Father's Day craft

Last week we did a Father's Day craft a little early.  I found it on Pinterest.  It wasn't originally made to be a Father's Day project, but I spun it into one!  Take a look!


We used sharpies to draw the stem and the eraser end of a pencil to stamp our dandelions.  I originally used a circle cut into a paper plate as a stencil.  It worked somewhat in keeping the cirlce shape, but I eventually scrapped that idea.  It also worked when I "drew" a cicle with the white paint and had the students "color" it in with the stamp.

In order to make it in the Father's Day card, I made this quick heading in Word.  I used a bunch of fun handwriting fonts to make it look cute. :-)

You can download my version of the heading here!

I hope you enjoy this craft - for those of you still in school like I am... :-(

Review: Narrative Assessment of Preschool & School Aged Children

I recently had the chance to take a look at the product "Narrative Assessments of Preschool and School Aged Children" by Tatyana from Smart Speech Therapy.  A parent recently consulted with me on her son's reading abilities so this presentation certainly came in handy!

First, Tatyana explains why narrative assessment is so important.  My favorite point was this:
That you can tap into multiple language features and organiatzational abilities simultaneously.

Then, she explains all of the different types of narratives.  I know that I sometimes forget just how many different types of narratives we can elicit!  I love how Tatyana describes whether or not the listener is a participant in the narrative (by prompting with questions, etc.).

 

Next, Tatyana lists and describes all of the different types of standardized tests there are to assess narratives.  I'm sorry to admit that I'd never heard of most of them.  Tatyana does a great job of succinctly describing all of the elements of each.  My favorite part is the pros and cons.  Some of these pieces of information are the things you just might not think of!

This product goes into great detail about all of the elements of language that we can observe while looking at narratives: sequencing, grammar, memory, word retrieval, pragmatics, and more!

Another great feature is a list of behaviors that we can expect to see from language impaired students, like fewer words total and failure to use many elements of story grammar.

There's even a hidden gem - a description of each type of word finding error!  I know I always have to look these up.  Here they are in one great slide!  Also included are the implications on the student's narrative with respect to word retrieval difficulties.

Perhaps the most valuable slides, in my opinion, are at the end of the presentation.  Each "level" of narrative ability is described and broken up according to age.  There are also sample goals included - Who doesn't love that?!  It's all well and good to do a narrative assessment, but now what?  Well, these slides will help with this dilemma tremendously!

An appendix is also included, with short little snippets of the key information presented in an easy to read chart.

If you're interested in adding this great product to your assessment toolbox, find it here!

Tatyana also did a review of one of my book companions: "If You Give a Pig a Pancake".  Check out her review here.

In honor of out product swap, we are doing a giveaway of each product on our respective blogs.  Eneter to win a copy of my companion to "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" using the Rafflecopter below.  And head over to the Smart Speech Therapy blog to win a copy of "Narrative Assessments of Preschool and School Aged Children".

a Rafflecopter giveaway

The wonder of the Dollar Store

Aside from Target, the dollar store is probably my favorite place to shop.  Granted, Target also has a "Dollar Spot" - I sense a theme developing.

My mom found me these at (I believe) a Dollar Tree in New York.  Today I graduated a student and couldn't wait to deliver this certificate!  How cute is it?!  And there are a BUNCH in the pack!

Stop what you're doing now and head to your nearest Dollar Tree, because even if your room isn't pirate themed, these would be perfect when an /r/ kid is dismissed!


I also found these gems at the Target Dollar Spot.  They're actually coasters!  Although, they were more than $1; they were $3.  I only bought 2 sets, but each comes with 2 halves of the bun, a hamburger patty, lettuce, tomato, and cheese.  If they had been $1, I would have bought all they had!  I haven't done anything in particular with them yet, but I think it would be fun to make a reinforcing game out of collecting all the necessary pieces to make a cheeseburger (a la Pretty Pretty Princess, circa 1993.  Who's with me?).  There's also the obvious sequencing aspect of the coasters.

What would you use these for???  I'd love to hear your ideas!  Please comment below.  If I like your idea and end up using it, you will get to choose any product from my TpT store!

 

A colleague of mine found these frames at the dollar store.  They are magnetic.  In them, she puts symbols or small manipulatives (i.e. coins) so they can be used for cummunication and participation with her intellectually disabled students, who might bend/tear cards or are unable to grasp something as small as a coin.  How great are they?!

 

I got these at the dollar store just the other day.  They are coordinating sets.  I plan to use them for activities that involve matching (synonyms, irregular past vs. present verbs, go-togethers, etc.)  I laminated them and will put Velcro on them.  That way, I can switch out the targets easily!  I will also use a dry erase marker to write the targets of the students who can read.  Aren't they adorable?!  I got one of each design they had!

 What have you found at the dollar store?!

~Denise

I have... Who has?

I've been so anxious to use the game "I have... Who has?" in therapy for months, but I didn't know how to do it since I usually have no more than 4 students in a group.  I couldn't bombard the students with 5 cards each; that just didn't seem productive.  Besides the obvious target of the game (whatever each student "has") it's also great for sentence structure, have/has, question formulation, expanding utterance, and social interaction.

I developed this version of the game for my small groups.  It works on features of objects (things that have feathers, wheels, zippers, etc.).  It comes with 16 "I have" cards and includes both words and pictures.  The letters (A-D) in the bottom left corner of the cards will help in keeping the cards in order.  This is important when you are only giving each student one (or two) cards at a time and the order of the cards needs to be maintained so the game works.

I also included some supplemental cards to expand on these vocabulary skills. 

Since I played with Kindergarteners, I only gave them one card at a time.  As they "used" one, I took it and gave them another.  (This method of play can obviously be used with any "I have... Who has?" game.)

I really loved the results of playing this game, even with those as young as Kindergarten.  It took some modeling of the way to read the sentences and how to respond if your item was called, but the overall goal of the game was met. 

Check out this product here!  What other types of "I have... Who has?" would you like to see???

Fly by the seat of your pants

Every Monday morning, my co-SLP and I run an hour long session with a group of 7 language delayed students.  They have a variety of disabilities, including intellectual disability and autism.  They are in a self-contained class, but they are all verbal and very fun! We normally take turns talking about what we did over the weekend, listening, asking questions, and relating to each other.

Well today, there were only 4 students.  Our discussion went very quickly - even with mother's day being yesterday!  Most just "made/gave cards" (haha). 

With about ten minutes left, no time to start a game, and nothing at the ready otherwise, we decided to show them a picture.  I had actually just gotten my engagement pictures back from the photographer, and my colleague had just seen them on Saturday.  I involved my dog in them (of course!) so I thought the students would love the photos with him.

You've probably seen it before (on Pinterest, like I did).  We used this as sort of a barrier game - I sat in front of the computer with all of the students while Nina, my co-SLP, was behind the computer and "not able to see".  I had the students describe to her what they saw.  We got SO. MUCH. LANGUAGE. out of them!

student: "3 hands..."
SLP: "Are they all hands?"

SLP: "Where are the hands?"
student: "on top.....?"
SLP: "Yes, they are on top of each other.  You can call that 'stacked'."

student: "a paw."
SLP: "Is it a lion's paw? How do you know?"


We also showed them these two:

It says "HE asked", not "me".  It's just a bad angle...

By the way, Justin proposed using Georgetown Cupcakes (red velvet!) so that's why we included them here. 

(to try and get her to describe to Nina that only our legs were visible):
SLP:  "Is Miss Polley smiling?"
student: "Yes."
SLP: "Oh, yeah?  How do you know?"
student: "because she's happy!"
(Can't really fault her on that one.  How sweet?!)

SLP: "Where's the dog?"
student: "On the ground."
SLP: "On the ground behind Miss Polley?"
student: "in the grass"
***I didn't know this student didn't know "between".  Now I do!

student: "Cupcakes!"
SLP: "Is that all?"
student: "and hands."
SLP: "4 hands?"
student: "no, 2!"
SLP: "Where are the hands?  On top of the cupcakes?"
student: "No, in front of the cupcakes!"




What have you done in a pinch that turned out great???

Spring and Mother's Day crafts for low incidence populations

I've been slacking on my usual posts about activities with low incidence populations, so now I'm playing catchup.  Here's what I've done with my intellectually disabled group for the past three weeks.

I live in a suburb of Washington, DC, so the Cherry Blossoms are a big thing.  When I saw this on Pinterest, I knew I had to make it!

 

 

We used two different sized soda bottles and two different shades of pink (barely...).  This is great for working on big vs. little and added to the OT aspect as well.

 



Instead of each student doing their own, we put 2-3 students to a poster and made a collaborative piece of art.  It's now hanging in the hallway :-)

First, they drew the trunk and branches with brown paint, then we dipped the soda bottles in the pink paint and added the flowers, and last we put the grass at the bottom.  We worked on colors and nouns (grass, flowers, tree, trunk, branch, etc).

This activity did not take long at all, so we also did a comprehension/wrap up activity on the SMARTBoard using Boardmaker Studio.  Here are some screenshots of the Boardmaker question activity:

Last week we made umbrellas.  I also saw this craft on Pinterest.  I know you're all shocked...

We used dot paints to decorate a paper plate.

 

Then the adults cut the paper plate in half and a small slit in each half (the top of on side of the plate and the bottom of the other).  On one half we glued a handle (that we had pre-cut).

While one one adult was cutting/prepping the paper plates, the other occupied the students with the "April" banner from the calendar.  It had rain drops and an umbrella on it.  How perfect!

 



We glued the handle to the half with the slit on top; the other half of the plate has the slit on the bottom.



Here it is all put together!



We also attached rain drops with white yarn and a hole punch, but I don't have a picture of that. 

This, again, was a rather quick craft.  Here are the Wh- questions that I asked at the end of the session using Boardmaker on the SMARTBoard.

Today we did a Mother's Day craft/card.  Here is my inspiration. 


To prepare, we cut pots, strips of green paper (2 different colors for some added dimension), and flowers using the Ellison press.  I also used white yarn.

The pot has a fold at the bottom, so it has 2 halves.

First, we used fun scissors (those craftng ones that cut different patterns) to just snip the grass.  Then, we glued it to the top of the open flower pots.  Here are two examples:


a different shade of green on eaach half

Next, the students chose which color flowers they wanted.  I had 5 colors to choose from.  If you're doing this with more verbal students, this would be great for requesting and describing: "I want a blue flower."  We also targeted first/second/third and top/middle/bottom.  The example includes a picture of the student on a fourth flower, but we did not.  As the students chose a flower, we just taped it to the yarn.

Next, we taped the end of the yarn into the bottom of the pot, then glued the sides of the pot shut.

The example has words written on each flower and the pot.  I adapted it for my non-verbal/non-writers by printing symbols beforehand. The students had to receptively identify the word/picture/symbol I asked for.  They read: "I", "love", "you", & "Happy Mother's Day".

We glued  and/or taped each symbol to the flower and pot.  Both glue and tape worked, so we just did whatever was nearest to that student at the time or whichever worked for their OT goals.

Here they are all finished.  How cute are they?!  I really think the moms will love them!

I hope you can use these soon and it's not too late!  Visit the pinterest link for the Mother's Day craft - there's a pot template!

~Denise

Things I wish I had asked in my interview

I've seen many SLP bloggers posting about their impending graduations and job searches.  This prompted me to do a post to try to help them, in some way, learn from my "mistakes" or naivety.  As new SLPs we are all excited for that first CF position.  Then when you hit the ground running in those first few days, weeks, months, and even years at this point, you realize that not everyone shares your desire and enthusiasm.  There are budgets, parents, higher-ups, and state governments to answer to.  There are sub-par colleagues and parents that have been worn down by the "previous SLP" or "the system".  There's Medicaid billing, IEP deadlines, lack of funds, and more and more people to whom you must justify your job.

I've compiled a list some questions that you might want to ask during your interview; some I wish I had asked.  Not only to "appear interested and engaged" in the process/institution, but to cover your own behind in the future!  Because, when push comes to shove, no one is going to be looking out for you except you.  All that being said, I am confident that if I had asked these questions, and was told that my caseload would be 100, I'd have to pay for my ASHA dues AND my supervisor's, and that I'd be evaluated based on what my worst enemy thought of my therapy techniques, I would have taken the job regardless.  Granted none of the scenarios I described were ever the case, but the job market in my hometown was grim and I needed to be able to pay back Sallie Mae when she came knocking.

Here are just some off the top of my head:

-What is the typical caseload?:  The maximum number of students a SLP can service at one times varies by state, but some institutions give their clinicians FAR fewer than the state mandated number.  I've heard of caseload numbers between 5 and 80.  Obviously this is a huge gap and undoubtedly determines how and how well the clinician does her job.  Did anyone see the blog post by Chapel Hill Snippets?  7 students?!  For real?!  That's craziness to me.  Crazy jealousy!
Here is a helpful article from ASHA on caseload/workload.

-How do you do Medicaid billing?:  When i started my current job, Medicaid billing was done on paper.  I was unable to do it, because I did not yet have my Cs.  Just this year, in January (yes, mid-year.  How wonderful a learning curve to adjust to, I know.) my district implemented a district-wide online Medicaid billing program.  In fact, for a couple of months we had to do our data for EVERY student online.  This meant hours and hours and hours and hours (catch my drift) of extra work.  We took data in a session and then had to transfer it all to this online program.  I think in my next life I'm going to be a "consultant".  They're the geniuses who designed this program, having no prior knowledge of my job, responsibilities, or efficiency in online programs in general (I presume.)  But, I'm not bitter.  As of now, since there was so much backlash from us SLPs citing the anti-ease of use of the program, we now only have to use this system for our ISP and Medicaid eligible students.  It's still a huge pain.  If the company who did our IEP writing program had made our Medicaid program, it would have been a near God-send.  You at least want some understanding of how it's done before going into it.  That's not to say that it can't change drastically within a year (or two...).

-What is involved in your teacher evaluation process?: All of those in the education field must undergo some sort of evaluation process.  Some seem completely arbitrary while some are valid and essential.  In my district, the people who are evaluating the SLPs are our communication disorders program supervisors; they are also SLPs.  They know the drill: the subject matter, the pros and cons, and the dos and dont's.  I am eternally grateful the someone who's walked in my shoes is evaluating me.  She is fair and helpful in her criticisms.  I know not all of my fellow SLPs are as lucky.

-How many program/staff meetings will I be obligated to go to? How far will I need to travel?: I have to go to monthly communication disorder program meetings, in addition to any staff meetings the school might hold, plus most special education department meetings within my school.  The only one I need to travel for is the monthly "Speech" meeting, and it's no more than 10 miles away.  I'm fairly certain it's about that distance for the majority of the SLPs in my district.  All of these meetings are held on Monday afternoons.  All elementary students have a half day on Mondays, so Monday afternoons are dedicated staff development periods and planning times.  I realize these meetings are necessary to get essential program mandates to the staff, however, I'd love just a couple more Monday afternoons to myself to laminate/cut/organize/do progress reports/write IEPs/etc.  All in all, they're not bad.

-What sorts of professional development do you provide? Pay for? (I.e. ASHA): Each year, the head of our communication disorder program rallies for our ASHA dues to be paid by the district.  I am eternally grateful for this gesture.  We are also given the chance to ask for administrative leave should we want to go to the ASHA convention.  This is unpaid leave and it is granted on a case by case basis.  However, it is understood as a worthwhile venture and many SLPs in my district go regularly, by their own choosing.

-What is the job of the person hiring me? (Principal, superintendent, SLP?): Of the 5 face-to-face interviews I went on while searching for a job, the people interviewing/hiring me consisted of the following: 2 SLPs, 1 superintendent, 1 special education personnel (I don't know or don't remember her specific title, but it wasn't SLP) and 1 recruiter.  The recruiter interview was sort of a joke.  That's not to say that obtaining a job from a recruiter is a joke, but I got all dressed up, put on my big girl high heels, and anticipated a highly structured professional interview in which I'd talk about therapy techniques.  It was anything but.  She basically asked how she could "sell" me to her "clients".  It just wasn't the illustrious first interview I'd hoped for.  I was interviewed by a SLP at a private practice.  She asked worthwhile questions and really wanted to know what kind of therapist I'd be, not just what kind of employee I'd be.  Being interviewed by a superintendent (and a slew of other administrative professionals) was somewhat unsettling.  They knew very little of my field of study, about the skills I need as a therapist (that are different from those required of a teacher - their probable first profession), and only asked questions about what type of employee I'd be.  For this job, I made it to the next level where I had to do a "mini lesson".  These students were not speech/language students and I was only told what grade they were in.  It's safe to say I bombed it, only because I had ZERO idea what they'd be looking for.  Given that chance now, I'd do it drastically differently.  The interview with the nondescript special education personnel was for a private school for students with Autism.  She took pride in her school and showed me the variety of students, classrooms, and professionals they had.  She asked relevant questions and I felt good about it.  When I got home from the interview and checked my email, I found an email from her, earlier that morning, saying she position had been filled and I didn't need to come in.  Errr, what?  I had driven an hour and a half to get to the interview, filled out the paperwork, answered her questions, chatted with her, thanked her for her time, and was told I'd hear later that week.  Now I see an email that had been written prior to all of that saying "thanks but no thanks"?!  It was the strangest experience and I was mad.  I was confused, angry, hurt.  It was ODD!  If I got nothing else from that, I learned I am thankful to NOT have gotten that job; who'd want to work for a company that's that shady?


The job I ended up taking is the same one I currently hold.  I had to move 4 states away from my family and hometown just to find a worthwhile job that I wanted. (I did NOT want a hospital position.  I don't do bodily fluids/functions well. Although, i could have gotten one considerably more easily)   I was interviewed by a panel of 4 SLPs.  They were the only ones who looked at my grad school portfolio that I poured my heart, soul, and every office supply ever into!  They read my writing samples, asked about my therapy techniques, questioned how I would go about relationships with colleagues, parents, and administrators, and the sorts of discipline strategies I'd use.  not to mention, they commented on my houndstooth kitten heels! ;-)

This turned out to be the right job for me.  Now, I could always use a smaller caseload, a couple fewer meetings a year, and there are certainly frustrations that come with any job.  But, there is no threat of my position being cut (unlike where I moved from!), I'm full time, and I know I am appreciated.  I'm appreciated by my supervisors, my principal, my colleagues, my students, and their parents.

Good luck to all in their job hunts!  Go with your gut.  And, check your email before you leave for an interview!

Please comment below to add any questions I may have missed!!!