Strategies for

TeachingStudents with Speech and Language Disorders

Stacey Forbes, M.S., SLP-CCC

Speech and Language Disorders

Speech Disorders

Childhood Apraxia of Speech

Dysarthria

Orafacial Myofunctional Disorders

Speech Sound Disorders: Articulation and Phonological Processes

Stuttering (fluency) disorders

Voice Disorders

Language Disorders

Language Based Learning Disorders

Preschool Language Disorders

Selective Mutism

Medical and Developmental Conditions

Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Autism

Cleft Lip and Palate

Right Hemisphere Brain Injury

Traumatic Brain Injury

10 tips: Apraxiaincluding children who are non-verbal or who have few word approximations: Establish a core vocabulary of ‘power words’.

Make a ‘brag book’ of words, signs and sound effects that the child can say.

In choosing phonetic stimuli favor those that are already spontaneously produced, most stimulable, and most visual.

Following the principles of motor learning, start with CV and VC and CVC combinations (include isolated vowels), but avoid isolated consonants unless they carry meaning, e.g., [sh] be quiet, [z] bee, [s] snake, [m] yes/yum.

Aim to get sufficient responses within a practice session: that is MANY REPEATS.

Keep it simple. Don’t use complex carrier phrases or cloze (interverbal).

Use AAC to augment verbal attempts and to facilitate expressive language.

Keep tasks fresh – sameness and boredom kill motivation (everyone’s!).

Isolated sounds are really only a goal if they carry meaning (sh for be-quiet, ss as a snake sound, ee-ee for a mouse, etc). It is explained that isolated sound production may be used briefly as a means to an end, but that “bababa”, “beebeebee”, “tatata”, etc are more desirable than practice drills for [b], [t], etc.

Emphasize natural rhythm, “melody”, stress, loudness, rate, and nasality. This is important because it may promote more natural sounding speech.

Auditory bombardment, or exposing students to the target sounds by reading or using “target words” in natural communication as much as possible.

Strategies for Articulation Disorders

Know what sounds are developmentally appropriate for the child and target sounds that are below their age and developmental level.

Repeat what the student says incorrectly in the correct form. If they say “nack” to request a snack, say “I want to eat snack”.

Do not imitate the student’s incorrect speech.

Praise the student when do say it correctly using detailed information. “I like how you corrected yourself when saying the /s/ in snack.”

Use AAC to augment verbal attempts and to facilitate expressive language.

Keep tasks fresh – sameness and boredom kill motivation (everyone’s!).

Isolated sounds are really only a goal if they carry meaning (sh for be-quiet, ss as a snake sound, ee-ee for a mouse, etc). It is explained that isolated sound production may be used briefly as a means to an end, but that “bababa”, “beebeebee”, “tatata”, etc are more desirable than practice drills for [b], [t], etc.

Auditory bombardment, or exposing students to the target sounds by reading or using “target words” in natural communication as much as possible.

Use proper natural rhythm, “melody”, stress, loudness, rate, and nasality.

Simple FUN ways to encourage speech and language Try placing telephones in several different areas. Add little people to the toy car collection. Place attractive puppets in a gutted TV cabinet. Make stick puppets, bag puppets, and sock puppets.

Create a dramatic play area and update it frequently. Help children learn to use the special and technical vocabulary of a shoe store, gas station, campground, stuffed animal clinic, pizza parlor, or workout gym.

Make language props like a pretend microphone, walkie talkie, cordless phone, or megaphone. Invite children to talk or sing with a karaoke machine or tape recorder. Play back taped mystery voices and guess which friend was speaking.

 Set up a listening center where children may comfortably listen to books on tape.

Expand vocabulary by playing instrumental music and inviting children to slither, leap, or waddle. Use fun, big words like exhausted, rotate, hilarious, enormous, and whirl.

Set up an obstacle course and entice children to move under, beside, over, through, between, or around. Move high, low, quickly, or slowly. Use strong movements like gliding, sliding, stomping, marching, tiptoeing, galloping, lunging, twisting, twirling, and flopping

Helping Students with Fluency Problems Be a good speech model using slow and relaxed easy speech in the child’s presence.

Maintain eye contact with your student when he/she is non-fluent.

Pay attention to the message the student is expressing, not how fluently it is being said.

Do not rush the student to state their ideas, give them time to gather their thoughts.

Allow the student to complete ideas without your help. Maintain turn-taking without interruptions.

Try to remain calm and encouraging during your student’s difficult speech episodes.

Reduce stress and pressure in speaking situations when possible.

Helping Students with Voice Disorders

Encourage good vocal behavior,; Control the noise level when possible to prevent the student from shouting or raising their voice to be heard.

Model and encourage “easy,” relaxed speech.

Encourage your student to identify and understand the goals for voice change as specified by the SLP, then to work toward improving his/her voice.

Praise and reward your student’s success.

Reduce the stress and demand of the speaking situation when the student’s voice is strained or raised.

Good Vocal Hygiene: Tips for everyone

Restrict using a loud voice or speaking over noises and or for talking for long periods of time.

Hydrate your vocal folds by increasing your fluid intake (especially water).

Eliminate throat clearing/coughing (when you cough your vocal folds slam together at 70 miles per hour!). Substitute a “sniff-swallow” instead.

Eliminate (or at least reduce) alcohol intake and smoking

Treat esophageal reflux and other digestive disorders.

Balance the time spent speaking with periods of not speaking.

Increase the amount of sleep that you get.

Restrict talking/vocal performance during times of throat infection.

Restrict use of loud voice in windy, cold, out-of-door areas.

Eliminate or reduce caffeine intake.

Restrict medications that dry out the mouth, throat, and larynx

Tips for improving language development in young children

Start talking to your child at birth.  Even newborns benefit from hearing speech. Respond to your baby’s coos and babbling. Play simple games with your baby like peek-a-boo and patty-cake. Listen to your child. Look at them when they talk to you. Give them time to respond. Describe for your child what they are doing, feeling and hearing in the course of the day. Encourage storytelling and sharing information.Expand on what your child says.  (For example, if your child says, “Elmo!”, you can say, “You want Elmo!”)  

Talk a lot to your child.  Tell them what you are doing as you do it. Plan trips and outings.  Your new experiences give you something interesting to talk about before, during, and after the outing. Look at family photos and talk about them. Answer your child every time they speak—this rewards them for talking. Ask your child lots of questions. Use gestures along with words. Don’t criticize grammar mistakes.  Instead, just model good grammar. Play with your child one-on-one, and talk about the toys and games you are playing.

Basic Tenets of language learning for literacy

Alphabetic knowledge

Phonological awareness

Book and print concepts

Vocabulary knowledge

Discourse skills

http://freelanguagestuff.com/

Literacy Development: Pre-kindergarten students typically:

Hold books right side up and turn pages right to left, understands directionality in books

Understand associations between text and speech

Create their own stories of daily occurrences, express the big idea of their story

Recite or retell familiar stories, songs, etc

Use puppets, toys, and other props to retell stories, with multiple characters

Preschool & Early Kindergarten Language Use

Adjectives: big, little, fast, slow, long, shot, easy, hard, soft, hungry, etc

Conjunctions– and, but, so, or, possibly: nor, for, yet

Helping verbs – am, are, is, do, does, have, has, can

Irregular past tense verbs – ate, bit, blew, broke, built, caught, came, cut, did, drew, drank, fell, flew, found, got, gave, had, let, lost, made, put, read, ran, said, saw, sat, stood, stuck, told, threw, went, woke, won, wore, wrote, was

Negation – am not, do not, does not, can not, has not, have not, is not, are not, would not (contractions also)

Plurals – regular, cats, etc.

Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Language

Prepositions – up, down, beside, above, at, behind, below, beside, by, in, off, on, out, outside, over, to, under

Pronouns – he, she, I, you, it, we, (indirect) me, you, it, him, her, them, us

Possessives – my, your, his, her, their, our, ours, mine, yours, hers, theirs, its

Questions – Yes/No (i.e. “Are you tired?) Basic Auxiliary – questions beginning with: do, is, can, are, will, did; for example, “Can I have one?”

Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Language

WH questions: Who, what, where, when, why, how, which

Verb Tense: “-ing” verbs: eating, running, drawing, etc, “-ed” verbs: played, opened, “-s” verbs, walks, eats, etc

Adjectives: ahead, alike, afraid, bad, behind, beginning, middle, end, clean, cold, colors (black, blue, green, orange, red, yellow), dirty, fake, fast, fat, funny, good, great, happy, heavy, high, hot, hungry, lazy, long, loud, low, mad, many, more, new, nice, old, open, pretty, quiet, real, sad, scary, short, sick, silly, slow, small, strong, tall, thirsty, tired, tricky, upside down, wet, yummy, etc.

Adverbs: almost, always, ahead, apart, away, behind, far, fast, less, loudly, more, nearly, next, never, not, often, only, really, slowly, soon, suddenly, together, tomorrow, too, very, well, yesterday

Antonyms – up/down, in/out, all/none, near/far, good/bad, stop/go, hot/cold, big/little, loud/quiet, fast/slow, give/take, day/night, best/worst, wet/dry, pull/push, fake/real, young/olld

Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Language

Categories – animals, body parts, clothes, colors, days of the week, desserts, food, letters, names, numbers, relatives, rooms, shapes, sounds, toys, words

Functions (attributes) – bed- you sleep in it, coat – when it’s cold, you wear it, cup – it holds drinks, fork – you eat with it, house, napkin, pencil, telephone, can, ar, door, eraser, glue, hammer, hat, ladder, lamp, paper, refrigerator, sack, shoes, shovel, sunglasses, tape, telephone, television, umbrella, window

Idioms – all the time, calm down, change your mind, cut it out, do it over, driving me crazy, feel up to, figure it out, get away with, get out, get out of hand, give me a break, get on my nerves, etc.

Multiple meaning words – bat, bowl, can, face, fall, fit, foot, hand, hit, light, mean, park, pet, pitcher, play, punch, ring, rock, roll, run, saw, star, stick, top, trip.

Vocabulary- Kindergarten Nouns

Language Arts – alphabet, capital letter, cover, letter, lowercase letter, page, poem, question, rhyme, sentence, sounds, story, topic, word

Math – amount, coins, patterns, position, order, shapes, triangle

Science – basic needs, change, five senses, magnet, matter, metal, organs, position, properties, recycle, relationship, seasons, sound, tools, vibration

Social Studies – bridge, city, family, flag, history, holiday, laws, legend, map, responsibility, rules, symbol, traffic

Pre-Kindergarten and Kindergarten Language

Vocabulary Parts (attributes)Airplanes – wings, cockpits, wheels, etcAnimals – legs, eyes, mouth, etcBooks – covers, pages, titles, etcApples – seeds, cores, skins, etcBugs – legs, antennae, eyes, wings, etcCars – wheels, tires, steering wheels, etc

Vocabulary Similarities and DifferencesCategories – body parts, beverages, colors, days of week, drinks, food, numbers, relatives, shapes, toys, vegetables, etcFunctions – things that can be climbed, closed, grow, used for eating, opened, play music, stick things together, tell time, used as tools, write, etcParts – things with arms, bones, buttons, doors, eyes, hands, holes, glass, legs, lids, locks, numbers, pages, pockets, screens, tails, walls, water, wheels, whiskers, words, etcDescriptions/Adjectives – things that are big, blue, fast, happy, healthy, heavy, long, loud, old, orange, quiet, round, scary, shiny, short, slow, smooth, strong, tall, wet, etcAction verbs – bounce, break, call, catch, close, climb, color, come, count, do, draw, drink, drop, eat, fall, find, fix, fly, get, give, go, hear, help, jump, like, look, make, move, open, play, pull, push, ride, roll, run, say, see, shake, sing, stop, take, taste, throw, try, walk, wait, want, win, etc

Early Elementary Language Use Adjectives – alive, angry, backward, better, best, breakable, bumpy, careful, clear, closed, comfortable, dangerous, deep, advanced colors; (pink, purple, gray, brown), freezing, full, healthy, ancient, brave, expensive, etc.

Adverbs - accidentally, backwards, badly, carefully, correctly, easily, equally, foreword, honestly, gently, kindly, merrily, nervously, unexpectedly, etc.

Antonyms – more/less, remember/forget, add/subtract, real/make-believe, invisible/visible, beginning/end, create/destroy, part/whole, etc.

Categories – beverages, birds, book parts, buildings, characters, coins, collectables, containers, directions, emotions, flowers, fruits, holidays, insects, instruments, jobs, liquids, things that magnify, things that measure, reptiles, abilities, countries, continents, metals, sizes, states, textures

Functions (Attributes) – backpack – holds your school supplies, clock – displays the time, dictionary – helps you spell and figure out the meanings of words, money, period, scale, rules, senses, shell, soil, tempurature, wings, stamps, traffic lights, character, interview, etc.

Idioms – a long shot, all along, all in your head, an arm and a leg, back to square one, barking up the wrong tree, behind my back, butterflies in your stomach, by the book, let your hair down, look down on, look up to, having a blast, across the board, ahead of the curve, icing on the cake, joke is on you, play it by ear, etc

Multiple meaning words – act, angle, atmosphere, bitter, cast, charge, country, court, credit, current, depression, draft, due, friction, raise, base, chance, state, tip, volume, etc.

Vocabulary – Nouns – First grade

Language arts – charts, details, plurals, poetry, text, theme, topic, vocabulary

Math – corner, cubes, edge, equal group, half, pyramids, sequence, size, strategy, value

Science – behavior, distance, energy, mass, object, shelter, temperature, thermometer

Social Studies – biography, citizen, compass, continents, democracy, emotion, fossils, globe, government, intevriews

Language Forms Early Elementary - Second GradeLanguage Arts – comma, chapter, main idea, punctuation, sentence, setting, syllableMath – calculator, decimal, fraction, graph, length, rectangle, sphereScience – disease, experiment, description, invention, liquid, mix, model, resource, solid, toolsSocial Studies – community, continent, country, fact, holiday, list, location, map, past/present/futureNegation –. should have, couldn’t be, wouldn’t have been, wouldn’t have wanted to go, shouldn’t have to tellIrregular plurals Children, teeth, men, geese, women, feet, mice, sheep, people, deer, wolves, leaves, knives, phenomena, crisis 

Prepositions: Aboard, across, against, ahead of, along, among around, beneath, between, beyond, into, near, onto, past, through, throughout, toward, underneath, upon, within Relational prepositions: About, as but, by, from, despite, except, for, like, of, to, with, withoutTime – After, at, before, during, since, throughout, till, until, whilePronouns – Possessive – my, your, his, her, their, our, ours, mine, yours, hers, theirs, its, Relative – who, which, that, whose, what Reflexive – myself, yourself, himself, herself, themselves, itself

Early Elementary Language Forms

Demonstrative – this, that, these, thoseIndefinite – all, another, any, anybody, both, each, either, few, many, everything, anyone, nothingQuestionsAdvanced auxiliary – questions beginning with: does, may, should, were, have, has, for example: Does a dog bark?Tag questions: He’s hungry, isn’t he?Negative Contractions – questions beginning with: won’t, can’t, doesn’t, shouldn’t Future – will play, will be playing, can play tomorrow, going to play, will soon be playingIrregular past tense – ate, ran, drew, taught, kept, spoke, thought, heard, etc.

Verb Tense – Brighter, brightest, clearer, clearest, darker, darkest, stormier, stormiest, younger, youngest, Longer adjectives- more beautiful, more delicious, most excited, more difficult, most wonderfulAdvanced adjectives: adorable, adventurous, elegant, glamorous, interesting, doubtful, numerous, nutritious, cooperative, encouraging, obedient, cautiousCoordinating conjunctions– after, because, before, for, if, so, unless, until, whenCorrelative conjunctions– both/and, either/or, just as/so, neither/nor, not only/but also, whether/or

Early Elementary Language Forms

Subordinating conjunctions– although, as, as if, once, since, than, that, though, till, whenever, where, wherever, whether, while

Helping verbs: Aren’t, isn’t, don’t, doesn’t, haven’t, hasn’t, can’t, wasn’t, weren’t, etc

Two word combo: Will be, have been, has been, had been, etc

Three word combo: Will have finished, should have been, should not be, must have been, etc

 

NIH Study Released 6/21/2012

40 Children diagnosed with ASD

Attended preschool 30 hours a week

Those that received intensive therapy centered on sharing attention and play when they were 3-4 years old had Stronger Vocabulary Skills More advanced Language skills

“Pre-verbal interactions provide the foundation for building latter language skills” ~ Alice Kau, Ph.D.

“Our findings show that therapy focused on such basic skills as pointing, sharing, and engaging in play can have considerable long-term effects as children with ASD grow and learn to express themselves” ~ Dr Kasari

The Root System Supporting the Social Learning Treehttp://www.socialthinking.com/

We start at the roots, the foundation from which all our social learning grows. At the root level, social thinking and social learning involve:

Joint attention, which includes reading intentions of others and paying attention to others and the environment

Emotional sharing and reciprocity

Central coherence - getting the gist of a message, determining relevance.

Theory of mind, which involves interpreting that you know something different from me

Executive functioning, the ability to process and respond to many stimuli simultaneously

Sensory integration, the ability to integrate the signals coming into our sensory systems, which keeps us aware and active at a level where we can comfortably participate as needed in the environment

Cognition

Language

The importance of Shared Attention on Language DevelopmentGet on the child's physical level, make eye contact, give undivided attention, and have a conversation. Because children need to speak and be spoken to, we need to engage them in conversation.

Language and joint attention can both be promoted by simply talking and playing with children.

We “think with our eyes” to figure out other people’s thoughts, intentions, emotions, plans, etc.

Our thoughts and emotions are strongly connected. How we think affects how we feel, how we behave affects how others think and feel..

We think about people all the time, even when we have no plans to interact with them.

Perspective Taking

Step One: When you come into my space, I have a little thought about you and you have a little thought about me.

Step Two: I wonder “why are you near me?,” “what is your purpose for being near me?” “Is it because you are just sharing the space, do you intend to talk to me or do you intend to harm me?” I have to consider all these things in order to keep me safe around people as well as to predict what will happen next.

Step Three: Since we have thoughts about each other, I wonder what you are thinking about me.

Step Four: To keep you thinking about me the way I would like you to think about me, I monitor and possibly modify my behavior to keep you thinking about me the way I want you to think about me.

The “thoughts” we are having about each other are often tiny thoughts that are almost at the unconscious level. However, it is the always-present, very active thought processes of those around us, when we are neurotypical, that allow us to constantly regulate our behavior to make sure that most people have very “normal” thoughts about us most of the time.

These Four Steps of Perspective Taking are what is expected every student does across the school day while sitting in a classroom, on the playground or just hanging out. Social regulation is at the heart of social participation and we each participate socially just when we are in the presence of others, even when we are not talking to them!

How to build joint attention: Nonverbal childrenMirroring: Non-verbal turn-taking.

The teacher imitates the student’s nonverbal behaviors

Mirroring means you wait, watch, and then do exactly what the student does. (Safe, fun, relaxed activities).

You use words to describe what you actions you are making

How Mirroring improves joint attention and language:

You join the student’s interest and actively attend to the same object and actions.

You are providing a language rich description of the activity

What you say becomes more meaningful for the student.

Bridges child’s actions to words.

Joint attention building through mirroring

Examples:

Imitating/Mirroring the student’s nonverbal, appropriate play behaviors

Child rolls his truck on the table, teacher rolls her own truck on the table and says “Fast truck driving down the road.”

You can both drive cars on the table without mirroring, but when he stops his car, you immediately stop your car and say “Stop, red light.”

Make sure your description of the activity comes during or immediately after the action

Adjust your language level to the child’s language level.

Mirror the child’s actions and interact with them as much as possible during the activity.

How to teach Joint Attention: Non-verbal

Creating situations for joint attention:

Interactive books with manipulative pieces. Pair your words with the student’s actions. Handling the manipulatives requires the student to focus attention on the task

Use highly stimulating materials to gain attention: Bubbles, blowing up a balloon, cars, movable objects, Apps

Watch the student’s eyes and use words, pictures, gestures, sign, etc. to pair language with what they appear to be looking at.

Be aware that the student may be listening to your words while looking away.

Request and encourage a child to look at you, Never force. Some students may able to look at your nose or mouth, but not at your eyes.

Social Stories A Social Story describes a situation, skill, or concept in terms of relevant social cues, perspectives, and common responses in a specifically defined style and format.

The goal of a Social Story is to share accurate social information in a patient and reassuring manner that is easily understood by its audience.

Half of all Social Stories developed should affirm something that an individual does well. The individual’s improved understanding of events and expectations may lead to more effective responses.

Carol Gray: http://thegraycenter.org/social-stories

I Make Many Friendly Choices. This is Awesome.My name is Julie. I make many friendly choices. This is awesome..

One day, Sarah helped me by making an art project for me. Sarah wanted me to have an art project like the other children in our class. Sarah cared about me, and wanted to do something to make me feel happy. I came back to school, saw the art project, and went up to Sarah and said, "Thank you." Saying "Thank you" is a very friendly and polite thing to do. It is an intelligent decision among friends.

Choices like these are friendly choices. Deciding to help others, and to thank others when they have helped you, is an intelligent thing to do. I am a person who has made some wonderful, friendly, choices.

Moms and dads LOVE to read Stories about the intelligent, friendly things that their child says and does. My Mom and Dad may like to read this Story.

How to write social stories:

Determine the behavior you want to change or develop

Focus on one behavior at a time

Write the story in the first person

Include  drawings or photographs of the social event

describe the situation that is the focus of the story

Explain expected behavior and why that behavior is important

End the social story with a description of the acceptable behavior

Siri’s Field Trip Social Story

I am so happy, I am going on a field trip to the SDMA with my class!

I will wait for the whole class to gather in lobby. I will stay with Miss Jackie while I am waiting. She will be happy that I am staying with her. Miss Jackie will gather everything we need to take with us.

I will ride in the van in my car seat. We will listen to music and I will look out the window and enjoy seeing the buildings we pass.

At the SDMA, I will stay with Miss Jackie so she doesn’t have to look for me. I will walk with Miss Jackie and she will be happy. , etc…..

I will have a lot of fun during the event and listen to Miss Jackie. She will be happy and enjoy being with me. My parents will be proud and like hearing about my polite and respectful behavior.

Comic Strip Communication

http://donnayoung.org/art/comics.htm

Teach beginning, middle, and end with three panel comic strips.

Teach pragmatic rules with personalized narratives.

Have students create their own strips to improve and clarify language.

A comic strip is a sequence of drawings arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions.

1

Power Cards

Power Cards, developed by Elisa Gagnon, is a strategy that teaches children and adolescents with Asperger’s Syndrome and autism appropriate social interactions, including routines, behavioral expectations, and the hidden curriculum (Gagnon, 2001)Like a baseball card:

May have the student’s or a hero’s picture on it.

Good statistics about the child and/or social rules for the child needs reminding of in positive terms.

Power card ideas:

Front of power card has the logo on it.

Back of power cardSpiderman thinks everyone should have fun playing games. They also want you to remember three things when playing games with other people:

Games should be fun for everyone.

If you win a game, you can: Smile, give high fives, or say, "Alright!"

If you lose a game, you can: Take a deep breath and say, "Good job" to the opponent or say, "Maybe next time."

Super Card Example:

Direct teaching of pragmatic language

Understand the skills that are missing from the child’s repertoire

Break down the skills into concrete rules that can be expressed clearly

Directly teach the rules to the student in clear, precise language

Use visual supports, materials, to help support the child’s knowledge and abilities

Provide scaffolding for the student so they can be successful

Use verbal, gestural, visual, textual, and physical cues to teach the rules

Have the student demonstrate knowledge of the rules by stating them or expressing them in some other way

Practice using the rules! Start with very structured practice and evolve to natural situations.

Pragmatic Language: Social Language

Using language for different purposes, such as greeting (e.g., hello, goodbye) informing (e.g., I'm going to get a cookie)

demanding (e.g., Give me a cookie)

promising (e.g., I'm going to get you a cookie)

requesting (e.g., I would like a cookie, please)

Changing language according to the needs of a listener or situation, such as talking differently to a baby than to an adult

giving background information to an unfamiliar listener

speaking differently in a classroom than on a playground

Following rules for conversations and storytelling, such as taking turns in conversation

introducing topics of conversation

staying on topic rephrasing when misunderstood

how to use verbal and nonverbal signals

how close to stand to someone when speaking

how to use facial expressions and eye contact

Reading to students:Step by step 1. Locate a picture book with text

that is slightly above students' independent reading level.

2. Display the cover of the book and point out the title and author. Help students use the picture on the cover to predict what the book might be about. Do a picture walk by flipping through the book and pausing on various pages to better predict what might happen in the story.

3. Make a list or complete a graphic organizer to review what children already know about the topic. Leave spaces for children to add new knowledge they have gained after reading the book. You can use pictures for students who do not yet read.

4. Introduce unfamiliar vocabulary words and their definitions by briefly explaining them, acting them out or showing a picture.

5. Read repetitive phrases aloud and add hand motions if desired. Tell children you will signal them to say the phrase with you during the book.

6. Read the book aloud, using appropriate expression and a different voice for each character.

7. Review new vocabulary words as they appear in the story. Call on a child to explain what the word means.

Reading to students, cont

8. Pause to let them predict what will happen next or summarize the events of the story so far. Point to details in the illustrations that support children's understanding of the book.

9. Engage children in the story. Children can also hold up signs depicting characters whenever the character appears in the book, or they can hold up faces depicting feelings to show how the character might feel during that part of the story.

10. Ask children to identify the characters, events, setting, problem and solution of the story. Retell the story orally or by drawing a picture, acting it out, or using flannel board pieces, or pictures

11. Review the list or graphic organizer that the class made before reading the book. Add any new information the students gained by reading the book.

12. Ask children to share any connections they made between books or ways that the book reminded them of their own personal experiences.

13. Allow children to read the story independently during free reading time.

Reducing Stress for Students

Helping to reduce stressMany of the typical strategies and interventions used with children with autism can be helpful in reducing stress. These may include:

visual supports, to:

assist students understand what is being said to them

help students understand what is happening around them

assist students to understand changes in routines

introduce new routines

Understanding and supporting sensory processing issues, by:

assessing sensory processing needs of individual students

making environmental adjustments to reduce sensory overload (consider lighting, smells, noise and how there may be avoided)

support students to access calming sensory experiences, such as pressure, movement and other calming activities

Visual Strategies

Call them visual strategies, visual supports or visual tools. Sometimes we refer to visually supported communication. What these terms mean is that we are using something visual to help individuals understand communication better.

Visual strategies help individuals in many ways.

We use visual strategies to help us communicate information TO individuals.

Visual tools help students organize their thinking.

http://www.khanacademy.org/

Visual supports are used to give choices or communicate rules.

One of the most important uses for visual strategies is to give information such as what is happening, what is not happening, what is changing, etc.

You can create visual tools to give students the information they need to help them participate successfully in all the routines and activities in their lives.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/graphicorganizers/

http://freeology.com/graphicorgs/

How to help students with ADHD

Adapt Curriculum and Instruction

Teach and practice organization and study skills in every subject area.

Design lessons so that students have to actively respond-get up, move around, go to the board, move in their seats.

Design highly motivating and enriching curriculum with ample opportunity for hands-on activities and movement.

Eliminate repetition from tasks or use more novel ways to practice.

Challenge but don't overwhelm.

Provide Supports to Promote On-Task Behavior

Provide frequent feedback.

Monitor independent work.

Schedule difficult subjects at the student's most productive time.

Use mentoring and peer tutoring

Call attention to schedule changes.

Teach conflict resolution and peer mediation skills.

How to help students with Executive Functioning deficits 

Provide Supports to Promote Executive Function

To support planning:

· Teach the student to use time schedules, task organizers and outlines

· Teach study skills and practice them frequently and in all subjects

To increase organization:

· Allow time during school day for locker and backpack organization

· Have daily and weekly organization and clean up routines

· Provide frequent checks of work and systems for organization

To improve follow through:

· Create work completion routines

· Provide opportunities for self-correction

· Accept late work

To improve self-control:Prepare the student for transitions

Display rulesGive behavior promptsHave clear consequencesProvide the student with time to de-stress

Allow doodling or other appropriate, mindless motor movement

Use activity as a rewardProvide more supervision

Memory

To assist with working memory:

Focus on one concept at a time

List all steps

Write all work down

Use reading guides and plot summaries

Use teacher-prepared notes to fill in gaps

List all key points on board

Provide summaries, study guides, outlines, and lists

Let the student use the computer

To assist with memory retrieval:

Teach the student memory strategies (grouping, chunking, mnemonic devices)

Practice sorting main ideas and details

Teach information and organization skills

Attention Getters and Keepers

Language Processing

For problems beginning tasks:

Repeat directions

Increase task structure

Highlight or color code directions and other important parts

Summarize key information

Give visual cues

For problems sticking with and finishing tasks:

Add interest and activity to tasks

Divide larger tasks into easily completed segments

Shorten overall tasks

Allow the student choice in tasks

Require frequent responses

Language Learning Disorders

Increasing the spacing between characters and words in a text improves the speed and quality of dyslexic children’s reading, without prior training. They read 20% faster on average and make half as many errors. This is the conclusion reached

by a French-Italian research team, jointly headed by Johannes Ziegler of the Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (CNRS/Aix-Marseille Université).

Fun Speech and Language ideas:

Play-Doh–an essential. You can keep kids interested by having a set of cookie cutters (there are great tubs by theme available such as Play-Doh Picnic Bucket), add a roller and put them in a closed container so kids have to ask for them to get one. Even opening the Play-Doh lid requires “help me” or “I do” or “open” to get a response by you. The Play-Doh EZ 2 Do Zoo is like a Mr. Potato Head with animal pieces that you stick into a ball of Play-doh. Kids love this!

Lego sets that again involve Fisher Price Little People sets are great for generating uplo, language and conversations, working on pretend play as you model talking with one of the figures and kids respond. Camping, motorhome and eating themes are popular too.

I often read short books, modeling 1-3 word phrases and pausing for the kids to repeat, and then do an activity related to the story whether it is a song, or simple craft. If we make something, ththey did, bridging the language lesson to home. Help kids to see the joy of reading a book early. I even get my ki.)

Play food and a kitchen are always popular with the kids and a great way to build language. You don’t need a huge kitchen. Step2 makes aSizzlin’ Shapes Kitchen table top version for portability and HaPe has several smaller sets of wooden food to throw in your therapy bag for an activity.

Puzzles are another preschool therapy activity. You can model a word or phrase and reward a child by giving them a piece to the puzzle. Puzzles by Lauri and Rubbabu provide a sensory experience with their rubber pieces. Also I might use a bigger puzzle like  “The Pirate Ship”from Ravensburger because I describe the scene on a piece before putting it in the puzzle.

Pretend Play scenarios are fun whether it has to do with buying or eating ice pops or creating cupcakes in the add-on Duplo lego set,“Creative Cakes.” or Alex Toys’ stand for making ice pops.

Crafts involving glue, glitter and paint seem  to excite preschoolers. “Dot a Dot” paints are simple tubes of paint with a stamp at the end. Kids are excited to ask for the tubes by color, “more,” “on,” etc.

(This post originally appeared on Play on Words.)

Top 10 Tips 1) Read, Read, Read! Choose colorful books with large simple photos or drawings. Talk about the pictures rather than reading the text.  

2) Wait, Wait, Wait!  Don’t anticipate your student’s needs. Delay your response to the child’s pointing, gestures or babbling when he wants things. Pretend you don’t understand what he wants. Allow time for him to process information and find the words that he needs to say.

3) Self Talk.: Talk out-loud about what you are seeing, hearing, doing and feeling when your child is in earshot, this will help increase receptive language.  

4) Parallel Talk.: Talk out-loud about what is happening to your child. Describe what he is doing, seeing, hearing and feeling when he is in earshot.  

5) Focus on the message. Praise your child. Respond to your student’s speech attempts with non-verbal and verbal praise. This will encourage him to try and communicate more.  

6) Expansion Modeling. Try and add one to two words to what your student says when responding back to him. For Example: Child says “bike” and you say “ride bike.” 

7) Sing, Dance, and listen to music. Children love music! Songs promote vocal play, imitation, attention, listening and speech. For example: “The Itisy Bitsy Spider,” “Twinkle, Twinkle little star” or “The Wheels on The Bus.”  

8) Use Sign Language, pictures, and movements. The use of sign language can help bridge the gap between language and speech. Sign language has been found to encourage language development not hinder it.

9) Ask open-ended questions. You want to encourage your child to use his words and to avoid answering yes/no questions. For example ask; “What do you want?” as opposed to “Do you want the ball?”  

10) Don’t pressure your student. Communication should be fun and interactive. Don’t ask your student more than 3 times to answer a question. Children tune out when they feel pressured.