December Speech News

Just a reminder that school will be closed for Winter Break from December 22 - January 2.  Teachers return to school on January 5 for professional development, so Monday speech sessions will not meet.


December practice and vocabulary words:


Stocking
Present or Gift
Candle
Wreath
Santa
Candy Cane
Winter
Cold
Red
Green


We read lots of fun stories in December.  Our favorites included:  "Take a Mouse to a Movie" and "Too Many Toys for Christmas." 


Attributes are very important descriptive words for children.  We work on using the attributes of color, shape/size and function to get the children to "tell us about" certain objects.  By the time a child goes to Kindergarten, our goal is for a child to use two different attributes to describe objects or pictures of objects. 


Happy Holidays!
Ms. Lorraine and Ms. Sarah

November Tidbits

We hope everyone is staying warm and enjoying fall!  Just a reminder that there will not be any speech sessions during Thanksgiving Break (November 27 and November 28). 


November practice vocabulary words include:


Turkey
Pilgrim
Platter
Thanksgiving
Feast
Thank You
Family
Mayflower
Black
Grey


This month we read, "Bear Gives Thanks" and "Turkey Trouble."


While children are playing remember it is always great to "talk" about their play!  You can use preposition words to describe where they are putting toys, blocks, etc.  Use words such as "in front," "behind," "above," "under," "next to," and "on." 


Happy Thanksgiving!
Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine

October News

Just a reminder that there will be no speech during Brownsburg's Fall Break (October 13-24, 2014).  We will return to school on October 27!


Fall Vocabulary words for practice include:


Pumpkin
Scarecrow
Straw
Leaves
Jack-o-Lantern
Bat
Trick or Treat
Witch
Ghost
Orange
Brown


We read the books "Room on the Broom" and "The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything." 


Remember to try to read at least 10 minutes a night with your child providing good articulation models!  Remember it is OKAY to just talk about the pictures and not read the words too!  Have your child work on describing objects seen in the pictures!


Have a great break!
Ms. Lorraine and Ms. Sarah

Helping Your Child to Use and Understand WH questions

As well as working on your child's individual articulation goals during the session we also try to incorporate WH questions into all our activities.  We have a daily question at circle that is always a WH question.  This month they were about food you like.  "What is your favorite thing for dinner?" "What is your favorite vegetable?" They have 3 choices and then they put their name under their vote.  It also works on counting and more/less/equal.    The books we read this month were Tops & Bottoms and Sloppy Joe.  We have had fun playing in the sensory table, with pegs, and singing our mat man song from handwriting without tears.  Here are some things you can do at home to encourage the question skill at home.

We look forward to the fall season coming up and all the fun activities that come with it! Sarah & Lorraine

By Becky L. Spivey, M.Ed.

How to Help Your Child Understand and

Produce “WH” Questions

© 2006 Super Duper® Publications • www.superduperinc.com

• Make small books. Have your child illustrate a book with

photos or drawings with a title like “Our Family Vacation.”
Your child can answer each of the WH questions that you

may dictate. For example, “Who went on vacation?

Where did you go? When did you leave/return? What did

you do on your vacation? Why did the family go on

vacation?” Make books about the child’s birthday,

holidays, family time, shopping trips, etc.

• Ask questions about your child’s day at school using WH

questions. “Who did you sit with at lunch? Where did the

class go for music time? When did you play outside? What

did you eat for lunch? Why did you bring home

your books?”

•
 Cut pictures from magazines/books. Make a WH chart with each type of WH

question in a separate column. Show your child a picture and ask him/her to place
the picture in the correct column. For example, you show the child a picture of a

man - he/she puts the picture in the Who column. An apple – he/she places in the

What column; a picture of a park – he/she places in the Where column.

• Improve your child’s reading comprehension by asking WH questions during and

after story time. Interrupt stories and ask a series of questions related to the story

topic. Ask your child to create questions about the story with Who, What, When,

Where, or Why as the first word of his/her question. Children learn from these

prompts and will begin using these comprehension strategies while reading on
their own.

• Use picture cards made from clippings of magazines or old books. Show your child a

card and say, “Ask me a question about this picture.” If you are showing your child

“shoes,” he/she may ask, “What do you wear on your feet? Why did you get new

shoes? When do you buy shoes? Where do you wear shoes? Who buys your shoes?”

Your child’s understanding and formulation of simple WH questions lays a

foundation for developing skills in communicating, generalizing, and processing

information in his/her environment. Parents have countless opportunities to give

children practice in questioning and answering techniques, as well as provide visual

cues for their children to help them acquire new language skills. The mastery of these

simple questions is invaluable to the early learner.

Great Article on Supporting Developing Language At Home and In Daily Activities

http://blog.asha.org/2014/07/15/collaboration-corner-10-easy-tips-for-parents-to-support-language/


10 Easy Tips for Parents to Support Language

As we make our way through the lazy days of summer, schedules change, and things relax. My usual theme is collaboration; parents can be one of our biggest assets in promoting language development. Parents of young children usually want to know what they can do to support their child’s language development in the absence of a structured day. Though I teach children with disabilities, I find I continually revisit the following tips with parents of young children regardless of whether a child is typically developing or needs a little more support. Here they are in no particular order of importance:

1. Pay attention to body language, when a child is looking toward or reaching for something, they are communicating. Talk about what they are reaching for, “Oh, you want the bubbles!”
2. Avoid the “say this” tendency. Don’t pressure the child to speak; keeping the experience positive is important. Instead, model what the child might say when he/she is ready.
3. Take time to sit and read with your child every day. Label everything you see, and encourage them to point to the words and pictures as you talk about them. Books with repetitive lines are great.
4. Be playful. Sing songs. Use lots of inflection. With familiar songs, leave some of the words out and see if your child will hum or sing the words.
5. Provide limited choices when you aren’t sure what your child wants. Holding out 2 items, lessens the stress of having too many choices.
6. Talk with your child about what you are doing, then provide the opportunity for your child to reciprocate. “I’m making some cookies, do you want to help?”
7. Use first/then language to guide behavior, and then be consistent, “First you need to eat, then you can read.” Use this language even when moving between activities that are preferred or less preferred.
8. Use pictures: Take pictures of your child’s day and talk about what is coming up next, or make a photo album of fun activities (vacation, going out for ice cream) to talk about.
9. Remember language is everywhere, even if you child doesn’t understand everything you are saying, he or she needs the exposure. Car rides, walks outside, blowing bubbles are just a few examples. Describe what you see, and ask questions, e.g, “I see a cow. What does a cow say?”
10. Simplify your props. Sometimes the simplest toys can bring out the best language. Summer is full of such opportunities: A spinning toy, taking a turn kicking a ball, bubbles…all can support your child’s development, simply by talking to them.

Kerry Davis Ed.D., CCC-SLP,is a speech-language pathologist in the Boston area, working with children who have significant communication challenges. She conducts trainings and workshops, and serves as a volunteer speech pathologist and consultant for Step by Step Guyana, a school for children with autism in South America. The opinions expressed in this blog are her own, and not those of her employer.

 Welcome Back to the 2014-2015 school year.
We are looking forward to seeing your students and how much progress they have made.  Excited for the progress they will make this year.  Our sessions will begin on August 11th and will be one time a week for 30 minutes.  Here are the dates for this year. You will also get this in paper form. 

2014-2015 Phonology Dates

August 11, 18, 25

September 1, 8, 15, 22, 29

*No Monday sessions Sept. 1=No School Labor Day

October 6, 27

November 3, 10, 17, 24

*No Thursday, Friday sessions Nov. 27, 28 = No School Thanksgiving Break

December 1, 8, 15

January 5, 12, 19, 26

*No Monday sessions Jan. 5 = teacher work day; No Monday sessions Jan. 19 = No School Martin Luther King Jr. Day

February 2, 9, 16, 23

*No Monday sessions Feb. 16 = No School President’s Day

March 2, 9, 16

April 6, 13, 20, 27

May 4, 11, 18

Feel free to contact us by phone or email.  852-1046 x 2021

sreaves@brownsburg.k12.in.us

ljeter@brownsburg.k12.in.us

If you need to cancel your session please email both Sarah and Lorraine in case one of us are not here.

Here is a link to some printable picture pages for practice at home. 

http://www.busybugkits.com.au/freebiesarticulation/

 

 

April Speech Bunnies!

Last week in Phonology group, the kids had SO much fun making their very own bunny ears that they colored and glued themselves.  It also gave us a great opportunity to talk about those important preschool concept words like 'under,' 'over', 'top,' and 'bottom' while we were gluing.

As you can see, the finished product was very cute!  The kids loved looking in the mirror at their new look and they couldn't wait to show their caregivers.  One of our friends even wondered if his dad would recognize him!  Using imagination is such a great way to support learning!

While we worked on our sounds, the kids got to fill out Egg Hunt sticker sheets, which was fun!  We found ways to incorporate their sounds into the activity and got to talk about how the various egg stickers were the same and different.  We read a book by Richard Scarry called "Egg in the Hole," about a chicken who lost her egg.  It incorporated more important concepts like "down, across, through, and over."  Afterward, the kids got to go on an Egg Hunt where they talked about the attributes of the items inside the eggs and also did some work categorizing the items.  Whew!  We accomplished a lot!

Just as a reminder, there will be NO phonology groups held next week (April 28- May 2).  We will miss you but will be excited to start the home stretch to summer vacation when we come back in May!

Ms. Sarah, Ms. Lorraine, and Ms. Erin

March 'Madness' in Speech!

Hi all! 

This post (and the next few posts) are going to be guest-blogged by Erin Dixon.  I'm a graduate student studying speech pathology at Purdue and this is my fourth week working with Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine.  I am really enjoying getting to know all the wonderful, bright, funny children here at BECC and have been learning a lot!

This week in phonology we did some St. Patrick's Day themed activities focusing on multi-syllabic words like 'shamrock,' 'rainbow,' 'clover,' and 'leprechaun.'

We read the book "What Makes a Rainbow?" and talked about how we need sun and rain to make a rainbow.  The kids used pipe cleaners and Play Dough to pick each color of the rainbow one at time and put the colors in a cloud.  The kids had a lot of fun guessing what color would come next and thinking of things that were each color!

We also filled out shamrocks with St. Patrick's Day themed stickers as we practiced our sounds.  The kids then got to describe the picture they made and take it home to share with their families.  They are so creative!

As a reminder, we will be on Spring Break the next two weeks and will not be having phonology groups again until the week of April 7th.  We hope you enjoy your time off and keep working on those good speech skills!

Ms. Sarah, Ms. Lorraine, and Ms. Erin

Wild Winter!

What a crazy winter we have had!  After having a pipe burst in the ceiling of Mrs. Feller's room, some of our morning classes have been relocated to the conference room so Mrs. Feller's preschool classroom can use our room!  But, we are still working very hard!

Because we have no early morning appointments this year, if we have a 2 hour delay all sessions will report ON TIME!  Our earliest time is 10:45am and Ms. Lorraine and I are here by 10:30 on 2 hour delays.  The afternoon sessions will also run on time!

Just a reminder that there will NOT be any speech the week of President's Day.  We will NOT meet Feb. 17, 18 or 19. 

This week are learning about arctic animals, the letter /k/, and reading Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you Hear?  Students have been practicing /k/, /f/, and /s/-blends.  They are also working on answering questions, sorting by category and matching numbers to sets of objects!  Please continue to work on counting objects up to 10 and the letters in their names!!

Have a great week!

Ms. Sarah and Ms. Lorraine