step Four: Decide on the First Support To Take Away or Fade

What would be the easiest support to take away (or fade slightly) while leaving all other supports the same?

Take a look at your list of supports and decide which one will be the easiest to remove or fade slightly.  When I say “fade”, I’m referring to gradually taking the support away.  Try to decide which support would be the least disruptive to the child.  If there is a support that the child relies heavily on, you don’t want that one to be the one you take away first.  Instead, take away a less important support.  If you can’t entirely eliminate a support in one swoop, try to just gradually decrease it instead.  I’ll give you an example of that in a bit.

Well, fortunately for us, my son has a very large crib that would accommodate both of us.  So in this example, the easiest thing that I could change (without totally throwing him off) was to move both of us into his crib but still lay with him and nurse him when he wakes up.

Step Five: Remove or Fade that Support

It’s time to start removing or fading the support that you chose.  Try to keep everything else the same (all other supports are in place) but just remove the chosen support and ask the child to do the task.  If the child falls apart or cannot do the skill, then you will want to gradually fade the skill instead.

To fade a support, you will want to slightly decrease the intensity of that support.  For example, if the support is moving a child’s hand to touch an object, you could fade that slightly by holding onto just his elbow and pushing his arm in the right direction but not entirely controlling his hand like you were before.  Take a look at my example in the “Pro Tip” section for more details.

Step Six: Remove Another Support

Once the child is comfortable doing the skill without that support, what is the next easiest support to take away (or fade slightly) while leaving all other supports the same?

Now that the child is comfortable doing the skill without that first support, take a look at the remaining supports and determine which one would be the next easiest to remove.  Keep in mind, you can always just gradually decrease a support instead of taking it away cold turkey, see the next section.

Once I had my son sleeping well in his crib, the next support I removed was me laying next to him.  I would wait until he was asleep and then quietly and gracefully extricate myself from his crib.  Let me tell you, it was a little touch and go when I was half-asleep in the middle of the night, but so far I haven’t fallen face first yet.  …knock on wood…

Perfect!  Two of the three supports removed.  But this last support wasn’t going to be so easy to remove.

Pro Tip: What to Do When You Can’t Remove a Support Cold Turkey

If you can’t completely take away a support in one swoop, either because the child will become upset or won’t be able to do the skill anymore, consider just backing it down slightly.

Take my example: The last support to remove was nursing my child to sleep.  Well, I tried just not nursing him and he screamed bloody murder.  Not good.  So I had to figure out a way to scale back a bit and just slightly reduce the amount of support he was getting.  I decided to do this by only nursing for 60 seconds, then pulling back to see if he would go to sleep.  If he latched on again I nursed for another 60 seconds and then pulled back again.  I kept doing this until he was content to be unlatched.

We are now at the point where he will only nurse for the first 60 seconds and then happily goes back to sleep unlatched.  I’m not all the way there but I would say this is a HUGE improvement over where we were and I will continue to fade this support until he is independently sleeping and putting himself back to sleep in his crib.

The key here is that there is no right or wrong way to fade a support.  You just have to take a guess at what would be a good way to fade the support and then give it a try.  If it doesn’t work, you try something else.  If it does, you go with it.

Step Seven: Continue Fading and Removing Supports as Necessary

Ok, now that you have the hang of it, just keep going!  Keep fading or removing supports until the child is performing the target skill without support.  Keep in mind that you may be at this for a while.  You may have to work on removing one support for a while before the child is comfortable doing the skill without that support.  In my example, it has taken a few months to get to the point we’re at now.  You may be working on fading a particular support for months!  Just be patient and keep working and eventually you will get it.

Download the Formula Worksheet!

I know this was a lot of information, so I have created a worksheet format that will help you go through this process.  Please click the button below and I will send you the worksheet.

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post The Magic Formula to Teach a Child Any New Skill (By Fading Supports) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In episode 26 of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, Carrie Clark interviews speech-language pathologist Lara Wakefield, PhD, CCC-SLP about the parent rights in the IEP process.  Lara discusses what rights you have as a parent of a child with a special need or disability.

Who is Lara Wakefield?

Lara Wakefield is a speech-language pathologist and parent advocate in Columbia, Missouri where she has a private practice providing parent advocacy and speech therapy services to local families.  Lara has 19 years of experience in various speech and language therapy settings and has been a parent advocate for 7 years.  Lara’s areas of interest and research include collaborative and inclusive approaches in the schools, parent advocacy and education of IDEA, FERPA, and LRE, as well as evidence-based practice related to the selection and use of smartphone and tablet apps.

What is a Parent Advocate?

http://www.copaa.org/

Do I Need a Parent Advocate?

What Laws Protect Families of Children with Special Needs?

What Rights to Families Have When Their Child Has a Disability:

What if the School Says the Child Doesn’t Qualify?

How Do Response to Intervention (RTI) Programs Work?

How Can Parents Find All of Their Rights?

Go to state’s department websites and click on parents’ section on special education.  Look for the compliance manual and standards indicator.  You can also look for youtube and web information.  Another good website is “Wrightslaw”

http://www.wrightslaw.com/

Steps if You Feel Your Rights Are Being Violated:

What is Due Process?

How To Promote a Positive Working Relationship with your Child’s IEP Team:

How To Find an Advocate:

Wright’s Law:

http://www.yellowpagesforkids.com/

COPAA Website:

http://www.copaa.org/search/custom.asp?id=1489

How to Find Info About Lara Wakefield

573-268-3284

wakefieldconsultationservices@gmail.com

Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/wakefieldconsultationservices

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Parent Rights in the IEP Process with Lara Wakefield appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Speech Therapy Generalization: Boosting Self-Awareness to Increase Carry-Over

In episode 25 of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, speech-language pathologist Carrie Clark discusses how to increase self-awareness and carry-over skills for children who do not pay attention to if they are saying things correctly or not.

Generalization/Carry-Over Kit

Boosting self-awareness and increasing carry-over

What is Self-Awareness?

Self-awareness refers to a child’s ability to monitor himself to determine if he is doing something correctly.  In terms of speech and language skills, we look for self-awareness with the speech and language errors that the child is producing.  For example, if a child doesn’t say “s” correctly in conversational speech, we want to know if the child is aware that he is saying it incorrectly.  Most of the time with speech errors, the child is not at all aware that he is producing it incorrectly.  In contrast, children who have significant stutters are often painfully aware that they are stuttering and become very embarrassed by it.

What is Carry-Over?

Carry-over refers to a child’s ability to take a skill that she has learned in an isolated setting (like speech therapy) and begin to use it in other settings, such as in the classroom and at home.  Once we teach a child to do a skill on command, we must then teach her to carry-over that skill to the rest of her life.

How Does Self-Awareness Improve Carry-Over?

If a child is not aware that he is doing something incorrectly, it is very, very difficult for him to fix it.  Children must develop a level of self-awareness before they are able to monitor and change their behavior.  If you are working with a child who can do a skill (for example, say the target sound) brilliantly in speech therapy or practice sessions, but who struggles to remember to use it during every-day activities, he may be lacking self-awareness.

How to Improve Self-Awareness:

Generalization/Carry-Over Kit

Boosting self-awareness and increasing carry-over

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: When my son was three, he once got mad at me and told me he was going to send me to Antarctica in nothing but a t-shirt.  He had an overly large vocabulary for a 3-year-old….along with an overly large amount of sass.  He still has both to this day.

Connect with Me:

The post Speech Therapy Generalization: Boosting Self-Awareness to Increase Carry-Over appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In episode 24 of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, Carrie Clark interviews speech-language pathologist Christine Ristuccia, founder of “Say it Right” about how to teach that tricky /r/ sound.  This is great information for parents or SLPs!

Who Is Christine Ristuccia?

Christine Ristuccia, M.S., C.C.C.-S.L.P. is an experienced school-based speech-language pathologist. Christine obtained her Master of Science degree in communicative disorders at the University of Redlands, Redlands, California.  Christine has extensive experience working with students dealing with a wide range of communicative disorders of all ages, from preschool through adulthood. She is also a nationally known speaker, having made numerous presentations at state speech and hearing organization events.

Christine founded a company called Say it Right which offers a comprehensive selection of products and solutions designed to help speech-language pathologists (SLPs), teachers, special educators, and English-as-a-Second-Language instructors overcome challenging speech and language-learning challenges with their students, while having fun! Our flagship product,The Entire World of R, is an innovative product for teaching the eight variations of the /r/ phoneme.

When To Start Working on /r/ With a Child?

What is the First Step in Working On /r/?

How to Begin Therapy:

How to Teach/Practice the /r/:

Entire World of /r/ Book of Elicitation Techniques

What Next?

How to Work on Conversational Speech:

Links from Today’s Episode

All of Say It Right’s /r/ Products:

http://www.sayitright.org/articulation/entireworldofr.html

Advanced Screening:

http://www.sayitright.org/advancedscreening.html

Elicitation Techniques:

http://www.sayitright.org/ET.html

Entire World of /r/ Program:

http://www.sayitright.org/EWR-072.html

Evaluation Support Program:

http://www.sayitright.org/vocalic_R_Evaluation_Support.html

Find more about Christine:

www.SayItRight.org

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post How to Teach the /r/ Sound with Christine Ristuccia appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What Are Phonological Processes?

Phonological processes are patterns of sound replacements that children use to simplify their speech. When a child is young, he hears the speech sounds of the language used around him, but he can’t yet produce all of them.  Children don’t sound like adults when they speak.  Speaking with all of the sounds of an adult is too overwhelming to a young child’s brain.  To overcome this, the child’s brain creates rules to simplify speech sounds and make words easier to say.  These rules are called phonological processes.

For example, sounds produced in the back of the mouth (like /k/ and /g/) are difficult for young children to say.  Many children simply this by creating a rule (phonological process) that says “If a sound is produced in the back of the mouth, I will change it to be produced in the front of the mouth (where it’s easier).”  Therefore, /k/ becomes /t/ and /g/ becomes /d/.  This is why it’s common for young children to say “titty tat” instead of “kitty cat”.

Keep in mind that these rules are out of the control of the child.  He is not choosing to drop all consonants off the ends of words or change sounds around.  His brain is doing it for him and he is probably not even aware that he’s doing it.

If a child speaks with a lot of different phonological processes, or if they are very hard to understand, The Cycles Approach to Phonology is a great therapy method that will provide some structure to your sessions.

Phonology Therapy Worksheets

No-Prep Kits for 9 Phonological Processes

Phonological Process Examples:

All children use some phonological processes when they are younger.  This a very normal part of learning to speak.  Here are some example of typical phonological processes:

Types of Phonological Processes by Age:

We expect children to use certain phonological processes at certain ages.  When children do not grow out of using phonological processes or are using them longer than is expected, they are considered to be a problem.  Most children stop using these processes without any teaching or coaching.  However, some children require speech therapy to learn not to use them.  Here are some ages for when common phonological processes should stop being used:

Phonological Process ~ Likely Age of Elimination

Velar assimilation ~ 3 years

Nasal assimilation ~ 3 years

Final Consonant Deletion ~ 3 years

Stopping of Fricatives

/f/, /s/ ~ 3 years

/z/, /v/ ~ 4 years

“sh”, “ch”, “j”, “th” ~ 5 years

Weak Syllable Deletion ~ 4 years

Deaffrication (sh for ch) ~ 4 years

Velar Fronting ~ 4 years

Cluster Reduction

without /s/ ~ 4 years

with /s/ ~  5 years

Gliding of Liquids (/l/ and /r/) ~ 6-7 years

Source: American Speech-Language Hearing Association: https://www.asha.org/practice-portal/clinical-topics/articulation-and-phonology/selected-phonological-processes/

What are Atypical Phonological Processes?

As I mentioned before, all children use some phonological processes in their speech.  These are considered natural or normal phonological processes.  However, in children with phonological disorders, we sometimes see other phonological processes being used that are atypical or abnormal.  We call these atypical phonological processes or idiosyncratic phonological processes.  These are different from the ones we see in typically-developing children.  These can be red flags that there may be something wrong with the child’s phonological system.  Children who use these processes should be checked out by a speech-language pathologist.

Examples of Atypical Phonological Processes:

How to Treat Phonological Disorders:

If a child is having trouble with phonological processes in that he is using normal ones beyond when he should or is using atypical processes, we consider that child to have a phonological disorder.  To treat this problem, our job is to re-train the child’s brain to overwrite the rule that he/she has created.  This is typically done in speech therapy sessions with a licensed speech-language pathologist.  Here are the steps for fixing this:

Listening:  First, the child must hear the difference between his errors and the correct production. Speaking Words: Next, the child must say the words without using the phonological process. Speaking Sentences: Once the child can say the specific words, he must use those words in sentences. Structured Conversation: Now, the child must practice not using the process during longer speaking situations, such as answering a question or telling about a past event. Carry-Over: Only once you’ve done all of that can you work on helping the child remember to not use the process in every-day speech.

If a child speaks with a lot of different phonological processes, or if they are very hard to understand, The Cycles Approach to Phonology is a great therapy method that will provide some structure to your sessions.

Hide the Penny Game for Phonological Therapy:

Check out this video with a great game you can play using minimal pairs.  In this game, you will hide a penny under one of the pictures and help the child hear or speak the difference between the two words (targeting the phonological error that they are exhibiting).  Click play below to watch!

Download the Guide for Free:

You can download your own guide to teaching a child a whole class of sounds:

Reference:

Paul, R. (2007). Language disorders from infancy through adolescence: Assessment & intervention. St. Louis: Mosby.

Additional Phonology Resources:

Check out our additional resources for treating phonological processes:

Phonology Therapy Worksheets

No-Prep Kits for 9 Phonological Processes

Cycles Approach Course

Use the Cycles Approach for Severe Phonological Disorders

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I’m a huge fan of Pat Flynn and the Smart Passive Income podcast.  I’ve followed his business advice so much that I even got to be featured on his podcast.  Recently, I was reading one of his books called “SuperFans” and I was surprised to find myself mentioned in the book!  So cool!

Connect with Me:

Listen to the Podcast Version of this Info Here:

The post Phonological Processes: Definition, Examples, and Therapy appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Teaching Adjectives to Children:
Activities and Worksheets for Helping Kids Learn Adjectives

Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) is a rare, neurologically-based speech disorder where the child knows what he wants to say but the message gets mixed up in the motor-planning and execution phase so the sounds come out all wrong.  Though the diagnosis of CAS is relatively new, experts have agreed that CAS usually includes these 3 generally-agreed upon components:

Apraxia Therapy Kit

No-Prep Worksheets for Teaching CV, VC, and CVC Words

Listen to the Podcast on Nancy Kaufman’s Speech Therapy Approach for Childhood Apaxia of Speech

Links Mentioned:

Carrie’s Apraxia Page:

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/childhood-apraxia-speech-resource-page/

Carrie’s Apraxia Book:

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/products/ (Check the books at the top of the page)

Nancy Kaufman’s Speech Praxis Materials:

http://www.northernspeech.com/search/author/Nancy_Kaufman/

Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America:

http://www.apraxia-kids.org

Who is Nancy Kaufman?

Nancy R. Kaufman, M.A. CCC-SLP is the owner and Director of the Kaufman Children’s Center for Speech, Language, Sensory-Motor and Social Connections located in West Bloomfield, Michigan.  Nancy has been evaluating and treating children, specializing in CAS since 1979.

Nancy is the author of the Kaufman Speech to Language Protocol (K-SLP) an evidence based method of helping children with CAS and other speech sound disorders become effective vocal communicators.  She is the author of many materials to help children who struggle to speak, published by Northern Speech Services.

Nancy serves on  the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America (CASANA) advisory board.  She was awarded the Michigan State University College of Communication Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni award and the Michigan Speech Language Hearing Association’s Distinguished Service Award.

Nancy continues to work directly with children through intensive programs at the KCC consulting with SLPs and families through video consultations and conferences.

What is the Successive Approximations Approach for Apraxia Treatment?

In this approach, you take a word that a child cannot say and you find the closest approximation (or attempt at saying the word) that the child is able to produce.  The therapist teaches the child to say the word in that “close but not quite there” manner.

For example, if a child is able to say the “t” sound but not the “k” sound, the therapist would teach the child to say “tootie” instead of “cookie”.  Once the child had mastered this approximation of the word, the therapist would work to gradually teach closer and closer approximations until the child is able to produce the word correctly.

How Much Therapy do Children with CAS need?

How Important is Home Practice for Chidhood Apraxia of Speech Treatment?

How to Choose Words to Work On:

Do Traditional Speech Therapy Methods Work for Children with CAS?

Therapy Session for Child at Single Word Level:

Therapy for Older Children with Apraxia:

When to Work on Prosody with Children with Apraxia:

How Does Augmentative/Alternative Communication Play into Therapy:

Nancy Kaufman’s Products

How to Find out More about Nancy Kaufman

Conferences and Workshops with Nancy:

http://kidspeech.com/events–workshops.html?task=view

Intensive therapy with Nancy Kaufman:

http://kidspeech.com/services/intensive-programs-for-childhood-apraxia-of-speech.html?task=view

More Apraxia of Speech Resources Inside The Hub:

Apraxia Therapy Kit

No-Prep Worksheets for Teaching CV, VC, and CVC Words

Apraxia of Speech Course

Access all of our trainings on how to help children with CAS

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post Apraxia of Speech: Speech Therapy Approach by Nancy Kaufman appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

What is Initial Consonant Deletion?

Initial consonant deletion is the phonological process when a child consistently leaves off consonants from the beginning of words.  For example, “stick” becomes “ick” and “tree” becomes “ee”.  While young children often leave consonants off of the ends of words, it is not common for children to delete beginning consonants.  For this reason, initial consonant deletion is considered an atypical speech error.  Children with this type of speech error would benefit greatly from being evaluated by a speech-language pathologist.

Initial Consonant Deletion Therapy Kit

No-Prep Therapy Worksheets for ICD

Consonant Deletion Age of Elimination

Initial consonant deletion is considered a phonological disorder.  This means that the child has developed a rule in his/her head for how sounds will be used.  For this particular phonological disorder, that rule is that all consonants at the beginning of words will be deleted.  Keep in mind that the child is not doing this on purpose.  That is just his brain’s way of making words easier for him to say.  Another type of consonant deletion is final consonant deletion.  In this process, children omit the final consonants off of words.

Phonological processes are a normal part of speech development for young children and so we expect to see many of these until a child grows out of them.  When should consonant deletion disappear?  Well, we expect children to use final consonant deletion up until three years of age.  At that point, it tends to resolve on its own.  If a child doesn’t stop using final consonant deletion by that time, we may want to start therapy.

When does initial consonant deletion disappear?

This one is more complicated.  Deleting initial consonants is not a common phonological process that most children use.  So there isn’t a specific age that we consider it “typical” to use.  For that reason, when we see this type of consonant deletion at any age, we want to go ahead and get that child evaluated for speech therapy.  The presence of this type of speech error could indicate a problem with the child’s phonological system that may require therapy to overcome.

Initial Consonant Deletion Speech Therapy Activities:

The goal of therapy for initial consonant deletion is for the child to start producing those consonants at the beginning of words.  Here’s the step-by-step process (with activities!) for treating this condition:

1. Auditory Discrimination

The first step is to help the child hear the difference between words that should have a beginning consonant and words that should not.  Find minimal pairs of words that are exactly the same except that one has an initial consonant and one does not.  Examples would be “up” and “cup” or “off” and “cough”.  You can use my word list below or make up your own.  Free Printable Worksheets are Available in our Material Library

Initial Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs

up/cup
up/pup
at/cat
at/mat
at/bat
at/sat
at/rat
at/fat
at/hat
out/spout
out/shout
in/pin
in/tin
in/fin
in/grin
in/shin

in/thin
in/spin
over/clover
on/lawn
itch/witch
ask/mask
egg/leg
egg/beg
end/send
end/bend
el (L)/shell
el (L)/bell
ill/Bill
off/cough

awesome/possum
under/thunder
ouch/couch
all/tall
arm/farm
art/cart
ear/tear
ear/fear
eat/seat
eat/sheet
eel/seal
ice/rice
ice/nice
oat/coat

Get Pictures of Those Words:You will need to show the child pictures of those words.  You can find pictures using Google Image Search, take your own pictures, or draw pictures.  Or, purchase our initial consonant deletion no-prep therapy kit that has them all done for you!

Tell the child what each word is called  (“this is cup, this is up”) and then ask the child to point to one of the words.  See if the child can hear the difference between the two words.  You may need to play games to get the child to do this.  Here’s a video with a fun game called “hide the penny” that works great for this!

2. Single Words

Once the child can point to the correct picture about 80% of the time, you’re ready to have the child say those words.  Show the child a minimal pair of two words again.  Help the child say each word, one with a beginning consonant and one without.  If the child is struggling to say the beginning consonant, have him say the consonant by itself first, then say the whole thing.  You may have to allow the child to pause between the beginning sound and the word for now, then gradually work on eliminating the pause.

3. Phrases and Sentences

Now it’s time to help the child start using beginning consonants in short phrases and eventually sentences.  Start by having the child say a repeating phrase like “my ____” or “no _____”.  Cycle through the words he or she has already practiced in the previous step.  Once the child is successful with that, you can start increasing the phrase length up through simple sentences.

4. Conversational Speech

Once the child is able to say the sound in sentences, you’ll want to work on the sound in conversation. For more information on practicing sounds in conversation, check out my post on increasing self-awareness and carry-over: Click Here to Learn About Teaching Sounds in Conversation

Initial Consonant Deletion Resources:

Check out our additional resources on treating initial consonant deletion:

Initial Consonant Deletion Therapy Kit

No-Prep Worksheets for ICD

Cycles Approach Course

One of the best therapy approaches for initial consonant deletion

Free Therapy Materials for Treating Phonology:

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

Initial Consonant Deletion Worksheet

Initial Consonant Deletion Minimal Pairs Word List

Guide to Teaching a Sound Class (Phonological Approach)

Listen to the Podcast Version Here:

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I ran my own private practice for several years.  I rented an office out of the back of my childhood pediatrician’s office and only accepted cash pay patients.  We had enough of a need in my area that I didn’t need to bill insurance.  I closed the practice when my online business was taking off enough that I needed to dedicate my time to it full time.  I referred all of my patients/clients to a friend of mine who was opening her practice.  I have since worked for her practice when I wanted to get back into direct client contact for a bit.

Connect with Me:

The post Initial Consonant Deletion: Minimal Pairs and Therapy Activities appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Speech-Language Pathologist Barbara Davis joins us today to discuss the signs and symptoms of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) as well as how it is diagnosed.  Click the play button below to listen to the entire episode or scroll down to view the show notes.

Show Notes:

What is Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

Differential Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech:

Many other disorders can look like CAS.  Differential diagnosis involves looking at all of these possibilities to make sure the child doesn’t need a different diagnosis instead.  Here are some other disorders that should be ruled out for an appropriate diagnosis of CAS:

**It’s important to note that children with CAS could have these things as well, but a purely CAS diagnosis would come without these things.

What Causes Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

CAS is caused by motor planning difficulties.  This means that the child knows what he wants to say, but the signal gets mixed up in his brain during the motor planning phase.  This is what causes the inconsistencies in his errors.  Sometimes, these types of problems are caused by injuries to the brain or nervous systems, but often they do not seem to have any cause at all.

Who Can Diagnose Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

Any speech-language pathologist (SLP) has the basic knowledge and certification to diagnose CAS but based on how tricky the diagnosis can be, it is advised that an SLP have additional training, workshops, and experience with CAS in order to make a confident diagnosis.

How is a Childhood Apraxia of Speech Diagnosis Made?

In short, cautiously!  Many severe speech problems can look like CAS at first.  It is important to only make the diagnosis of CAS after a course of therapy has been observed.  Children with true CAS often make very slow progress with typical therapies.  You also should not be diagnosing children with CAS before they are consistently using spoken language to communicate.  That means, if the child isn’t talking, even if you observe them trying to make sounds, a diagnosis of CAS should NOT be made.  At this point, CAS looks exactly the same to severe phonological disorders, severe articulation disorders, severe dysarthria, and many more.

Are there Tests for Childhood Apraxia of Speech?

Currently, there are very few instruments for differential diagnosis of CAS.  Barbara Dodd and Nancy Kaufmann are two who have created CAS-specific diagnostic tools but you must not solely rely on a standard speech test, such as the Goldmann Fristoe Test of Articulation.  These tests do not measure the variability, prosody, or vowel productions.  If you are an SLP looking into CAS diagnosis, you should do plenty of research about the current diagnostic tools and how they are used.  You should also make sure to do a thorough spontaneous speech sample to collect data on all features of CAS.

What’s a Parent to Do?

If you are the parent of a child with suspected or diagnosed CAS, you should talk openly with your speech-language pathologist (SLP) about CAS.  Talk about the various other diagnoses that need to be ruled out and ask how it has been determined that your child does not have those conditions instead.  Also, ask your SLP about their background, training, and experience with CAS.  CAS is treated quite differently from typical speech errors so you want to make sure to find an SLP with experience.

How to Find More Information:

More Information on Barbara Davis:

Click the link below to visit Barbara’s page:

http://csd.utexas.edu/faculty/barbara-davis

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Signs, Symptoms, and Diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

5-Minute Speech Therapy Sessions: How Long Should Speech Therapy Sessions Be?

What if I told you there was a way for your clients to make faster progress with less time in therapy?  I’m guessing you’d be all about it, right?  Well, the 5-minute model has shown itself again and again to be exactly the solution we need.  By seeing children 2-5 times per week for only five minutes each, we see faster gains on articulation, phonology, and other drill-and-practice skills.  Read on to find out how this works!

How Do 5-Minute Speech Therapy Sessions Work?

Instead of seeing your clients in a group for 30 minutes, you see each child individually for 5 minutes.  I like to pull the students right outside their classroom and do it in the hallway so we reduce the travel time (and I can get more clients seen in less time).  I set a timer for 5 minutes and we drill, drill drill.  No games, no fluff, nothing to prep.  Just me, the child, and our artic cards.  Once the timer goes off, I send them back to class.  Then, repeat!  5-minute speech therapy sessions are usually conducted 2-5 times per week.

5-Minute Speech Therapy Course

Make Faster Progress in Less Time

Are 5-Minute Sessions Research Based?

Yes!  This model has been studied multiple times with amazing results.  Studies show that children learn faster with distributed practice vs. mass practice and results of a meta analysis showed that high intensity interventions (2-3 sessions per week of 70+ trials) were most effective for children with speech sound disorders.

The 5-Minute Kids program conducted a study which showed that children receiving nine 5-minute sessions were dismissed in about half the time of children receiving seven 30-minute sessions per month.

How Many Repetitions/Trials Can you Get in 5 Minute Speech Therapy Sessions?

Learning a new skill is all about repetition.  The more times a child practices the new skill, the faster he/she will learn it.  But can we can get the same number of trials/repetitions (or more) in a 5-minute individual session as we can in a 30-minute group session?  Check out this recording of a 5-minute /r/ session that I did while I counted my reps:

@carrie_clark_slp Faster progress in less time with 5 minute speech therapy sessions! Watch to see how many repetitions (reps) of /r/ practice I can cram into 5 minutes. The shorter time means I don’t have to play games and do other activities to keep kids interested. We can hit the skill hard then get them back to class. #speechtherapy #speechlanguagepathologist #slpsoftiktok #slplife #speechdelay #articulationtherapy #schoolslp ♬ original sound - Carrie Clark SLP

How to Run your 5-Minute Therapy Sessions

Schedule in a block of time to see your 5-minute kids: You can probably see 4-5 kids during a 30-minute block, depending on how far apart their classrooms are. Pull each client to the back of the classroom or right outside their door.  This eliminates the travel time and minimizes transition time Set a 5-Minute Timer Do Reps for 5 Minutes: Challenge the client to see how many reps he can get in 5 minutes (use a sports clicker if it motivates him). Provide prompts and cues to help establish the skill or get to the next level. Articulation Station Hive is a great app for prompting artic/phono. For language, I keep photo albums of stock photos on my tablet for prompts. When the Timer Goes Off, Send the Client Back: If you have another client in that classroom, you can have the first child tag in the second. Repeat! 5 Minutes per week isn’t going to cut it. Most of these programs and studies recommend between 2-5 weekly sessions, depending on the severity of each client.

What if the Child Starts to Lose Interest?

The nice thing about 5-minute sessions is that it’s not a long session so most of the time, you can keep a child working for that amount of time.  But sometimes, they start to get squirrely or start to have trouble focusing by the end.  Here are a few tips for helping with that:

How to Handle Distractions During 5-Minute Sessions:

I know the hallway isn’t the quietest place around.  Here are some tips for doing 5-minute sessions in a noisy, busy school.

5-Minute Therapy Course:

Need some more help getting started with 5-minute sessions?  Check out our full course here:

5-Minute Speech Therapy Course

Make Faster Progress in Less Time

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Fun Fact: I didn’t realize that I had ADHD until I was an adult.  It all clicked when I read that people with ADHD are motivated by things that are challenging, novel, or highly interesting.  If a task doesn’t fall into one of those three categories, we have a hard time getting it done.  I’ve subconsciously accommodated for this my whole life by setting challenges for myself or doing mundane tasks in novel ways, like doing my homework in a (dry) bathtub instead of at the kitchen table.  Understanding how our brains work can be incredibly empowering and I love helping children understand these things as well!

Connect with Me:

Listen to the Podcast Version of this Info:

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Social Skills for Autistic Adolescents and Teens

Today we’re discussing how to teach conversation and social skills to older children who are struggling.  This may include children with autism or other social impairments.

Social Skill Therapy for Autistic Adolescent and Teens:

Autism Course

Learn more about supporting students with autism and other communication needs

How to Decide Which Social Skills to Address:

Social Communication Skills to Teach to Autistic Adolescents and Teens

How to Do Speech Therapy for Autistic Adolescents and Teens:

1. Choose children who need social skills training, group together and add peers if possible

         or

    Tell child you’ll be working on social skills, bring in peers, friends, other children with autism, siblings if possible

2. Observe natural social interactions to choose one target: entering a group conversation

3. Observe typical kids in that situation

4. Write social script/social story

5. Read the story with the group and discuss

6. Act out the story with different people being the person approaching

7. Provide reinforcement about how each child performed

8. Ask peers to rate how other child performed

9. Send home info to parents and have them practice/talk about it at home

10. Take that skill to a natural setting with the same children

11. Have the child rate his own performance

12. Take child to a natural setting with whatever people are there.

13. Talk about skill before he goes in

14. Have him rate his performance after done and give feedback

15. Maintenance:

Autism Course

Learn more about supporting students with autism and other communication needs

Free Therapy Materials for Teaching Conversation Skills:

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

How to Initiate Interactions – Social Story

Tools for Extending Conversations – Visual Aid

Making Inferences from Pictures Worksheets

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

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How to conduct stuttering therapy with children

On, this episode of the speech and language kids podcast, Carrie Clark reviews the current research on stuttering therapy for children.  You will also learn how to conduct this therapy yourself.  Note: This information is not intended to replace the guidance of a licensed speech-language pathologist (SLP).  Every child is different and only a licensed SLP will know exactly what kind of therapy is best for your child.  This information is intended to assist SLPs with knowing the best approach to therapy to take as well as to help parents understand the therapy process.

News/Updates:

Before getting into the content, I announced on the podcast that I will be writing a full-length e-book about Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Show Notes:

Stuttering in Preschoolers

So What Therapy is Most Effective?

What is Response-Contingency Therapy for Stuttering?

For a full article on this topic, visit the link below:

http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/stop-stuttering-preschoolers-current-research-based-methods/

Reinforce fluent (non-stuttered) speech
While playing with the child, comment on utterances that the child says that do not have any stutters.  You can say “oh I like how smooth that was” or “you say that without any bumps!”. If the child stutters frequently, try an activity that requires the child to use shorter utterances.  For example, you could play a game that requires the child to say a short sentence, like “Go Fish” (ex: “Do you have a ball?”).  If the child still stutters on these, back up to even shorter sentences, like having the child use one word to name an object in a picture.  Then, praise the fluent speech as above. If you need to shorten the utterance length down to have stutter-free speech, gradually build the utterance length back up by choosing slightly more demanding tasks.
Give direct corrective feedback for stuttering
As soon as the child begins to stutter, corrective feedback should be given.  The research has shown that many different types of corrective feedback have worked so it doesn’t much matter what it is.  One study found that turning off the lights over a puppet that the child was talking to was effective.  Here are some ways that Bothe and Ingham suggest you can try:

i.      Say, “stop”

ii.      Say, “that was bumpy, try it again”

iii.      Say, “oops, hold on”

iv.      Say their name as a reminder

v.      Model the sentence without stutters

vi.      Hold up a hand and raise an eyebrow

**If the child is stuttering so much that you would be doing this kind of correcting constantly, try choosing just the most severe stutters or just some of them.  You can also try choosing activities that require a shorter utterance length as described above.

Source: http://www.asha.org/Events/convention/handouts/2010/1528-Bothe-Anne/

Great Example of Response-Contingency Therapy:

Lidcombe program: http://www.amazon.com/Lidcombe-Program-Early-Stuttering-Intervention/dp/0890799040/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1406736420&sr=1-1&keywords=lidcombe+program

Older Children:

To Download the Emotional Aspects of Stuttering Worksheet (including what to say in response to the child’s answers), Click the Link Below

Click here to download the free PDF of the Emotional Impacts of Stuttering Worksheet.

Other Therapies for Older Children

Thanks for Listening!

I hope that helped to clarify how to do therapy with children who stutter.  If you would like to download the free PDF of my emotional aspects worksheet, which includes what I recommend you say in response to the child’s answers, click on the link below.

Click here to download the free PDF of the Emotional Impacts of Stuttering Worksheet.

Thanks so much and don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Stuttering Therapy for Children appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, Carrie interviews chiropractor Dr. Aaron Cunningham of Keystone Chiropractic and Sensory Development Center in Columbia, MO.  Dr. Aaron discusses how his clinic is helping children with sensory issues and nuerodevelopmental disabilities, such as children with autism, ADHD, Asperger’s, etc.  Dr. Aaron is one of about 60 chiropractors across the country (USA) trained in this special approach that combines nutrition, chiropractic adjustments, and movement exercises.

This episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast is brought to you by: my YouTube Channel!

Click Here to Visit Carrie’s YouTube Channel

Notes from Chiropractor Aaron Cunningham about Sensory Issues

What does this approach do for kids?

Helps get the nervous system in proper working order so that they can take in information from their environment (including info given during speech therapy) and process it for optimal development.

What can you look for to know if there are sensory or neurodevelopmental problems?

What three tools does Dr. Aaron use to improve nervous system function in these kiddos?

Chiropractic adjustments Nutrition and diet changes Sensory exercises (Neuro-sensory therapy)

How can I learn more about the nutrition side of this?

Where can I find a chiropractor trained in this approach?

Visit the website for the clinic that is pioneering this approach:

Intersect for Kids

Where can I find more about Dr. Aaron Cunningham?

Thanks to Dr. Aaron for being the very first guest on the Speech and Language Kids podcast.  Leave a comment below to let me know who you would like me to interview or what topic you would like to hear an expert speak on!  Also, don’t forget to leave a review on iTunes to help spread this podcast to others who would benefit from it!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post How this Chiropractor Helps Kids with Sensory Issues appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

The podcast is back!  After a much needed break to take care of my beautiful new baby boy, I am back and ready to get this podcast rolling again!  This episode will give you 7 easy things you can do today to help your child’s speech and language skills.  These are easy enough for you to do them today and effective enough for you to see some results.  Try these seven easy steps today and maybe tomorrow you’ll have the confidence to take on something a little more complex!

Show Notes: 7 Easy Things You Can Do Today

News/Updates:

Get excited for a new interview format to be used on this podcast!  I’m working on getting some great guest speakers on the podcast.  Is there anyone you would like to hear from?  Let me know if there’s someone you’d like to hear from so I can leverage the power of having an established podcast to get you closer to the experts in the field.  Tweet me on twitter @speechlangkids to let me know who you would like to hear from!

Feature Content:

And now, my 7 quick tips for improving speech and language skills.  For elaboration on any of these points, listen to the podcast by clicking the player above or by listening on iTunes!

Don’t Go Away Empty Handed!

I am looking to gain some honest reviews on iTunes so that more people will discover the podcast.  If you’re willing to leave me a review, I’m willing to give you a free e-book!  Just head over to www.speechandlanguagekids.com/youtubeoffer.  Thanks so much for reading/listening and have a fantastic day!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post 7 Easy Things You Can Do Today to Help Your Child’s Speech and Language Skills appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

This is Episode # 14 of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast!  This is the podcast with activities and resources for families of children with speech and language delays and disorders. Today I’m going to tell you about cooking activities that you can do with your child to work on speech and language skills.  And in the quick tip I’ll share a blog that’s all about improving speech and language skills as well as healthy eating at the same time.

Click here to download in I-Tunes!

Cooking Activities Show Notes:

Ideas for Working on Speech and Language during Cooking Activities:

Links and Resources Shared:

Don’t forget to Leave a Review for the Podcast!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Cooking Activities for Speech and Language: Podcast 14 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m going to give you a step by step guide to helping your child with answering questions.  And in the quick tip, I’ll tell you where you can find games that you can download and print to target answering questions with your child.

To view the show notes: www.SpeechandLanguagekids.com/Episode13

Click here to download in I-Tunes!

Answering Questions Notes:

In this episode I discuss:

Links and Resources shared in this episode:

Don’t forget to subscribe to the podcast in I-Tunes!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Answering Questions: Podcast 13 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

The topic of this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast is communication-based behavior problems.  And in the quick tip, I share a website where you can learn about a behavior system that you can use in your home to improve behavior.

To view the show notes, visit: www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Episode12

To download the podcast in I-Tunes, visit: www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

Communication-Based Behavior Problems

In this episode, I discuss:

– The connection between tantrums and behavior problems and the inability to communicate.  Many children with speech and language delays have trouble with behaviors, you are not alone!

– Behaviors commonly seen in children who can’t communicate include the following and many more!

– What you can do to alleviate these behaviors

Communication-Based Behavior Problems Resources and Links shared in this episode:

Don’t forget to leave me a rating in I-Tunes!  www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Communication-Based Behavior Problems: Podcast 12 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I give an overview of stuttering.  And in the quick tip, I tell you about a website you can take your kids to that has kid-friendly info about stuttering.

To view the show notes, visit: www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Episode11

To download the Podcast from I-Tunes, visit:www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

In this episode, I will present stuttering information about:

In this episode I also give a news update about my latest project, a step-by-step e-book coming out sometime in the next several months.  Find out more about the e-book, what will be included and how you can pre-order on this episode!

Links and Resources shared in this episode:

Don’t forget to leave me a review in I-Tunes!  I’d love to hear what you think of the podcast and what things I can do to make it even better for you, my listeners! www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Stuttering Overview: Podcast 11 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I give you outdoor activities for speech and language development.  And in the quick tip, I’ll tell you how you can get direct therapy for your child from me from the comfort of your home.

To download the show in I-Tunes, visit: www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

Outdoor Activities Summary Notes:

In this episode, I tell you how you can use outdoor activities for speech and language practice and explain how to use all of these different materials for speech and language development:

Links and Resources Shared in this Episode:

Don’t forget to leave me a rating on I-Tunes: www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Outdoor Activities for Speech and Language: Podcast 10 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I give you a step-by-step guide to getting your child understanding and following directions.  And in the Quick Tip, I tell you about a Facebook Group where you can connect with me and fellow parents and professionals who work with children with speech and language delays.

To download the show from I-Tunes, visit: www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

Following Directions Summary Notes

In this episode, I will discuss:

-How to make a list of common directions

-How to create visual aids for teaching your child

-How to teach your child those directions

-How to incorporate those directions into daily life

– How to help your child follow multi-step directions

– How to get your child to follow novel directions

Following Directions Resources and Links:

Don’t forget to leave me a review of the podcast!  www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Podcast

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Following Directions: Step By Step Guide – Podcast 9 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

The topic of this episode is “Help!  My Child isn’t talking yet!”  This episode will give you information about speech therapy for toddlers at home and what you can do to jumpstart your late talkers.  And in the quick tip, I share a website where you can connect to other parents of children with special needs for support and resources.

To download the show from I-Tunes, click here.

Speech Therapy for Toddlers and Late Talkers Summary Notes

In this episode, I will discuss:

Strategies for speech therapy for toddlers and late talkers:

Speech Therapy for Toddlers and Late Talkers Resources and Links:

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Speech Therapy for Toddlers and Late Talkers: Podcast 8 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I’m give you an overview of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC).  And in the quick tip, I’ll tell you where you can download tons of free speech and language materials made by speech-language pathologists.

How to Listen:

Click “play” to listen to this episode:

Parent’s Guide to AAC Show Notes:

In this episode you will learn all about augmentative communication (AAC), including:

Links and Resources Shared in this Episode:

Don’t forget to head over and give me a rating on I-Tunes:

Comment from Listener:

I received this comment from a concerned listener and I thought it was great information to share with everything.  Here’s her email and my response:

I just listened to your podcast from April 4th about AAC. It was very informative and helpful to guide parents with various from s of alternative communication. I am a parent to a child who is Deaf, and I am a teacher for Deaf and Hard of Hearing. When I heard what you shared about sign language, I cringed. Just like there is a standard form of PECS symbols, there are standard forms of sign language used both in the Deaf Community and in practice. The signs themselves have a rich  etiological history that linguistically based. It would not be advisable to tell someone in A remote country to say apple for man or banana for woman. The same is true for sign language. As you mentioned, there a several good resources available to help parents learn the standard signs. Signs in the Deaf community are adapted when a child has motoric difficulties. I have a little girl that I work with that has trouble signing play. She sees my sign, the standard sign, and produces her version. The other time a home-made sign is acceptable is with a negotiated sign. For example, my daughter loves Saturn, but there is no standard sign for it. It typically is spelled. So she signs Saturn by putting her arms out and rotating her body. We know  when she meets other Deaf peers and adults, they will not understand her, so we encourage her to spell the word. I’m thinking that if parents just make-up signs and don’t look for the standard pronunciation, then they are missing the chance to benefit from learning the language and being understood by those who do know ASL. A couple of my favorite resources are www.aslpro.com, and Rachel Coleman’s Signing Time videos. There are other great ASL apps for smartphones. Www.signingapp.com has great signing picture dictionaries designed for kids.  I hope this helps and you can use these resources to guide parents in the future. Thanks for taking my comment.

Thank you for sharing this information with me!  I will add a post to the website to provide parents with this information as well. When I was talking about using made up signs I was thinking of those kids who just need a few signs to get them going but who will be verbal communicators once they get their jump start. For these kids, they will most likely never be communicating with other ASL. At that point we just want the parents to try anything with them, more like teaching them to use gestures to communicate their wants and needs. However, I do understand your point about helping children learn actual sign language and I did not explain or clarify that in my podcast. I understand your point that if you’re doing sign with a child it might as well be from a real sign language so that they will have the opportunity to use that language if needed. I will share with my readers, thanks!

Do you have a different opinion on this?  I’d love to open up a dialogue about this so feel free to reply below if you have something to say on the topic as well!

Need More Help with AAC?

Get answers to all of your questions about AAC, autism, and more by joining The Speech Therapy Solution, Carrie Clark’s premium membership program.  You’ll get access to all of Carrie’s training videos and printable therapy materials, plus a monthly webinar and an exclusive Facebook group!

The post A Parent’s Guide to AAC for Children appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

On this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I tell you about some super fun spring speech therapy activities that you can do at home or in speech therapy that will improve your child’s speech and language skills.  And in the quick tip, I share where you can find more fun themed speech and language activities.

Download the Podcast from I-tunes Here!

Spring Speech Therapy Activities Notes:

Links Shared In This Post:

Thanks for checking out these spring speech therapy activities!  Don’t forget to head over and leave me a review on I-Tunes!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Spring Speech Therapy Activities: Podcast 6 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

How to Teach Speech Sounds:
Step-by-Step Guide

In this episode, I give a step-by-step guide how to teach sounds.  Also, in the quick tip, I share how you can download my free e-book that gives you a step-by-step process for improving your child’s speech at home.

Listen to the Teaching Speech Sounds Podcast Episode Here:

No-Prep Kits

Materials and Training Videos for Every Sound ~ Inside The Hub

How to Teach Speech Sounds:

In this episode you will learn the entire process of how to teach sounds to your child including:

Phonological Approach Vs. Articulation Approach
This is articulation, one sound at a time

Isolation
Choose sound
Ages for sounds: http://www.speechandlanguagekids.com/how-to-teach-a-new-sound/ elicitation techniques: same link
think about how you make it describe tongue, teeth, lips

How to Teach Speech Sounds in Isolation:

To produce the /b/ sound, use the following cues with your child.

Help your child push his lips together with his fingers if he’s having trouble getting them closed

/p/

If your child is having trouble with /p/, use the same cues as for /b/ but you will not tell her to turn her voice on.  You can have her whisper the sound if she’s making it sound like a /b/ instead of a /p/.

/w/

To make the /w/ sound, have your child start by saying “oo” like in “boo” and then slowly move the lips apart to say “uh”.  It should sound like “oooouuh”.

/m/

The /m/ sound is produced by pushing the lips together and humming.  Have your child hold his lips closed and then ask him to hum or turn his voice on.  The mouth should not open at all during this sound, all of the air should come out of the nose.

/f/

Use these cues to get your child to say the /f/ sound:

You may need to have your child use her finger to keep her lip in the right place.

/v/

To produce the /v/ sound, use the same cues as /f/ except that you will need to have your child hum or turn his voice on.  If your child is struggling with this, try having him hum a tune while biting his bottom lip with his top teeth.  If your child is struggling to hold his lip with his teeth, have him use his finger to keep it in place.

“th”

To produce the “th” sound, have your child place her tongue between her teeth and blow.  There are actually two versions of this sound, one with the voice on (like “the”) and one with the voice off (like “thumb”).  Have your child hum if it’s the voiced one.

/t/

To produce the /t/ sound, have your child tap her tongue right behind her top, front teeth.  If your child is having trouble figuring out where to put her tongue, use these techniques to show her the right place:

/d/

To produce the /d/ sound, you can use the same cues as the /t/ sound, but your child will need to turn his voice on.  Tell him this is the loud one.

/n/

For the /n/ sound, your child will need to put her tongue in the same spot as the /t/ sound (see the cues mentioned for /t/).  This time though, your child will hold the tongue in that spot while she hums or turns her voice on.  If she is having trouble turning her voice on, have her hum a tune while holding her tongue in that position.

/s/

For the /s/ sound, have your child put his tongue in the same place as /t/ (use the placement cues from /t/) but then blow air out.  We call this the snake sound!  If your child is sticking his tongue out too far, look in a mirror and tell him to keep his tongue behind his teeth. You can practice smiling so that his teeth are touching and there is no place for the tongue to peak out.

/z/

For the /z/ sound, use the same cues a /s/ but this time your child will need to hum or turn her voice on.  You can have her practice turning her voice on by humming a tune while saying the /s/ sound.

/l/

For the /l/ sound, have your child slowly move his tongue up to the /t/ spot and back down again.  While he’s doing this, have him hum or turn his voice on.

“y”

To produce the “y” sound, have your child start by saying “ee” like in “bee” and then slowly open the mouth to say “uh”.  It should sound like “eeeeeuuuhh”.

“sh”

I call this the quiet sound.  To make this sound, have your child form her lips into a little circle and blow.  If your child is saying /s/ instead of “sh”, ask her to pull her tongue back towards the back of her mouth.

“zh”

This is the sound heard at the end of the word “beige”.  This one isn’t very common in our language but it’s produce the same way as “sh” except with the voice humming or turned on.

“ch”

This sound is produced by saying “t” and “sh” quickly together.  This one is pretty difficult so don’t get frustrated if he can’t say it!

“j”

The “j” sound is made by saying the “d” sound and the “zh” sounds very quickly together.  This may be another one that is best worked on by a speech-language pathologist

“r”

The /r/ sound is a very tricky sound to produce.  There are actually two different ways of producing this sound, one with the tongue scooped like a bowl and one with it curved like a mountain.  For each person, one of these ways will feel better than the other but you cannot force someone to say /r/ in the way that isn’t natural for them.  What you have to do instead is figure out which way they do it best.  The easiest way to do this is to listen for any words with /r/ that your child says well.  For most children, there are a few words that they can say with a good /r/ already, you just have to be listening for them.  Once you find that word, have your child hold out the /r/ in the word so she can feel what a good word sounds like.  Then, try to find other words that use /r/ in the same way.  For example, if your child can say “car” well, try first to get other words that end in “ar” like “bar” and “far”.  Once your child can do those, move to words that are similar, like “aardvark” or “marshmallow”

/k/

To produce the /k/ sound, your child will need to get his tongue to the very back of his mouth.  If your child is having trouble finding the right place for his tongue, use some of these placement cues:

/g/

The /g/ sound is produced the same way as the /k/ but with the voice turned on.

/h/

The /h/ sound is produced by making puffs of air at the back of the mouth.  Have your child pretend to pant like a dog to make this sound.

How to Continue to Teach Speech Sounds Beyond Isolation:

Syllables
Use a rainbow or sound spider to pair the sound with a vowel

Words
Articulation Station App: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/articulation-station/id467415882?mt=8

Carrier Phrases (such as “I see ball, I see bat”). Sentences (Have your child make up his own sentences about each word) Structured conversation
rote recall rapid naming Describing sequences story starters Recall past events

Focused good speech time
increasing duration and frequency

Resources for Teaching Speech Sounds Inside The Hub:

No-Prep Therapy Kits

Ready-to-Use Materials for Every Sound, Available Inside The Hub

Teaching Speech Sounds Course

Learn strategies for eliciting all of the speech sounds as well as for carrying over sounds to conversation. Available Inside The Hub!

Free Therapy Materials for Teaching Sounds:

Check out the freebies that we have inside our Free Therapy Material Library!

Operation Better Speech!
Home Program for Teaching Sounds

/f/ Speech Sound Home Program

CV, VC, CVC, and CVCV
Flashcards and Worksheets
(For practicing speech sounds in shorter words)

About the Author: Carrie Clark, MA CCC-SLP

Hi, I’m Carrie! I’m a speech-language pathologist from Columbia, Missouri, USA. I’ve worked with children and teenagers of all ages in schools, preschools, and even my own private practice. I love digging through the research on speech and language topics and breaking it down into step-by-step plans for my followers.

Connect with Me:

The post How to Teach Speech Sounds: Step By Step Guide appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode of the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, I answer the question of “What is an IEP Plan?” by giving you an overview of what to expect from the IEP process (for parents).  And in the quick tip, I share a website for learning sign language that you can use with your child with a language delay.

Download the podcast in I-Tunes!

What is An IEP Plan?

An IEP is an Individualized Education Program.  This is the plan that your child’s public school must complete if your child is found to have a disability.  In this episode, you will learn about the following steps to the IEP process:

**Disclaimer: This is how the IEP process works in Missouri.  Other states may do things slightly differently but it will all follow the same basic format because many of these things are federally mandated

How The IEP Process is started:
Parent Referral Teacher Referral

When a referral comes in
Screening by an SLP

Is there concern that your child may have a disability?
Yes: Begin IEP evaluation process No: give you and the teacher strategies to use at home

Begin Evaluation Process First meeting: Review of Existing Data
Discuss all areas of development Determine which areas are suspected of being in disability Determine which testing should be done Get your consent to test

Professionals will do the testing
Speech Testing Language Testing Fluency Testing Educational Impact

Evaluation Meeting
Must be done within 60 days of consent to test Will tell you if your child qualifies for services

Does She Qualify?
Yes: Have 30 days to write the IEP No: You can ask for strategies or home ideas for areas that were low but didn’t qualify, you can also ask for local speech therapists that you could pay privately to do speech therapy with your child

The IEP meeting
child’s strengths and your concerns
How his disability impacts his participation in school
How your child will participate in standardized testing
Goals that your child’s therapists will target
How many minutes each professional will work with your child for
Where those services will take place
Any modifications that need to made during the school day for your child to learn best You sign to initiate or change any services, placement, etc.

What Next?
Another IEP in one year Another re-eval in 3 years

Your Rights as a Parent:

What is an IEP Plan-Resources and Links:

Links and Resources Shared in This Episode:

Thank you for listening and don’t forget to head over and leave me some feedback on I-Tunes!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post What Is An IEP Plan? Podcast #4 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

In this episode, I discuss  how to get your child to sit down and do speech therapy at home with you.  Also, in the quick tip, I will tell you about a resource that has helped me keep my students engaged and doing work with me for a very long period of time!

Download the Podcast in Itunes!

Speech Therapy at Home Notes:

Setting Up Your Home Therapy Schedule Choose specific times that are designated as speech times Set a schedule or for older children, work it into their homework routine as something they need to do before they can be done with homework for the evening. Start with very short sessions and build up time Choose a certain location that speech time will happen each time (can move around and have fun, just start there) Be consistent! Don’t give in if your child doesn’t want to do it.  If you are running low on time or energy, just make your child do speech work at the scheduled time for one minute.  That way you’re still in the routine even if neither of you had it in you to do a full session. Explain to your child what you’re doing and why you’re doing it. Older Children vs. younger children

Setting Up Each Home Therapy Session Have one specific skill in mind that you want to target Choose an activity that’s fun! www.speechandlanguagekids.com/weekly-activity Have everything you need together Give your child a 5-minute warning Have a highly reinforcing reward for the end

Starting the Session Tell your child what you’re going to do and why you’re going to do it (especially older kids) Your child should know what he’s working on Tell her what she’s working for, what are the criteria for getting it Set a timer and set it short

Making the Session Fun Play a game while you work Trace something while you work Give them a piece to something after they do a little work (marbleworks) Hold yoga poses while doing work Perform actions while doing work Shoot hoops or toss a ball while doing work Plastic coins/treasure in a slot Put cards in mailbox Find computer or I-Pad games that will work on the skill (technology is always fun!) Have your child be the teacher and show you how to do it (get it wrong so they can correct you) Hide their work around the house and have them find the work Video tape or audio record them doing their work so they can watch/listen to it later Take pictures of them doing their work and make a book they can show others Tape work to walls in the bathroom, turn off lights, use flashlight to find and say Put work on wall and shoot it with a dart gun Make file folder games: www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/products Find worksheets www.mommyspeechtherapy.com

Making sure they will want to do it again Praise them a lot!! End with something they are successful with If it’s too hard, back down to something easier and then mix in the harder ones If you get frustrated, end the session early. Mark their progress and show it to them.

Troubleshooting:

Speech Therapy At Home Links and Resources:

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post How to do Speech Therapy at Home: Podcast 3 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

This episode will provide an overview of speech and language disorders, delays, and therapies.  And in the quick tip, I will tell you about an app that will provide you with tons of words and activities to help you teach your child a new sound.

Speech and Language Disorders Notes:

In this episode, you will get answers to these questions: 

** Don’t get overwhelmed, don’t try to remember all

How Can I Tell If My Child has a problem in one of these areas?

Speech and Language Disorders Links and Resources

As always, don’t forget tohead over and rate my podcastor subscribe to future episodes!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Overview of Speech and Language Disorders: Podcast 2 appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

Hey everyone!  I just finished the first episode of my podcast!  Here are the show notes which contain an overview of what we discussed as well as all of the great links and resources provided in the show.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!

News and Updates:

On today’s episode I introduced myself and talked about my plans for the coming year.

Learn more about me here!

I invited my listeners to tell me a little about themselves as well.  Use the following link to facebook and tell me about yourself, how you found me, who in your life has a speech and language delay, and what tools and resources you need from me!

www.SpeechAndLangaugeKids.com/facebook

I also discussed the format of the podcasts to come.  Each episode will begin with news and updates before moving into the feature segment about the topic of choice.  At the end, I will share a valuable quick tip or resource so be sure to stick around!

Feature Segment, Bedtime Routines:

Today I discussed easy ways for a busy family can work speech and language lessons into bedtime routines.  This is great for busy families that are constantly on the go!

You can read the blog post version of this content here!

For ways to use book-reading to improve your child’s speech and language skills, use the link  below:

www.SpeechAndLanguageKids.com/Books

Quick Tip/Resource:

For my quick tip/resource, I talked about the Speech and Language Kids store!  You can purchase, download, and print great speech and language games and activities from our store:

Click Here to Visit The Store

Thank you so much for checking out my first podcast episode!  Don’t forget to head over to I-Tunes and subscribe to the podcast so you can get instant access to coming episodes!

Click Here to Find my Podcast in I-Tunes!

More Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists:

Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients?  Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals!  Inside the membership, you’ll find:

To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below!

The post Working Speech and Language Into Bedtime Routines (Podcast) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.