I had a client recently who told me a well-meaning friend called her five year old son with apraxia “retarded.” Apparently he meant it in a “well-meaning way” asking about services, but understandably the term shocked, appalled, angered, and then saddened her. Isn’t it interesting what we all presume about a child based on nothing more than their speech? She went onto say she didn’t even correct him because at
My speech kids love using BINGO daubers! It’s great too because I can get a lot of practice repetitions in while making it fun and playing a game. Each player gets a game board. Then we roll the dice and practice saying our target words the number of times on the dice while filling up the spots on the board. Whoever fills it up first wins! You can
What’s in a number? I refused cognitive testing today at Ashlynn’s school. Despite me saying I was so sure about not doing it two months ago, I still agonized over the decision until today. Today, the psychologist and myself finally had a chance to chat. She has 20 years of experience and has been working with preschool kids exclusively. She sounded smart, thoughtful, and honest. As I ran through my
Working in the schools, I often don’t have the chance to talk to parents as much as I would like. Though there are the obligatory IEP meetings, it’s not the same as being able to see the parents every week and chat about speech therapy; or better yet, having the parents right there in the session with me. To date, I have seen a little over 20 children who have
This is a little late, but I see private clients on Saturday and I needed an activity to go along with the book “There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Chick,” by Lucille Colandro. As you probably know, I usually incorporate repetitive books into therapy as a way to provide vocabulary in context, but to also have the kids participate by having a part in the book to
Exactly 18 months ago, I wrote one of my favorite and initially most popular posts: Lessons from a Tricycle. At that time, Ashlynn was close to 4 and still could not pedal a tricycle. I describe how we bought it a couple months before her third birthday when I was pregnant with my son. A year later, I wrote that post and explained that she STILL wasn’t able to
