autism

  In working with teachers or student speech and language therapist I often find that one of the goals that they want to work on is ‘eye contact’. At first glance, this might make sense as how do we know if a child is listening…

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on a Bed This is a fun poem about five monkeys jumping on the bed! The first part is appropriate for those children that are readers or to can be read to the child. The second part has a pictures and…

Old MacDonald is a favorite song of the students that I work with.  This simple song has  choice making and  a sentence request board.  This particular song is great for language learning. It is an easy melody for children to learn The repeating chorus helps…

Behaviors are a way that children communicate. Think about the newborn. The baby cries to get its needs met as the listener tries to determine the cause of distress. We need to be the same kind of detectives when we see the older child demonstrate…

I have always loved incorporating rhymes and music into my lessons.  Music assists in memory, developing language, and often a child’s first vocalization can come as they try to sing along. When we are working with children with minimal verbal language skills we need to…

Entrance and Exit Criteria: Who is eligible for speech and language services in the schools? When do you exit? These are important questions that are understood not just by speech and language pathologists but also by teachers, administrators and families. Why does one child get…

The procedural section of the lesson plan is the heart or body of the lesson plan. It is here that you will share information about the methods that you are using to help a student reach their goal. It is important to discuss the research-based…

Sometimes our therapy can seem like we are just ‘ playing’  with our students, however, the reality is that we are employing therapeutic skills that assist in the development of language skills. In play we: Balance turn taking:  Give the students some opportunity to be the…

Writing goals is always an art.  It is sometimes helpful to see some examples. This semester here are some great goals. The names have all been changed except for the clinician names are real. Articulation Goals: Kristen wrote these goals Baseline level of performance: At…

    How many of you plead for one more minute when the alarm clock goes off?  This is the feeling that students sometimes feel when their break is over. They want to extend it by a little bit. We need to teach students how…