My son had his phase 1 orthodontia work done a little over 2 weeks ago.  This included getting an expander to widen his palate and braces to help close the gap between his front two teeth.  I thought I was pretty prepared to deal with all of the metal he now has in his mouth because:

-I am a speech language pathologist!  Mouths are like totally my domain, right?
-I have had clients get expanders and braces.
-I had braces growing up...been there, done that!

Oh boy, I was SO WRONG!  The first two days were incredibly difficult for my son, and by extension, me.  So together we (my son and I) decided to make a list of things we wish we had known going into this whole new world.

1)  Best foods for the first two days:  hard meltables (grahm crackers, animal crackers, Ritz crackers, etc.)  These types of foods are hard enough that you have to chew them, which is good for practice and according to my orthodontist decreases mouth pain.  BUT they also melt if they get stuck in your mouth, like under the horrible expander bar.  A banana is soft but once its squishiness is stuck in all the new metal grooves in your mouth it doesn't go away...it just gags you.  Other good choices:  smooth things you don't have to chew (apple sauce) and cold things (frozen yogurt).

2) Small bites are a big deal:  cut things up really small for your child, especially in the beginning.  This was super important for my son.

3) Meals take a long time:  eating is going to be slow going for at least the first week.  My biggest suggestion, call your school and ask them to let your kid be first in the lunch line for his class for the first few days.  This super helped my boy.

4) Use sips of water to rinse:  eating at first is super messy!  I found that having water available for my son to use to rinse his mouth after every couple bites was a must.  Another good strategy we tried to help get food out of his braces/expander was to send a little travel toothbrush with him to school for after luch.

5) Swallow that spit:  for the first two weeks my son had a lot of extra saliva to deal with.  His mouth was working overtime which led to some crazy drooling.  I found that if I cued my son to swallow his spit his speech cleared up and he didn't drool on his homework.  All good things.  The spit is out of this world!  Good news, it does slow down with time.

6) Practice oral reading:  the first week or so really push oral reading at home.  This gives your kid the chance to refine his speech sounds.  His tongue has to change the way it moves now when he goes to make /s/, /z/, "sh", /r/, /l/.  His lips move differently to say /p/, /m/, /b/.  Things will be pretty sketchy for a while.  The more your child can hear his own voice in a safe environment the better he will get at producing his sounds clearly once more.  If you want to know more check out: The Auditory Feedback Loop.

7) Really push oral hygiene: my son had been brushing and flossing his own teeth religiously before getting his braces and expander.  After getting his gear I let him continue to brush his teeth and I took over flossing, because it is super tricky.  BUT two weeks in he had major plaque issues because his brushing technique was not cutting it.  I suggest for the first few days you really watch his brushing AND help with flossing.  Also I wish I had actually tried flossing his teeth in the orthodontist's office the day he got his braces instead of just watching.  It is way harder than it looks, especially the back teeth.  Get all the tips you can before trying it on your own at home!

Hopefully reading through some of our tips will help make the first few weeks of your child's (or your own) orthodontia experience a little more manageable!

Mom!  I'm hungry!!  Can I have a snack?

Who has heard that before?  Like 10 times, or 20 times... and it's 10:30 am.  Am I right?

Lucky for us, making meals and snacks can be a super excellent way to work on speech and language AND feed your starving child.  It's a win-win!

When I first started working in early child development, a mom told me the most valuable thing she had learned so far was how to talk and be with her kid while he was eating.  She told me that before her therapy services, meal and snack times were all about getting other stuff done while her son was busy eating.  BUT once she started using some of the following tips her son's language really started exploding.


Building Vocabulary 

• Use lots of describing words when you cook and while you are eating:
  • adjectives: hot oatmeal, sticky honey, wet, cold pudding, crunchy carrots
  • verbs: cutting, mixing, pouring, squishing, rolling
  • adverbs: carefully, quickly, before, after
  • prepositions: in the cup, on top of the muffins

 
Using My 5 Senses 

• Talk about how things taste, look, feel, sound, and smell.  These kinds of sentences help your child make connections.  I use my nose to smell.  Apples smell sweet AND peas smell sweet!  I wonder how they taste?

Beginning Literacy

• Use words like first, next, then, after, and last to help your child learn to sequence.  These words automatically take language to a more complex level.

 
Imagination and Guesses

• Ask your child to imagine what his meal or snack might look like, taste like, feel like one you are finished.  Being able to make an educated guess based on what you know is critical for good reading comprehension and social communication skills.

Repetition is key! 

• One of the best parts about cooking is that it is naturally repetitive.  You follow the same basic steps each time you pour a bowl of cereal or make your child’s favorite sandwich. Because of the repetition your child has lots of opportunities to learn and practice! 

*these tips are mainly geared toward the toddler/preschool age kids, if you have older children some good ideas would be having them navigate the recipe card, measure ingredients, and then create their own notebook with their favorite tried and true recipes.

I found this fantastic handout for FREE from A Perfect Blend on teacherspayteachers.com  you can pick it up HERE.  What a fantastic resource for getting more out of car time.  I had a couple of additional ideas that came to mind as I read through Amanda Newsome's handout.  I thought I would share my ideas as well.  These are strategies that I have learned from my clients and suggested to my clients.  Pick one and give it a try!

Articulation Practice - 

• STOP LIGHT:  whenever you come to a stop light practice your target sound, I love to think of rhyming words that all end in your target sound.  Practice sounds and preliteracy skills all at once! (syllable/word level practice)
• TARGET SOUND "I Spy": this is a huge favorite of my clients, I think all kids love a good round of "I Spy", look for your target letter on signs, license plates, etc. or look for items that start with your target letter. (word/phrase/conversation level practice)
• 3 FUN THINGS:  as a kid I always had to report on three fun things I had done at school that day.  Now I use that activity as a great opportunity for focused sound practice at the conversation level.  You cue your child - I want to hear 3 fun things you did at school today, and I want you to think about using a really clear /r/ sound when you tell me each thing! (conversation level practice)

Language Practice - 

• 3 FUN THINGS:  (see activity above) instead of focusing on sounds, focus on past-tense verbs.  Listen for words like "painted", "played", "kicked".  If your child is missing that -ed ending you can restate to show active listening and provide a nice model.  ie. "we play on the slide", "oh, you played on the slide! that sounds fun!"
• I HEAR/SEE A...: great activity for young kids beginning to put sentences together, just watch for awesome things out the window and them model sentences with "I see" or "I hear", for example, "I see a police car!"  "I hear a big loud truck!".  You can also add 5 senses work by turning the sentence into "My ears hear a big loud truck!"
• SIMILE "I SPY": this is a fun twist on traditional I Spy, you take turns giving color or texture cues using similies (ie. I spy something as blue as the sky, I spy something as shiny as a diamond).

Social Skills Work - 

• DAILY REPORT:  I throw this onto the end of 3 fun things everyday when I pick my kids up from school.  After we talk about the fun things that happened I ask, "Is there anything about today that you would change?".  Your child can let you know what they might change about the day and how they would change it.  For example:  "At recess we played tag but I had to be "it" the whole time and I didn't like that"...then you respond, "You didn't like being "it" all recess?  So what would you change? Is there anything you can try next time to make that change?" This is a good chance to review problem-solving skills with daily interactions in a low-key loving atmosphere.  Of course, some things you can't change but then you can talk about the feelings your child experienced, help them name the feeling, and recognize it.

Many of my clients are working on generalizing speech sounds.  That means they have now figured out how to say the sounds they were struggling with, AND they can use them in their words, AND they can use the sound in phrases and sentences...BUT they are not using the sounds in conversations yet.

When we talk we have so much to think about (what we are going to say, waiting for our turn, checking to see if our partner is listening, being louder than the other noises around, using the right inflections and pacing...) it is hard to remember to correctly use sounds that we habitually have been skipping or saying the wrong way.  Getting new sounds into conversations will take time and is very difficult.  Give your child time!  

Lots of my favorite strategies to helping generalize sounds come from this activity book:
www.soundsforliteracy.com.au/documents/FBGeneralizeSounds.pdf

One technique in particular is called Talking Time.  Basically you set aside 3-5 minutes at least twice a day where you focus on speech sounds in conversations.  Your child speaks and you track his specific sound.  Only focus on one sound at a time, and remind your child before you begin which sound you will be listening for.



​​Today I hit the JACKPOT! Every speech therapist loves ready made games; and I just found  on GetAwayToday.com a bunch of activities that are PERFECT to use for Talking Time.   These games feature subjects kids are happy to talk about.  





You can find all of these activities here:

Would You Rather Games
Disney Would You Rather
Harry Potter Would You Rather
Star Wars Would You Rather
These games are awesome for getting some creative thinking and language practice in with your speech therapy time.  Your child needs to pick his answer and then explain his choice...why would you rather have a fairy godmother than a magic genie?

Mad Libs
Disney Princess Mad Libs
Star Wars Mad Libs
Also fantastic for literacy and grammar (parts of speech).  I like to encourage kids to try to think of nouns or adjectives or _________ that have their speech sound in the word.   Then when they read through their finished story you know there will be lots of opportunities for speech practice!  You can access nice lists to reference on homespeechhome.com.

Conversation Starters
Disney Conversation Starters
Fun for car rides and speech therapy!  Basically you ask a question and encourage your child to talk for 3-5 minutes about their answer.  Listen for their use of their target sound.

I like to track speech sound productions using a simple spreadsheet, + for if they got the sound right, - for if they missed it. 

I love using boardgames to add a little variety to my therapy sessions.  Games are motivating, promote good social language skills (turn taking, following directions, being a good sport), and can be tweaked to fit speech and language goals if needed.   This year I bought a few more additions for my boardgame closet and I thought I would share my new favorites with you.  A list of some basic boardgames that I like for speech and langauge can be found HERE.  I linked each of these games to Amazon but you can get them at other places. 

I Can Do That
Ages:  4-8 ish
Why I love it:
-Great for following multi-step directions
-Teaches prepositions
-Teaches verbs (can be modified for present progressive and past tense)
-Gets the kids moving while they are talking!
-Great extender for the book "The Cat in the Hat"
-Kids love it!

*tips to make it better:  take out the STOP cards, they are pointless if you are working multi-step drections, also this game is not great for kids with gross motor delays unless you modify it, plus it does have a lot of manipulatives that can be tricky for kids under 3.

Suspend
Ages:  6+
Why I love it:
-Great way to help target easy onsets (fluency)
-Good for generic drill (say __ 10x and take a turn)
-Slows kids down, makes them think
-Problems solving and critical thinking
-Interactive play, work together, talk cause and effect
-Targets fine motor skills
​

Busy, Busy Airport
Ages: 3-7 ish
Why I love it:
-Fantastic for pretend play
-Great for categories (weather, clothes, ect.)
-Makeing basic inferences
-Gets kids moving
-Uses reasoning and problem solving
-Good for basic math
-Fun pieces and game board

*tips to make it better:  I took out the little slots at the bottom of the gameboard that are supposed to hold the passengers...it takes FOREVER to put each passenger in a slot at the airport, now we just dump them all in and pick 1 or 2.  Also be gentle with the planes, they are just thick cardboard, not plastic...I wish they were a little more sturdy.

Busytown, Eye Found It
Ages: 3-7 ish
Why I love it:
-The gameboard is super big!
-Builds cooperative play skills
-Great to extend into language goals
-Find categories, functions, ect.
-Good for basic vocabulary and counting
-Describing and adding detail

*tips to make it better:  you can use the timer or not depending on your child's needs

Snap Circuits Jr.
Ages: 7+
Why I love it:
-Cause and Effect
-Integrages science with language
-Problem Solving
-Good for /r/ and /s/ target practice
-Following directions
-Predicting

*this comes in bigger sets but for the sake of a therapy session the Jr. version is perfect.
Con: the motor for the fan eats up batteries faster than I like

This post is all about helping kids generalize their language skills using something that all kids love...holidays!  Talking about upcoming holidays is a great way to help kids solidify their newfound language skills because:
1. Holidays are super motivating for kids, they are fun!
2. Holidays are very high frequency topics in the weeks proceeding each major holiday.
3. Holiday conversations often are repetitive and predictive...talking about Halloween, well then expect to be asked what you will dress up as, talking about Christmas, expect to be asked what you have asked Santa for, etc.


So I take full advantage of the holidays when they roll around.  Having a private practice helps because then I don't have to worry about crossing some blurry school vs. church topic line.  I ask parents beforehand and go with what they generally talk about.  I LOVE working directly with parents.
These are some of the big goals that I work on in our conversations:
 topic maintenance if we are talking about Halloween let's stay there for a few minutes and not jump around to Star Wars or Cars II.
 conversational turns are we both sharing the talking time, is my client giving answers and asking questions, etc.
 ability to answer wh-questions and ask wh-questions this is a big one, in therapy it is easy to work on  answering wh-questions but harder to find spontaneous opportunities to ask them.  The basically scripted holiday conversation routines everyone uses are great for that.
eye-contact is the student engaging in appropriate eye-contact, especially when requesting information?
and other conversation level grammar and speech sound goals (using correct pronouns, correct helper verbs or conjunctions, verb tenses, /k/ sounds, etc.)


and the best part...these are conversations that have a huge likelihood of being taken outside of the therapy session time so the students can practice and apply the skills we have been working on to help them interact with peers.

"Good social skills require good communication skills."
- Candy Lawson at the Center For Development and Learning.

Getting ready for school requires practicing more than just academic skills.  A huge factor in a child's success is how well he interacts with others.  When thinking about how your child will perform at school remember to think about more than the spelling tests and math grades...the "social skills tests" your child will face are important too.  Often kids are expected to know these skills without being taught them.  It is a good idea to take time and explicitly teach social skills, especially for the kids who need a little extra help.


Here are some social skills that are super important but that are often overlooked:
1. Greetings
2. Initiating a Conversation
3. Listening to Others
4. Taking Turns in a Conversation
5. Being Responsible for your Behavior
6. Problem-Solving Through Conflicts
7. Apologizing
8. Asking for Help
9. Ignoring Distractions
10. Staying on Topic in a Conversation

Parents and teachers can work together to determine if a child needs extra help learning to use social skills.  Many kids pick up social skills without needing to be taught outright, but it is important not to assume that all children will. Parents can model social skills during conversations at home, role-play scenarios that may be difficult at school, or look for opportunities for their children to practice needed social skills.  Teachers can reinforce skills during group activities, praise and reinforce children during the day, and be alert to refer children to a speech and language pathologist should additional support be required.

Resources:
Top 10 Social Skills Students Need to Succeed
​
Social Skills and School

Talk with your child's SLP 

Ok, so this post is more of a soap box stand than anything else.  It will be short.

A few weeks ago I was at my kid's parent teacher conferences and as we were leaving, at the end of the night, we walked by the school SLP's room.  She was sitting at her desk ALL ALONE.  I asked her how many parents she had seen that night...four.  Out of a caseload of nearly 70 kids, she had only seen 4 parents!  I remembered having the exact same experiences and feeling SO frustrated!

Now that I provide private therapy I get totally spoiled because I get to talk with my client's parents every session.  I get to show them exactly what I am doing, why I am doing it, and teach them how to practice the same principles at home.  And I see tons of progress.  In the schools I did everything I could to include parents, but I was BUSY!  I saw so many kids, I couldn't possibly e-mail each one's parents at the end of every session with an update.  During parent teacher conferences I set aside hours for two days just to talk with parents...who would forget to stop by.

I know we are all busy, and I know that it can be hard to just get to parent teacher conferences and see each kid's main teacher, it is easy to overlook the SLP.  But if your child qualified to receive speech therapy at school that means your child has a disability or delay that impacts their academic success.  Your SLP is working hard to help your child...next time GO SEE THEM when you have the chance!

 "Horton Hears a Who" Speech and Language Therapy Ideas

​Using books as a jumping point for language activities is vital to good speech and language therapy.  Here are some ways to encourage kids to engage with literature.

Activities for young children:

1)  "read" the book (look at pictures, read some of your favorite rhyming parts, talk about emotions), I rarely read all of the words in long Dr. Seuss books with young kids, but that doesn't mean we don't interact with the pages and learn about the story.

2) have your child point out different animals or actions they see on the pages, then act them out together. 

For example:
Horton is an elephant:  Stomp around the room like a big elephant.  Touch your ears and listen really hard like you have big elephant ears.
Kangaroos:  Jump...what are we going to do?  Jump!  what are we doing?  Jumping!
Monkeys: wave their arms, Eagles: fly,  Whos:  bang on drums, toot trumpets, etc.

*This is a great way to practice action words and verb tenses and complete sentences.  Also anything that gets little kids moving AND reading books is a win-win!

3) use the idea of the Whos talking so quietly and then making music to be loud and arttact attention to work on describer words and comparatives.  Make/use some kidsinstruments and practice loud/soft, fast/slow

For example:
I had some shakers and a little xylophone set, we practiced playing along with picture cue cards, I cued for "we are playing loud!"  let's play softer...ok, now you want to play...Louder!  This also extended into drumming on the table and walking around the house (slowly, quickly, softly, loudly)

4) visit seussville.com for an awesome colorsheet of Horton

Activities for Older Children

1) read through the book together, point out the different emotions Horton feels (confused, surprised, overwhelmed, hopeless, worried, etc.).  There are tons of other great things you can point out as well, go with what your child seems interested in.

2) create Venn Diagrams for Horton vs. the Whos or Horton vs. Kangaroo (that is the map that has two big empty circles that overlap in the middle).  After the map is complete you can talk more about how the two are similar and how they are different.  Maybe follow-up with some what-if questions...what if Horton had ears like the kangaroo? etc.

3) visit seussville.com for activity sheets about helping others and doing good deeds (they have a nice writing activity where you write a note to Horton telling him about a good deed you have done).

4) visit seussville.com and check out the activity where your child thinks of animals in the Jungle of Nool (or any jungle) and then you ask questions trying to guess which one they are thinking of (ex. does it fly?  does it have a long trunk?  does it have fur?)

5) extend activity #4 into a simile and metaphor discussion:  what if I said someone was as "sour as a kangaroo?"  as "helpful as Horton", as brave as a lion, felt small as a Who...wolfed down their meal, a busy bee.

6) extend activity #5 into a Describe It game...I am thinking of an animal that sounds like...looks like...eats... practice guessing and giving clues to help build semantic connections.

There is SO MUCH you can do with this book.  These games have been a huge hit with my clients.  Give them a try! 
I love Dr. Seuss because his books are a great jumping point for so many different language goals.   Enjoy Dr. Seuss Day :)

SEEL: early literacy resource for SLPs, teachers, and parentsI have been spending a lot of time preparing speech and language sessions centered on reading and writing development.  The best part about combining speech and language with literacy...they are so dependent on one another!

In one activity focusing on phonemic awareness I can also target articulation goals (final consonant deletion, voicing errors, minimal pairs, etc.) as well as getting language goals (plural /s/, pronouns, 3rd person singular /s/, verb tenses) ANDtransfer the principles to comprehension strategies and prediction as I expose children to text!

And the best part...you don't even have to plan for that kind of carryover!  It will just happen as you use books and target early literacy skills.

Here is my new favorite website for teaching early literacy skills: http://education.byu.edu/seel/

The website is for the SEEL (Systematic and Engaging Early Literacy) program.  This website lists hundreds of activities for increasing literacy skills through phonemic awareness tasks like rhymes and alliteration.  Plus they add new activities frequently.

Best part:  It is totally free.  I am a huge fan of helping kids and not having to spend money for specialized programs.  Thank you BYU and thank you SEEL program.

My personal favorite page of the website is under the Lesson Plan Library: Scopes and Sequences tab.  Here you can find developmental sequences associated with early literacy.  The steps are broken down into very user friendly chunks.  Plus they have linked the steps with appropriate activities, you want to teach first developing letters?  Click on any of: M, B, T, S, O and X

*notice that the letters are not sequenced alphabetically, that is not the easiest way for kids to learn their letters!  I LOVE that they don't take the "letter of the week" approach.  (which is ok, don't freak out if that is what your pre-school is using, your kids will still learn...but evidence suggests there are better ways)

One word of advice though:  even when I have taken extra time to make sure I am hitting multiple goals with one activity I still try to focus my cueing and prompting on my top priority goals.  It is easy for kids to get overwhelmed if you slam them with too much.  So be sensitive to what you want the child to work on and for everything else offer as much support as the child needs to be successful.

Check the program out.  You will love it.