Making Sessions Functional!

You know those sessions that go really well, just as you planned them in your head? I know, I know we don't have them very often, but when you actually do isn't it magical.

I had one of those sessions today so I decided I had to write about it and share with you.

My patient is a 7yo, diagnosed with ASD. He is verbal and I'd say quite high functioning, but he has lots of difficulty coping within social situations and with higher language tasks. His play skills are also delayed for his age, particularly when it comes to symbolic/imaginative play. I've been trying to incorporate lots of his language tasks into many functional play activities that relate to his everyday routines. Today we worked on going grocery shopping.

We played a quick barrier game using the supermarket theme in the Magnetalk Match up adventures kit, to work on following directions and building vocab, amongst other goals.

We also talked about why we go to the supermarket, and the types of things we buy at the supermarket.

I found the perfect link for him, a video which actually shows a pretend play routine for going to the supermarket, so we were able to watch the video and model the steps. I loved that the video used pretend items for the activity, such as balls for fruits, and laundry baskets for shopping carts. We watched the video and made a visual timetable for each set.

It was then time for us to go pretend shopping. We drew our shopping list and looked around the office for items which we could use in our activity. A doll pram served as our shopping cart, balls were our fruits, and some empty jars for our milk, juice etc. Then it was time to go to the 'cashier' - a word modelled repeatedly to make sure he got the concept. We took turns being the cashier so that he could get an idea of both processes. Please remember to note "unload the groceries" as a step, since we tend to jump from putting the items in the shopping cart to going to pay. This is an essential step to note. I got a cool toy cash register that lights up and makes sounds for christmas so it was fun to use. We took turns scanning each item and deciding on suitable prices for them. Then we talked about how it mummy might pay with either cash or a credit/debit card, so we used a different method on each turn. After that we got the receipt and put the items into the bags to take home.

What I love about the adventures kit is that there are worksheets for extension activities that cover a range of language areas. Mum got the worksheets for the grocery shopping theme to carry home and work on. She also has the task now of taking him to the supermarket and talking him through the same visual schedule that we made.

It was a fun afternoon and I hope you can use it sometime in your therapy activities :)

New Year's Top 5 Toys

Happy New Year!!!!

My how the time has flown. I can't believe it's 2012 already.

I've just returned from a lovely vacation with the family in Florida and started work this week with lots of new energy. It's only when I started this week's sessions that I realized how much I missed my patients. Also funny is something I realized on my way back home from my trip. You know you're a speech therapist when one suitcase is filled with all toys and therapy materials.

I went crazy this Christmas with all the pre and post christmas sales on toys. I also think I bought out the whole of superduper pub. That company is going to drive me to bankruptcy!!! My assessment to buy the year was the MAVA. which I used for the first time last week and loved. I also bought the Magnetalk match up adventures kit, which finally went on sale at 50% off! I've wanted that one for a while!

I thought that to begin the year I'd share with you my top 5 toy buys to kickstart the therapy year

and maybe some quick ideas on how to use them in therapy.

1. Zippy Mat Hit the Moles Play mat (can be found here )

I snapped this one up at Publix, on 75% sale and paid and ran before they changed their minds. This was a steal at $6. This is an interactive mole that lights up, and the goal is to hit the moles' noses as they light up to score points. I've been using it mostly as a reinforcer/break between activities. Children say 5 target words then try to hit 5 moles etc. This one is a hit with everyone. It's also very interesting to see those children with motor planning difficulties struggle to hit the moles.

2. Frog in a box

Another HUGE favorite for me. I saw this last year in a Hanen video while I was doing the ITTTT program and fell in love. I've been searching for it ever since and finally found it here on Amazon this Christmas. It is the perfect cause and effect toy! What I love is that the frog actually pops right out of the box and lands somewhere nearby which the children are not expecting. It's a bit pricey to be honest, but definitely worth the money. I've built a routine with the box singing:

What's in the box

What's in the box

Tell me Tell me

What's in the box

Then we 'oooooopen' and 'POP' goes the frog ("Uh-Oh, you naughty frog") then we say "bye bye frog" put it back in and say "shut". Lovely language building activity.

3. The honking pig

Another one that makes me giggle. This is a nice switch adapted toy for teaching children the cause and effect relationship for initial switch use. I've been using it with my big mack device and laughing every time it walks, grunts and wags its cute little tail. If you're hooking it up to a big mack or big talk device you will need a 1/4" to 1/8" adapter to fit it. Make sure the company sends it the same time. Don't learn the hard way like I did. It's so amazing to see the little ones making that connection and looking from the switch to the toy as they press.

4. Wind up toys

Every speech therapist should have a set of these in a ziplock bag in their therapy bags. I found mine on sale at walmart for $1 each on boxing day and bought about 6. My favorites are the caterpillar, train, dinosaur and butterfly. I found a great idea in the Teach me to Talk manual about putting them in see through ziplock bags and to open give a long exaggerated zzzzzzzzzzip, while slowly pulling it across, then give the child a chance to do the same. Great also for imitation and fine motor skills.

5. The laughing monkey

Another cause and effect toy that makes me laugh. I picked this up during a long layover at MIA (Yes I'd find a toy store anywhere). I love it for maintaining attention and for shared attention. It works a treat with a little toddler I have with TBI who has difficulty maintaining attention. It also keeps the parents laughing in therapy.

So there you have my top 5. What are your favourite toys to use this year in therapy?

Giveaway Time!

I love Giveaways! Especially at Christmas time.

I really wanted to do something for the amazing people who have purchased EasyConcepts app, and have given such great feedback that continues to inspire me. What better than to have a huge giveaway!

I've partnered with a great company 2Gals Speech Products who makes some really cool products that target speech and language development. I chose a crowd favourite "Looting Pirates", as our giveaway product, since like EasyConcepts, it targets concepts and following directions.

"Students learn and use 20 basic concepts of direction, location, and quantity"

Plus, who doesn't love a pirate game? Arrrrrghhhh!

"So how do you enter?" you ask?

Well here's what you have to do:

1. Send us a picture of the app in action; maybe using the app with your child/student/client/neighbour's dog...you get the idea. (You don't need to show the face, for confidentiality purposes)

2. Tell us two other products that 2 Gals Speech Products sells.

This gives you a chance to win Looting pirates!.

You can post the pictures and answers on our facebook page, or email them to easyspeak@coralstone.co (note that it is .co and not .com).

We look forward to your participation!

Have you heard about Nuffield?

If you as a speech therapist/teacher haven't heard about The Nuffield Centre Dyspraxia Programme (NDP3) as yet you need to ask someone quickly!

I learnt about and used Nuffield in grad school. My favourite tutor believed in the programme, particularly for use with children with Cleft Palate, and she passed that obsession with the program onto me. I use it pretty much every day for children with a range of speech disorders, and the images of "Popeye picking poppies" never get old (If you've used Nuffield you know what I mean).

The NDP3 website summarises the program as:

• suitable for any child with a speech disorder.
  
  
• a complete resource, spanning pre-speech to connected speech levels.
  
  
• Provides for parental/school involvement in therapy.
  
  
• most suitable for the 3-7 year age range but can be adapted for younger and older children.
  
  
• Affords great therapeutic flexibility.
  
  
• Provides detailed guidance on planning and management.
  
  
• Is 'clinician-friendly.'
  
  
• Ensures that therapy remains fresh, engaging and stimulating.

What I love about it is that it is a complete program, from assessment to intervention. It allows you to move from sounds in isolation to connected speech, giving guidelines all the way. The sound sequencing pages are perfect for children with CAS! What's also important is that the phrases and sentences are functional; working on negatives, possessives, everyday phrases etc. The sound stories are also fun! Check out the sample pages!

My only criticisms however, were that I would have loved the pics in colour, and a way to edit them to get specific sounds/words for each individual child.

You could imagine then, that when I heard about their new speech builder I was over the moon.

It has all the pictures from the Nuffield Program PLUS Jolly Phonics pictures! (Yea I got a bit excited there) and it allows you create your own worksheets, customise, and colour as you so desire. Needless to say I have been using it constantly in therapy. I've been even incorporating worksheet making into sessions, and the children love being able to create their own 'speech pages.'

All the info you need to know about the NDP3 Speech Builder (including demo video) can be found at http://www.ndp3.org/speechbuilder.html, and the original Nuffield at http://www.ndp3.org/.

Let me know if and how you're using Nuffield in therapy and what you think of the new program!

It's App Time! Giveaway Inside

I know, I know it has been a while since my last post. I'm very ashamed about that, but things have been super hectic. I started two new jobs this September; one in a special school and the other in an autism unit at another school. Exhausting but I love it.

The super, excellent news is that I have created an app, available for iphone, ipod touch and ipad. After working 4 long hard months with developer Kevin Hinkson of Coralstone Communications the app was released to the itunes store on Monday October 31st 2011. The app is called EasyConcepts and can be found here .

It's an idea I've had in my head for a long time, after looking for countless ways to teach those early concepts that we assess on the CELF Preschool, such as biggest and smallest, before and after, first and last. Those two and three step directions are also quite difficult to target in therapy. I would usually put a bunch of animals on the table and go through "First touch the bear, next touch the lion, last touch the zebra etc." I thought to myself "This would be perfect as an app for children to play on the ipad." No one was creating it, so I did.

Testing it on the children in my private practice really inspired me. Their enthusiasm for "the jungle game" got me so excited about how it would benefit children, parents and therapists worldwide. What fascinated me even more was when I started to see improvements from week to week in their performance, and generalisation to other activities! I don't have a large enough sample or the control conditions to say this was a direct result of the app, but if there are improvements I'm pleased as a therapist.

What I also liked about the app was that it wasn't made to only target children with special needs. Siblings and family members enjoyed it and it required special attention and listening skills from typically developing children as well (particularly the before and after section).

I've created two pages where you can find out more about the app, special promotions and giveaways etc. You can follow @EasySpeakApps on twitter or like EasySpeak Apps on our facebook page .

I can't wait to hear your feedback on the app.

Now for our first giveaway:

I've created a printable resource called "Whose home," which looks at matching animals to their homes. It looks great when printed and laminated. To enter the giveaway you have to:

1. Like EasySpeak Apps on facebook

2. Post on our page saying how you think the app would help your children/patients.

3. Share EasySpeak Apps page on your wall.

The first 10 people to do this will receive our "Whose Home" printable and 2 lucky persons will win a free copy of the "EasyConcepts" App.

Here is a video of the app in action.

Another Whiteboard Idea

(A quick, yet hopefully helpful, interruption to my camp posts)

I've realised recently that many children with language delay have difficulty talking about the home. Areas of difficulty seem to be questions such as:

• What are the different rooms?
• What kinds of furniture/items do you find in each room?
• What are some of the actions that you do in each room? etc.

I had a 5 year old who, when asked to tell me some of the things he might find in the bathroom, could only name his bath toys. I found this quite interesting, as these rooms, and the items within them form part of our daily living and interaction.

After some careful thought, I got to work yesterday doing some drawing on my whiteboard, and some printing cutting and laminating. My final product looked like this (please don't laugh I am not an artist):

I found some cliparts of furniture and different objects for each room, printed, cut, laminated, and stuck magnetic backing on them. Children today got to pull each object from the bag and say which room it belonged to then stick it on. They really enjoyed this. Some of the questions that came up in addition to the above ones included:

• How are the kitchen and bathroom same/different?
• Why wouldn't you put the toilet in the living room, bed in the kitchen etc?
• Function questions for each object pulled.
• What other items might you find in the bedroom, living room, etc?
• If you wanted to bake a cake which room would you go to (and similar questions)?

I also recently found an amazing app called My Play Home, which is the best $2.99 I have ever spent. It allows you to interact with objects in different rooms across the house and I'm amazed every time I use it with clients. It's the one app they always ask for. My favourite part is getting the family to eat all the food in the kitchen :).

Let me know if you try out the house on the magnetic whiteboard, and as usual if you email me I can send you the furniture and items I found online so you can save on some of the prep work.

Water World (Camp Week 2)

If you thought Camp Week 1 was fun. Week 2 was even better!

All activities were planned around a 'water' theme and each day ended with waterplay in my big turtle sand/water pit. This was definitely the highlight of the day. At the end of each day I was soaked, which was a sure sign that everyone had fun.

Our story for the week was from an interactive app called "I Like Water" by grasshopper apps. This was a great one for showing all the different places you could find water. Circle time also included songs such as "If all the raindrops", "Row row row your boat", "This is the way we wash our hands" etc.

As you may remember from previous posts the camp was broken

into 5 groups. Many activities were the same or quite similar across groups this week. The first section focused on direct speech & language tasks, while the second section was waterplay. Each child was asked to bring a water toy for 'show and tell', then everyone got to share and take turns with all of the toys.

Explorers & Busy Bees

Water Listening Bingo - Listening for the name of the water related picture (Swimming pool, tap, toilet etc.) and covering it with a magnetic (chipper chat) chip, then picking up all at the end with the magnetic wand. I also asked questions like "What does it look like?" "Where would you find it?" etc.

Water actions card game- This one was my favourite, as it worked on building vocab, sentence structure and pronouns in one activity. Each child had 8 cards with pictures of people doing actions related to the water theme (fishing, drinking, surfing etc.). I put down a card and said the full sentence e.g "He is drinking water". The first person to find his matching card and say the full sentence correctly won the round and got a sticker on his card. Everyone else got a stamp on their card after for saying the sentence with or without prompting. I modified this a bit with the Busy bees according to language level.

Discoverers

Yes and No questions- I used the same action pictures to work on answering yes/no questions using either speech or some form of AAC.

Prepositions- Under the sea magnetic puzzle: Fishing for sea creature then putting them on vs under bowl.

Skill Builders

Listening bingo (higher level)- Similar to earlier task but finding the correct picture in response to description clues.

'Wh' waterdrops- Another favourite of mine. I put short passages on waterdrops and cut out and laminated them. I then punched holes in each waterdrop. The children answered 'wh' questions about each passage then strung them onto a piece of twine and tied it together. They really loved this one.

Adventurers

Silly splashing-Target sound /k/: Each child took turns throwing items that began with /k/ into the water (cat, cow, corn, key etc.). Then said "uh oh, the ..... fell into the water" "silly.....". This brought lots of giggles.

They also played water bingo, focusing on each child's target sounds.

Another enjoyable week, with many skills gained while having fun.

If any of you readers would like any of the picture materials I mentioned e.g listening bingo, action pictures, etc. Feel free to email me at sharekab@gmail.com.

Coming next....Movement week!