Inspirational Video

You guys should check this out. They showed this video at a staff meeting here at school and I thought I'd pass it along!

calling all speechies

First...I wanted to ask if anyone is planning on attending the ASHA convention this year? Any takers? I know you all have so much money to throw around, and are just dying to visit the Midwest!

Second...I signed up to have a NSSLHA volunteer come every once in a while to help me out. Well, I now have 3 of them that are starting this next week. I just do not have enough projects to keep them busy every week, so I need your creative minds, since I am lacking in that area. What materials have you guys made--or could be made that have been helpful to you? I have lots of books with different games for articulation and language that you print and laminate, but you guys always had darling ideas that I have never had a chance to copy.

Finally...funny note for you--I had a child refer to me as a grandma a couple weeks ago when I was walking in the hallway. Not a mom, not a teacher...a GRANDMA!!! Apparently I have aged a few decades since I last saw you all! Hilarious! I was just sad no one else was there to enjoy the moment as much as I did!!! I hope you're all well and happy and enjoying Conference weekend as much as I am. Hopefully I'll get to see you all soon...if I don't die of old age first!

Email Notifications

You can go into the setting area and list your email in a spot under Comments and Email. Then, you'll get an email every time someone posts or leaves a comment. It's only for the first 10, so first come first serve! Hope everyone is doing well!

Swallowing

I just got diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophogitis. I think I get the general idea of what it is (thank you google - my doctor is not so great with communication). But I never took the swallowing class, and I don't have the book. Does anyone have much experience with it at all or any info on eosinophils? Prognosis and eosinophils are what I don't get. Do they ever go away completely? Will I get to eat solid foods again? etc.
Cheers,
Tiff

No Help!

Well...you guys are sure a lot of help! =)

I thought I'd share this story that happened the other day...
So, I will sometimes review what my students are learning (or what they are supposed to be learning) in their classes. Their science teacher sent me with a list of questions. They have been studying genetics and the last question asked about what cells are needed to make a baby. The following conversation took place when they got to that question...
Student 1 (boy): So, how do the babies get out?
Student 2 (girl): Umm...
Me: Well, the way my baby got out was they had to cut him out of my stomach.
Student 2 (girl) (after student 1 left the room): I know where they really come out. (whispers and points) Down there. But, I don't know how they get out. It's just weird.
Thank goodness it was right when they were supposed to be going.

I then got an email from the teacher saying that Student 1 wanted to know how the skin grows back when they peel it off the mother to get the baby

Problem Solving

Anyone have good resources for problem solving skills, picking what the most important problem is etc? I have run out and we still have several months left in the year!

social stories

Does anyone have some social stories on safety? I was asked to write a few social stories for a high school student about what to do for a fire, appropriate physical contact, and also about stranger danger. Or do you know any good places to find social stories. Most of the ones I've seen aren't real "social stories" and they're honestly not very good. I've written a couple, but I'd feel better if I had some better examples to look at first.

I know you're not supposed to write them negatively, i.e. "I don't..." or "I'm not..." or "I will not..." but I don't know how to write "I will not stalk, touch, or stare at people" in a positive tone--any ideas??

p.s. If anyone's going to graduation, I'll see you there. :) It seems very anti-climactic to go, but hey, we earned it, right? (and my little sister is graduating, so I get to walk with her)

Some artic and language questions from Alyse

Alright, since I'm new to this whole blogging thing--you guys are going to have to be patient with me. Lara, I like the label idea--you're always so organized! (I just don't know how to add labels). So, my apologies in advance. This week is spring break here in Indiana, which is great, but all I can do is stress over how many weeks of school are left (how lame is that?

Does anyone else have issues with overly sensitive kids?? I have two kindergarten boys (in the same group) who cry at every single session. It kills me. (I didn't think I was THAT mean) :) One nasalizes ALL of his fricatives (which is very difficult--you should try it) and the other uses ingressive fricatives (s,z,th--also a very difficult thing to do consistently). Neither has made much (if any) progress, which gets them very upset, and it's gotten to the point where they will just refuse to do anything. I may just try to see them one-on-one to reduce the pressure. I don't know.

Another question though, I have a brother and sister (1st and 2nd grades) who have serious language deficits. The 1st grader's teacher has been asking me for suggestions, which I'm trying to provide. Next week we have an RTI/GEI meeting for her and I'm supposed to come up with some solutions for the whole "team." I can't think of any brilliant ideas to share--and it doesn't help that all of my stuff from grad school is still in UT. (very sad) So, if any of you brilliant girls has ANY ideas--I'm open. The teacher is great, she'd be willing to do anything. (It's just sad not to know what else to tell her)

Labels

I thought it might be nice to have our posts somewhat organized in case you want to search for a particular subject, so I think we should add labels to our posts. I have gone ahead and added labels to the existing posts (I hope that is okay with everyone, if you don't like the label I put you can go and change it, I won't mind) and added a label menu on the right side column below websites. So as you post either label it with one of the existing labels or if it doesn't fit then create a new one. If you haven't ever done labels before . . . when you are typing up your post if you look down at the bottom there is another small text box that says Labels for this post: :) Just write the label in there and you are good to go! The label list on the right will update itself I think so you don't have to worry about it.

Smelly Day

You know that you are in trouble when you are in the middle of a speech session at 8:45 am in the morning with a PRESCHOOL kid and all of the sudden a horrible smell hits you!

You sniff and try to concentrate on breathing out of your mouth and continuing your lesson when out of the blue he says, "I hate farts..." What do you do? Mark it down as data after all it was a spontaneous utterance...If I would have known that this would foreshadow what was to come, I would have locked up and went home early. My speech space is shared with the Guided Reading Library. It is literally a closet and has no ventilation. I usually leave the door open because there is no window to the room. However, when the air doesn't move - it doesn't move. For the remainder of the day, I had horrible smell after horrible smell come wafting over the table.

Phonological Processess

So, I really don't remember a whole lot from my phonology class. I think I took it sometime while I was at ISU....? So, do you approach therapy with students with lots of phonological processes any different than therapy with kids with distorted articulation or various substitution errors? I seem to have more with little kiddos with phonological processes than older kids with distortions (lateralized s), etc.

SO what do you do for a vocabulary deficiet. they are older (upper elementary), and communicate (sytax is fine) and seem like an normal kid (until you ask them to tell you what something means), They are missing the meaning behind the words they are exposed to a lot of the time. I have seen a lot of "antonyms and synonyms" objectives, but honestly how functional is that? Short of giving a vocabulary lesson on each word in the dictionary, what do I do to help her catch up? I feel like my sessions are inconsistent and disorganized (probably because they are). Does this make any sense, is there any help out there? This isn't quite as clear cut as the previous post (pun intended).

Tongue Clipping

Okay, everyone. Why is it that people like to ask me the difficult questions that I don't really remember learning except that it is controversial? My VT companion was asking my advice as a speech pathologist, on whether or not she should get her daughter's tongue clipped. Her tongue is "tied" to the point that her tongue tip is shapped like the end of a heart. She said that she didn't have problems nursing and that she thinks she is able to put it to the top of her mouth (for the alvelors) and stick it out a little. She would prefer not to clip it but I think she is willing to do whatever is best! As any mom would. So would do you know about it? I told her I would ask you all and do some research, so if you have any knowledge in this area, please, please enlighten me

Websites

I've created a list of websites to the right that I think are useful. If you know of any others let me know, or you can just put them on yourself if you have accepted the invitation to be an author.

Here's the pic from Karen's AWESOME Christmas party!!

Woohoo!

Thanks Lara! I'm excited to see what all of you are up to speech-wise. I'm not working right now, but would like to in the near future...something about getting that certification! Hope everyone's doing well in your CFY's. Since we'll be in Ohio a little longer, I anticipate doing my CFY here. I'll let you know how the job hunt goes when I start.

Welcome to the Speechies Blog

This is a blog for us to post all of our great ideas (or questions) for the benefit of others. If you stumble across a great therapy idea please share. If you have a question or need some extra brain power for a particularly "unique" client, post your question and wait for the comments to fly in to your rescue! Remember it only works if we use it, so please come check out the blog often.