RE: Question for Trish Morin-Long

[Guest guest]

Does your daughter like going to speech? Does your therapist give

you homework? If so, does your daughter like doing the homework?

When we've gone to good therapist, my daughters loved going and they

gained a lot in their speech.

They still play lots of games. Now, the games are more complex.

If is not staying focused, then the therapist changes things

around.

is 7, and it is more structured now.

At 4, it was really play based. I've mentioned how they made green

gak when working on the " g " sound.

They would work with popcorn when working on the " p " sound.

They made books with pictures for every sound.

She painted 's nails and had asking her " Can you paint my

pinky? " , " Can you paint my thumb? " , etc.

They played a Winnie the Pooh game. I know they worked on P and E

sounds then.

They played lots of matching games with cards with the target words

(sounds) on them.

She would also change things up in the session, say 10-15 minutes of

oral motor work (blowing bubbles, licking, etc), 10-15 minutes of

working on a target sound, and then 10-15 minutes of language

(sentences).

Both of my daughters have very good attention spans.

especially has a longer than average attention span. She would not

have shut down and not said anything for a very structured, serious

therapist.

Good luck!

Suzi

[Guest guest]

Hi Trisha,

Thanks so much for the reply back, I will take everything you suggested for

my SLP and ask her what she thinks 's fidgeting is attributed to. I met

with he Itinerant teacher today at my house, (we did not go to school today,

for had an Asthma attack late last night, just out of the blue, another

subject!!!) The Itinerant teacher stated to me that needed shadowed a lot

and a lot of cueing. I did get the feeling from this teacher that she was

trying to get me to place my dd back into their school program, she just kept

saying that if had teachers that were specially trained to work with a

special needs child ( quote, unquote) " If it were her child she would place them

with the school system " . I am going to talk to the teachers at the day care

and the director and let them know what this teacher was suggesting and see what

they say before I make any moves. I love this day care and 's teachers

ADORE her and want to do everything possible to help her, Im afraid of a big

move because we just lost our baby-sitter (Grandma Carole), she had a mild

stroke and cannot walk due to it affecting her equilibrium and sight. I often

wonder if that also attributes to some of s behaviour changes. Trisha, I

really appreciate your advise and enjoy hearing from you and how your SLP works

with your son. I hope all is progressing well with him.

LOL

Traci

[Guest guest]

Traci,

The way our SLP set up a structured session was she used clear boxes

(Rubbermaid storage boxes) that had one activity in each box. (There were

usually about 4-5 boxes each session.) As soon as my son walked in the

room, she asked him to move some books for her from a table onto the floor

(like she needed him to do a favor. He loved feeling helpful and got in

some proprioceptive in efforts to help him focus in his session.) Then she

showed him a Velcro strip that had 5 pictures of what the activities were

for that day. She reviewed the sequence of activities. he would then take

the first picture form the Velcro strip and take it to the first box (which

had an identical picture taped on the outside of the box). then they would

start that activity. when they were done with the first activity, they

would put the activity back in the box and he would match the next picture

to the next activity. The sessions got more and more unstructured as my son

could tolerate it. Soon they no longer used the boxes or Velcro picture

strip. They would just ell him verbally what they were going to do that

session.He went from non-verbal to fully intelligible, from totally

dependent on extremely rigid structure to needing minimal (more

natural)structure. Our SLP was truly brilliant!

Even though the sessions were structured, they were still fun and silly and

entertaining for him. Sometimes he did not like some of the activities

(drill for certain sounds) but there was always a reward (like getting to

put each word card into a sand pit after producing an accurate sound). The

would lather on the praise at his attempts and successes and he just fed off

the praise. Plus, when my son got upset or bored. the SLP would quickly

divert to something silly. The only time she would sternly say " no' was when

he threw an object, hit someone or was doing something like that. If he was

doing something like messing with her notebook, She would say, " that is

mine, here is something that you CAN play with. " I remember one time when

he was getting frustrated and was throwing his word cards, the SLP said,

" okay, I will tell you what. After you make the sound, you can slide the

card off the table and onto the floor. " it worked great! They had a blast

and he made a ton of accurate sound productions. The important thing was

not to let the kid get too frustrated and too unhappy. I remember her doing

all sorts of silly things that made my son laugh to break up the tension

when he was feeling stressed. Truthfully, as great as our SLP was, he still

never wanted to go to therapy. But once we got him in there, he was okay.

I guess my question to you is, do you feel that the SLP has really gotten

down on your child's level and understands what makes your child tick? That

is key to the child's success. Does she understand *why* your daughter is

playing with the notebook. Does she just need something to fidget with? Is

it an avoidance behavior to get out of doing work? Is it to get a rise out

of the SLP? What is the child's goal in doing something with the notebook.

If you think your SLP can answer these questions, then she will know how to

handle the situation. If she can't answer these questions,that is when she

should be talking to you to seek your input. Our SLP many times came to me

for help with behaviors, motivators, etc. She wasn't a mind reader but was

willing to try to get to know my child by talking to me and by giving my

son the benefit of the doubt.

When you talk about the word exercise to identify is wrong in a sentence, my

gut reaction was that this sort of exercise seemed like a big leap. Then

again, our SLP did not do anything like this in our sessions. This might be

an approach that I don't know about. But if your child is getting

frustrated, the SLP just needs to make sure that there is a good reward

after getting so many correct (playing a favorite game, etc). Otherwise she

needs to re-think the exercise so it will be less frustrating and more

productive.

As far as behavior goes, my son did act out as his speech was having a

surge. He had this new-found ability and probably did not know how to

handle it yet. That is what I think anyway.

As far as classroom placement goes, I think that if the child is

developmentally behind, it pays to put them with younger peers. Go and

observe your child in her present class and in the one that she might

graduate into. After seeing both, if your motherly gut tells you that your

child needs to be with the older crowd, then I would push hard for it.

Don't let the school muscle you into putting your child somewhere that she

doesn't belong.

Tricia Morin

North Carolina

<Hi Trisha,

I had another question in regards to Structure and the SLP your ds is

going to. My dd's SLP is structured as well, she is now doing

picture cards and asking her what is wrong with these pictures,

doesnt say anything and then the SLP takes her hand and starts to

write down the sentance of what is wrong with the picture and then

goes over wach word in that sentance and has dd say each sound as she

points to it, she goes through about 4 of them in about 15 min, by

the 4th picture has had it (btw, she just started this tecnique

probably a week ago). The SLP does not get impatient with her but if

starts to figit, like playing with the notebook with her free

hand, the SLP will instantly push her hand down. Does this seem like

normal techniques for an SLP who is " structured " . Also, would like

to comment that dd is now saying two and three word utterances, but

is seemingly going through a behavioral stage, where she is fighting

me with everything. Could this be happening due to the structured

speech? Did you go through this as well or was your ds more

receptive to the whole thing? The daycare where my dd is at says

they cannot move her in with the 4-5 yo ( will be 4yo March 26)

because of maturation

and her lack of social skills, she is just not interested in the

newly 3 yo's that are in her class. I meet with the Itinerant

teacher tomarrow, I am a little afraid of what they are going to say.

[Guest guest]

T raci,

Have you observed the special ed preschool to see what is is like? I

know that many feel that special ed preschool isn't to their child's

advantage. I feel that it helped our son a lot. I suppose a lot depends on

the program and teacher. You might want to just check it out. I can

understand you wanting to keep things as they are to not upset your child's

progress and stability, that is certainly a factor. I do think talking to

your child's present teachers is a good idea. Ask them to be brutally

honest with you b/c you are making an important decision about your child's

placement. They might tell you things that they wouldn't have otherwise.

Just an idea..

Tricia Morin

North Carolina

Hi Trisha,

Thanks so much for the reply back, I will take everything you suggested

for

my SLP and ask her what she thinks 's fidgeting is attributed to. I

met

with he Itinerant teacher today at my house, (we did not go to school

today,

for had an Asthma attack late last night, just out of the blue,

another

subject!!!) The Itinerant teacher stated to me that needed shadowed

a lot

and a lot of cueing. I did get the feeling from this teacher that she was

trying to get me to place my dd back into their school program, she just

kept

saying that if had teachers that were specially trained to work with

a

special needs child ( quote, unquote) " If it were her child she would place

them

with the school system " . I am going to talk to the teachers at the day

care

and the director and let them know what this teacher was suggesting and

see what

they say before I make any moves. I love this day care and 's

teachers

ADORE her and want to do everything possible to help her, Im afraid of a

big

move because we just lost our baby-sitter (Grandma Carole), she had a mild

stroke and cannot walk due to it affecting her equilibrium and sight. I

often

wonder if that also attributes to some of s behaviour changes.

Trisha, I

really appreciate your advise and enjoy hearing from you and how your SLP

works

with your son. I hope all is progressing well with him.

LOL