Remember poor Jack and Jill? What about the whimsical rhyme about the cat who played the fiddle and the cow who jumped into outer space? These nursery rhymes may seem like silly non-sense, but they actually serve a purpose.

Rhyming helps children notice the sounds that make up words (phonological awareness), which is important to reading acquisition. Because children with speech and/or language disorders are at a higher risk for reading problems, it is even more important that we make sure they are exposed to activities that promote sound awareness.

Do we really have time?
While we can’t possibly cover everything children need to learn during our sessions, we can make sure that they are at least exposed to some of them, including rhymes. Here are some ideas to make this happen…

Encourage caregivers to read nursery rhymes to their child. They can also sing or play songs that contain rhymes. Let them know that it isn’t just a silly activity, but serves a real purpose.

Use nursery rhymes in your sessions. Find rhymes that go with your goals and use them in your session. Sing the songs, say the rhymes, use felt storyboards, or act it out with puppets to make the stories come to life. Here are some examples…

If you are working on…You could use this rhyme.
Over…………Jack be Nimble
Up/down……Hickory Dickory Dock
Body parts…The Hokey Pokey
Weather…….It’s Raining It’s Pouring

For the words and origins of many common (and some not so common) nursery rhymes, visit
http://www.zelo.com/family/nursery/index.asp

Becky Wanca

Welcome autumn!  If you’re like me, you’re ready for some cooler weather and fun, fall activities.  I love to use the changing of seasons to introduce new vocabulary, games, and activities into my sessions.  It’s also a great time to reinforce previously learned skills from a different angle.  Try some of these apple activities or create some of your own.

Apple activities
Materials:  6 apples (2 each of red, yellow, and green), preferably in varying sizes

Matching – Have the children match the apples by color (then by size, if appropriate).

Comparatives – Pick 2-3 apples that are different enough in size and do receptive and expressive language tasks for big/little, big/bigger/biggest, and small/smaller/smallest.

Describing – Have the children describe the similarities and differences between the different types of apples.

Vocabulary/Parts of a whole – Discuss the parts of an apple, using the terms stem, skin, flesh, core, and seeds.  Cut an apple in half and show them the parts.
There are definitions for each of these parts at
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/gr2appleparts.htm

and an illustration of an apple with the parts labeled at
http://www.manatee.k12.fl.us/sites/elementary/samoset/gr2applecutawaypopup.htm

Various speech and language skills – Print out this apple game board to use for a variety of skills.

To my friends in the Southern Hemisphere…I hope you are enjoying the beginning of spring.  You can use many of the ideas above using flowers instead of apples.  Silk flowers last longer and may be more consistent in size and color, but you can also just gather up a few from outside.

Look for more fall ideas and printables coming to your inbox soon!  If you haven’t signed up and activated your email address yet, do it now!  You’ll get FREE monthly emails full of ideas and printable materials so you can just print and go!  Here’s what to do…

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Becky Wanca

Why work on describing?
Describing with details helps a child be specific about the different attributes of an item.  This can help students with comparing and contrasting, using details in their writing, and increasing their vocabularies.

Creativity disclaimer
First off, I must give credit where credit is due.  This wonderful activity is used by the teachers in my sons’ school to improve the details in their students’ writing.  I loved it so much that I had to share it with you.

The set up
Find pictures of three or four dogs that look different from each other and display them.  An easy way to do this is to find a calendar with pictures of dogs and take a few of the pages out.  (These can often be found on sale during the second half of the year or at a “dollar store” at the beginning of the year.)  Have a blank piece of paper and pencil available for each student.

Let the describing begin
Start out by discussing the dogs and what they look like.  Have the students describe the color, size, ears, nose, etc. of each dog.  You may want to write the words that they come up with next to the dog’s picture.

Tell them that the sad news is that their dogs have wondered off in the neighborhood and they need help finding them.  They each need to make a “Lost Dog” sign describing what their dog looks like so that their neighbors will know which dog belongs to them.  When they are finished, have the children read their descriptions to the group.  The group then guesses which dog belongs to that owner.

More describing to come
September’s email will contain step-by-step directions for teaching children to describe, starting with learning the concept receptively and moving to expressively describing features of items.  There will also be additional describing activities and printable materials included.

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One of the best pieces of advice I was given after having my boys was “Start as you mean to go on.”  When beginning something new, decide if it is a habit you want to create or if it’s a habit you’re going to have to break later.  For example, if I didn’t want to have to rock my babies to sleep every night (not very practical with twins), then I shouldn’t start doing that at the beginning.  I’ve found that this advice applies to my therapy sessions as well.

Whenever you are starting therapy with a new client or beginning a new school year, think about what you expect from your clients/students and what they should expect in their sessions.  What kind of behavior do you expect?  What kind of routine do you want to establish?  Do they earn a reward each session or work toward a goal to receive something?

This doesn’t mean you can’t make changes or adjust your sessions, but children thrive and learn on routine.  So, before starting that first session, think about what you want to happen consistently.  A few of these may include:

For young children

Where to sit (at a table or on the floor)?
How to start the session (with a song, a book, or other activity)?
How long to work before getting a break?
Do the children receive a sticker or prize at the end?
Do the parents get a home program or time to ask questions at the end?

For school-aged children

Do they come to therapy on their own or do you pick them up from class?
Where do they sit?
What are acceptable behaviors or noise levels?  What happens if they do not follow the rules?
How do you start the session (with a new vocabulary word, sound hunt, grammar fix-up, or general social conversation)?
Type of activities (games, themes, reading, writing prompts, etc.)?
Do they earn something (stickers or points for prizes)?  Is it based on behavior, effort, meeting a goal, or a combination of these?

So, the next time you are starting therapy with a new client or beginning a new school year, establish your routines early and be consistent.  “Start as you mean to go on.”

Organization

When things are organized, you can find what you need quickly and know where things go once you’ve obtained them.  The same is true for linguistic organization.  Understanding how things go together allows us to better learn and recall new concepts and vocabulary words.  Knowing the names of categories can also increase our ability to describe.  For my clients with limited vocabularies, I work on categorization to help them see how things fit together and to give them a basis on which to build new concepts.

Step by step

Like with any new skill, it is important to progress in a sequential, step by step manner. Take the child from what he knows and build up to the next level.  You may want to first check if the child can already identify categories by skipping to step 3.  If he can do this, progress from there.  If not, begin at step 1.

The steps for teaching categories:
1. match
2. sort
3. identify (receptive)
4. name (expressive)

Use pictures of items that belong in various categories.  First, teach the child to match a picture to its group.  When that is achieved, give the child the stack of mixed up pictures and have him sort them into their categories.  After that, have him identify the categories as you name them.  Once receptive skills are mastered, teach the child to name the categories as you point to them.

Additional ideas

For a tougher task, remove the pictures.  Verbally give three items and have the child name the category, or give him the category and have him name items that belong in it. 

Group game- Give one student a secret category and have him name items in it.  The rest of the group then tries to guess the category.  For a bit more competition, play this with teams and points.

Free materials

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Believe it or not, there is a simple way to add some spice to your students’ papers.  With a bit of variety and details, even the most basic paper can come to life.  Teach these techniques prior to planning and writing papers or as you proofread a paper together. 

Stop the “then, then, then” train:
The first transition word students tend to add to their papers is “then”.  But when each paragraph is so weighted down with “then”, it gets to be a drag.  So, give them some substitutes, such as…

• After that
• Next
• Following that

By simply using these words instead of “then”, the paper will instantly have some variety and interest.

Details:
Have students add words, phrases, or sentences that answer the following questions…

• Who?
• What?
• Where?
• When?
• Why?
• How?  How many?  For how long?

For example, if the student wrote, “We went to New York.”  Have him answer these questions to expand on the first, basic sentence. 

• Who did you go with?  Who did you go see?
• What did you do there?  What did you see?  What did you eat? 
• Where in New York did you go?  Where did you stay?
• When did you go?
• Why did you go there?
• How did you get there?  How long did you stay?

With so many details, the reader will get a much clearer picture of what the writer is trying to express.  What a difference some details can make!

You can even make reminder notes for students to stick to their desks or inside their notebook, like these cards.  Print them on standard business cards or on regular paper and cut them apart.

Remember to sign up for my email list before the end of the month so you can get the next monthly email.  It will include instructions, ideas, and free printable materials.  Just visit the FREE page, enter your email address, and click on the link in the email you receive to activate your email address.  If you do not activate your account, I won’t be able to send you the free materials.

While word problems can be intimidating to any typical student, they can seem downright impossible to figure out for the student with language disorders.  But what can we do about it?  Is math really something we should address in our language sessions?  Absolutely!  And here’s why… it’s about decoding the language of math.

I teach students how to decode the question and figure out what it is asking them to do.  The calculating is up to them and their teachers to work on.  Once students know what to do with the numbers, the battle is half won.  To work on the specific vocabulary, you can make flash cards with the students, make reference sheets for their desks, make posters to hang on your walls, or play math word bingo.  Do whatever you need for them to learn the following words and what they mean.  Then, do example word problems from their math books to help them practice decoding the questions.  Have them look for the “key words” in the question and figure out what to do.

I recently printed out business cards with these words on them for my language students in third-fifth grades to have on their desks.  All of their teachers asked me if they could have some for the rest of the class too.  Of course!  You can have them too!  Print them out on standard perforated business card paper or on plain paper and cut them apart.