Generalization

Hi everyone!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve posted on my blog! Let’s play some catch up…

A couple weekends ago my family and I traveled down to Rocky Point! For those that don’t know… Rocky Point is about 4 hours from Phoenix into Mexico, and it’s beautiful! Quite the fun getaway! Take a look at the beautiful-ness 💗

Then, this past weekend my cute husband and I went back to my hometown- Salt Lake City! We had the most dreamy Memorial Day weekend, and here are some pictures to prove it…

Look at those Mountains 🏔😍

Now for a little of my speech shtuff! For those of who follow my Instagram, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. For those of you don’t follow my IG, do it.

Today I was fortunate enough to tag along with one of my classrooms to go out and about into the community! We took the kids and their communication devices over and out to McDonalds. Here they stood in a line, and ordered what they wanted to eat for lunch. It’s almost like for me- this is what we’ve been working towards all year! Am I right?!

This is generalization to the fullest. When I say generalization, I mean taking those skills that have been taught in structured settings, and moving them to less structured settings. BECAUSE we don’t live life in a structured, small, patient place, now do we?!

The best way to practice generalizing concepts is to be in close contact with your speech pathologist. Some great questions to ask your speech therapist to get an idea of what you might want to start practicing outside of therapy would be:

🎙What kinds of things is my kiddo working on?

🎙Are they close to mastering any of their goals?

🎙If they are, which goals are they close to mastering?

🎙What strategies do you use to remind my child of their goal (for example, if they are working on s-blends, I might give them a visual with my finger acting like snake by my mouth)? If you know these clues, you can use them out and about too!

The bottom line is, once your child is making great progress towards his or her goal(s), it’s so fun to take those practiced skills and go out into public.

Make it a fun treat; “Today, we get to go get an ice cream cone, and we are going to practice our /S/ sounds the WHOLE time!”

What kinds of ways do you like generalizing concepts with your children or students? I’d love to hear- share below!

Until next time, Kassi, the Phoenix Speech Therapist

Mother's Day

Hi Everyone! As you are all well aware, Mother's Day is coming right around the corner!

Whether you're a mom, dad, caregiver, grandparent, friend... this blog post is for any and all!

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

My hope with this blog post is that in the midst of all your crazy lives, you will get some inspiration and ideas from here, which will hopefully take some of the "planning" burden off! 

At school, we've been making a lot of sweet Mother's Day crafts. I'm going to share that, as well as different crafts you can do with the littles throughout this week for some added fun 👍!

1. Special cards 💗

In school, I've added a fun new element to making cards for mom. I've gathered various core words that we typically use to describe mothers; mine, love, help, teacher, warm, soft, fun...

You can make it in a card style (like you see below) OR essay style format- Go crazy! Using core words introduces new vocabulary and it's also beneficial to give a variety of describing words!

2. Planting 🌱

These rain boots are so super cute and fun to make! It's a nice break from the typical Terracotta pot. You can go to your local thrift store and search for rain boots that have been donated. While planting you can talk about what your plants will need to grow, the stages of how plants grow, categorize plants that are grown from the ground vs. from a tree, etc. Follow this LINK to see how Mary did hers.

3. Finger/Hand Painting ✋ 

No one said that it was just the kiddies that had to make something for their mamas for Mother's Day. Get right in there with your kiddos and make something with your little ones. The picture below is the perfect example of what I'm talking about. Follow this LINK for more examples of hand-print pictures you can make.

4. Are You My Mother? 🐦

We all know I love stories, and there's no better way to spend time with your littles than reading. It expands their vocabulary, phrase length, imagination... You can't go wrong!

Follow this LINK for a fun activity with different baby animals that's a play along with the story.

5. Baking/Cooking 🍪

To get you and your little one ready for the kitchen, make a sweet apron! Follow this LINK for more cute projects. Go to the Dollar Store or your local discount store for plain aprons that you can paint on. I get fabric paint at my local Hobby store as well.

It's fun to describe what you are going to paint on your apron. It's also fun to talk about what sort of things you will make while wearing your apron (wh-questions), and how you can go about making those things (sequencing).

Thanks for reading, and Happy Mother's Day!

Until next time, 

Kassi, the Phoenix Speech Therapist

Noncompliance- Saying 'No'

Noncompliance...

What is noncompliance?

The definition of noncompliance is "the failure to act in accordance with a wish or command"

Simply put... it's when someone does not do what you want them to do. 

I am mostly so excited to talk about this topic this week because of...

This AWESOME shirt! "Noncompliance is a social skill" from realsocialskills.org

It really is the best.

I want to start out by saying that I, by no means, am here to say that kids should be able to say NO whenever they want to. 

This is life, and sometimes we have to do things we don't want to (I'm sure I can get an AMEN for that!) 

What I AM here to say is that, especially for our kiddos who are nonverbal, or those who don't communicate using words, the chance to say NO, stop, don't, etc. is SO important. 

For those of you who don't know I am also an SLP at a school for students with special needs. I encourage teachers to teach their students that it's O.K. to say 'No'.

Ways to Encourage NO, STOP, DON'T:

👍 Acknowledge that they said it. Whether they use their voice, signs, gestures, screams, or with Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC), just saying "I heard you, and I get it, but we have to do... xyz"

👍 Let them get out of the task at hand, for just a moment of time. This will let your kiddo know that you hear them, AND that you listen to them.

👍 Hey, let them get out of the activity all together! If they protest (no, stop, don't, I'm finished) appropriately, give them more options of things they can do instead.

Letting our kiddos know that we hear them and that we will listen to them, especially for those of our kids that are behind, means the world to them. If they know we are listening when they say no, they may try and continue that communication in other aspects of their lives. 
Just like we have the opportunity to say no, we want them to be able to learn that skill as well.

I have students that use behaviors frequently to get out of unwanted activities/tasks. The moment we teach them an appropriate way to say 'No' or maybe even just asking for a break, they turn into different children!

So here's the end. CHEERS to saying NO 😊👏

Thanks for reading!

Until next time, 

Kassi, the Phoenix Speech Therapist

Playing Outside

Hello there friends!

To start my outside blog post, I thought I'd start with sharing what I did over the weekend... which was play OUTSIDE!!! My wonderful in-laws came to visit me and Scottie in Flagstaff. We showed them around the cute town, played in the mountains, and then went to Sedona! It really was a magical time. Here are some of my favorite pictures from the weekend...

Now, for the good stuff that you all want. How on Earth (haha, get it?! Earth? 😉) do I work on speech and language skills outside?! 

To start, I think you should turn on one of my favorite Pandora stations, Ingrid Michaelson, get out a pen and paper, take some notes, write down inspirations, 

then take your radio and notes outside and 

PLAY!!

Okay, it's funny because being outside really brings out the 'littleness' in everyone. I'm proof to that statement. It makes my giddy. 

I'll give the example of going up into the mountains- because that's one of my favorite things to do.

⛰ Describing: The great thing about outside, is that there are so many things you can describe! Look for paw prints, flowers, trees, sticks, fallen logs... Don't force your child to say anything, just let them explore as you tell them loads of information about the goodness of the Earth. This is called 'Self-Talk', and it's a proven method for getting kiddies to talk- the more they hear you, the more the will talk right back.

OR, what about I SPY🔍- who doesn't love this game? Maybe after the 157th time it starts to lose it's charm, but the first 20 rounds seem to be fun. What's more, it's fabulous for describing. Shapes, colors, sizes, categories... these all fit into this kid-friendly game. They are describing and working on increasing their phrase length and vocabularies without even knowing it!


⛰ Categorize- 
As you go around describing all the things you see, collect them as well. At the end of your describing game talk about what items go together. You could categorize things that are alive vs. dead, by color... kids seem to always surprise me to find a commonality between 2 items that I hadn't seemed to think of before.
You can even work on categorizing before you leave the house. What items will we need to enjoy the outdoors? Will it be hot, or cold? Will we need food?


⛰ Art- Other than having to bring art supplies up into the mountains, this is so fun to do. Encourage your child's speech and language by 'playing stupid', "I wonder what color we should make the fire," or, "How are we going to get these sticks to stay on?" Your little one will think you are SO silly, and be delighted that they get to teach you. If they something that's incorrect, be careful not to shoot them down... try it, talk about why it didn't work, then move on to the next thing.

picture and idea from: gluedtomycraftsblog.com

⛰ Reading- For those of you who have read my previous blog posts or follow my Instagram account, you know I love books. LOVE them. And being outdoors is no exception to that. Jenna, at Speech Room News, gave an awesome book idea for outside, Scare a Bear. Bring this lovely book along, give it a read, talk about similarities between your day and the bear's day. Be hypothetical; what kind of things could you do to scare a bear? Or another animal that was near? Would you want to scare all the animals that came by? Why or why not?

What are your favorite things to do outside?! Where are some of your favorite, kid-friendly places to go?! Comment below ↓ and share with the rest of us.

Okay guys, thanks for reading- I'll see you next week!!!

~Kassi, the Speech Therapist in Phoenix

Baking in Language

How was everyone's holiday 🐰🥕🐣🐥 weekend?! Mine was FABULOUS. My husband and I drove up to the Grand Canyon, where we ate at El Tovar restaurant with a BIG huge window where we could see the canyon from. Here are a few of my favorite pictures...

Okay, anyways!

Who doesn't like sweet treats?

🍪🍥🎂🍬🍭🍩🍦🍨🍧 

Although I try to be good, we all know that a delicious something or other is fun to have every now and then.

I LOVE to run speech and language therapy groups in the kitchen. Parents, we all know you spend more time in the kitchen than you would probably like to. So, why not get your kiddies in there every now and then to help out!

Recently, we made Oreo Treats- ya know, instead of Rice Krispie Treats?! They. Were. Delicious.

I'm going to walk you through the steps on how to make this, and how to encourage language and independence with each step.

1. Gather ingredients:

5 cups large marshmallows (or about 3 cups small marshmallows)

4 T. butter

1 package of oreos

Encourage basic concepts- Do they want BIG or little marshmallows?

2. Put the WHOLE package of oreos inside a ziplock bag.

Opposites- Full and Empty; Take turns putting oreos IN the bag; Have your little one tell you PUT IN to put more oreos in the bag.

3. SMASH the oreos into teeny-tiny bits! 

We used a rollin pin for this, but you could use the bottom of a cup, a play hammer...

Have fun with this- you can say SMASH, PUSH, CRUMBLE, each time you hit the oreos.

Talk about how the Oreos were once WHOLE, now they are in PIECES!

4. Now it's time to melt the marshmallows. Cut 4 T. of butter, and put both the marshmallows and butter into a bowl.

Have them help you cut. This encourages independence! Obviously stay right there with them and use a butter knife as well. They can count each tablespoon 1-2-3-4.

Talk about how butter helps marshmallows melt into a creamy mixture. 

5. Put the marshmallows in the microwave and cook for 2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds.

I love to play dumb with this kind of stuff... "hmm, now we need to put this in something that will get hot and help it melt together!" If your kiddo doesn't say OVEN or MICROWAVE, you could say, "I wonder if the microwave would help this melt, or if the refrigerator would, what do you think?"

If they say refrigerator, put it in for a couple seconds, take it out and talk about how instead of warmer, it's colder!

Take advantage of those opportunities that they get something wrong. Be careful to not shut them down.

6. Give the marshmallows one last stir, then pour the Oreos in and stir!

Talk about actions- stirring, pouring; Introduce some new vocabulary- sticky, melt

7. You can either push them into bars, or do what we do at school and just take a big scoop and put it on a plate!

YUM!

🍪 As you're eating this delicious creation, talk about the sequence of what you did; first, next, then, last.

🍪 Ask 'wh' questions- Why did we put the marshmallows and butter in the microwave? 

I hope this gives you some inspiration for more activities in the kitchen. If you follow THIS link, it will take you to where I originally found this recipe, as well as more kid-friendly recipes.

Thanks for reading! I can't wait until next time! 

~Kassi, the Phoenix Speech Therapist

Easter for the Procrastinators...

🐰🥕Easter is hopping right around the corner!

For those parents who haven't yet had the time to do their Easter basket shopping, I have compiled a small list of some awesome toys that I love to help encourage speech and language development!

1. Teeny Weeny Toys

I love Teeny Weeny Toys because there is no one specific purpose for them. They have bath toys, dollhouses, little people, cars... 

2. 'The Carrot Seed'

I love this book! It's perfect for this time of year too- it talks about planting and nurturing seeds. I love to talk about the sequence of planting while I read as well. And hey! You can put in a packet of seeds in their basket too, and act out the story for some added fun!

3. Magnetic Fun House

I love playing house... so do many kids that I see. So why not get a play-house for the go?! This magnetic house has people as well as various house-hold items. Kids increase their imagination by leaps and bounds when playing with dollhouses, and we all know what imagination does for their little minds (and if you've forgotten, or haven't had a chance to read it yet, click HERE)!

4. Tummy Stuffers!

These guys are a little big to fit inside of an Easter basket, but if you're like my family who put toys on the couch too- this could be just for you!

I love Tummy Stuffers to describe things I've found. We take turns grabbing things around the house and putting them inside; then we describe items and have the other person guess which one we have! 

5. Big Crayons by Learning Resources

I've posted about my love for these crayons before. They are a bit more expensive than the rest of the items on this list, however, if you have more than one kiddo you can divvy them up to different kids! I love these because inside each of the large crayons are mini toys that are that color (for example, inside the Orange crayon there is a small carrot, goldfish, pumpkin...).

It's fun to put these into categories- food, animals, objects

It's fun to describe using your 5 senses

It's fun to put inside those Tummy stuffers

There really is no limit on what you can do with these! Plus, Learning Resources has tons of other neat toys!

6. Passes to local outings

We are always looking for something to do with our kiddos that gets us out of the house. Get a pass to the zoo, aquarium, museum, etc. and stuff it in that basket! Your kids will be excited and it also acts as  'Killing two birds with one stone'! You get a fun day AND something to put in the basket!

On the right hand side, you can subscribe to Rollins Speech Therapy's Blog, where you will get access to activities to do at home, as well as have the opportunity to ask questions regarding your child's speech and language development!

Happy Easter everyone, I hope you have a wonderful weekend! ~Kassi, 

Speech therapy in Phoenix, AZ

Wonder Wednesday and Behavior

Hello friends!

Happy Wonder Wednesday! 

First... a little bit about my life right now...

I've just come back from the happiest place on earth... Disneyland! My husband had never been, and so I decided it was a MUST before we have kids! 👍

at 7:45 A.M. we are ready to go!

Obviously, he LOVED it. We also got to spend some time at the beach. It really was a magical weekend. Here are some of my favorite pictures-

And beach time of course!

Pluto

 

We got to meet Mickey... twice!

So now that we've talked about my 💥MaGiCaL💥 weekend, I want to talk to you about something that many parents and caregivers have trouble with.

Behavior.

Almost a couple years ago, I sat and listened to a speaker-Jo Mascorro- and she mesmerized myself and many others in the room. Not only was she funny and a joy to listen to, she is brilliant! If you get a chance to ever go to her conference, 'When Go to Your Room Doesn't Seem Quite Far Enough,' DO. IT.

After the conference I became inspired and wrote out short talking points that I printed for myself, my coworkers, teachers and of course parents. 


Your turn! Become INSPIRED💕

• Kids don't rise to low expectations
• This might be the quote I think about frequently with my students. Think about it, if you give your kids an easy out, they most definitely will take it! Let's give them some expectations that they can be proud of accomplishing!
• True teaching happens all the time
• I tell my teachers this frequently. You can literally teach All. The. Time. Kids are so curious, "why?" "why?" "Why?" "WHY?" 😂 Make a goal to teach your child one new thing each day.
• Behavior IS communication
• If they are pushing the toy away that you've got in front them, it probably means they don't want it!
• If they squeal with delight when a song plays, that probably means they love it!
• Pay attention to how your kiddo reacts to different things around them- You'll learn a WHOLE lot.
• Do not use: Don't, Stop No...→ say what you want!
• "Don't write on that!"→ "Write on the paper"
• "Stop hitting your sister!"→ "Put your hands in your lap"
• When you can't make a behavior go away, give it a time and place
• "You can't hit your friends at school, but I'll tell ya what, you can hit your pillow after school when you get home!"
• Validate their emotions!
• Think about it, when us big people get upset, we just want someone to validate us! Validate that we are sad, mad, happy, frustrated, excited...
• Kids like to hear this too- "I understand your mad that it's bed time, but I need you to sleep so we can have an awesome day tomorrow!"

Want more inspiring bullet points? You can get the list I created by sending me a message HERE.

Also, I found THIS awesome Blog post, created from Jo's lecture! It's quite a long read, but I definitely suggest it.

 Thanks for reading everyone!

ALSO! Hint Hint, Wink Wink... there will be a GIVEAWAY on my Instagram! Follow me for more information!

Encourage Speech Development

We’ve talked about ways to encourage language skills with your kiddos at home, but what about their speech skills? It’s one of the first things we become aware of as our children are growing. I get questions like, “He’s not saying his R’s,” or, “People have a difficult time understanding her.”

Don’t worry- you are not alone in these thoughts!

First, I will direct you to my website, Rollins SpeechTherapy, where I have a developmental list of the speech sounds your kids should have, and by when.

Further, for parents who are worried about their children’s speech development, here are some ways to help encourage those speech sounds at home.

• Tell your kids how you’re making the sound as you say it…
• For example- “When I say /p/ for ‘popcorn’, my lips come together like this!...”
• OR “When I make the /s/ sound, it kind of sounds like a snake!”

Don’t do this every single time you hear or say that particular sound, but every know and then it’s fun to point those words out.

• Minimal pairs- I love minimal pairs. Minimal pairs are two words that sound the exact same but have one difference.
• For example- shoe/two, snail/nail, pad/bad

I can't read where I got this from, if you know of it's owner please let me know!

If your kiddo has difficulty with a particular sound, take their challenging sound with the sound they are producing and show them the difference.

            “I heard you say ‘nail’, but you’re looking at a sssnail! He is a cute ssssnail!”

There are also a variety of books available that could help encourage speech sounds.

I have many of these books referenced on my Pinterest page; take a look! There are also fun ideas to do with books, crafts, and more!

You could also make your own book! As you can see, I have made my fair share of books to encourage speech development. They don't have to be fancy (seriously... mine isn't!), but if you turn it into something fun, the kids adore them! PLUS! You aren't too sad if they get torn or ripped 😉!

With "The Smashing Snail", I had taken those small hammers from 'Don't Break the Ice!', and had kiddos smash different items throughout the story. They LOVE it, and they don't mind saying their sounds over and over while the sssssmash!

Thank you for reading, and also thank you to those of you who send me questions! They inspire me as I write my blogs and Instagram posts.

Keep it UP!

P.S. I'm going to Disneyland this weekend! I can't wait to tell you about my adventures when I return!

How to Use Books to Encourage Speech and Language

I love books. Which is why, here at Rollins Speech Therapy, it is 📚BOOK WEEK📚! 

As I have mentioned in my Instagram account (which you can follow by clicking HERE), each day I will share one of my favorite books to read with kiddos, and then at the end of Book Week (Sunday, March 26, 2017) I will be giving away a book and a literacy unit to go along with it!!! YAHOO! Don’t you love💜 book week too?!

As I’ve discussed in early 🌟Wonder Wednesdays🌟, reading with your kiddos is super important. Don’t take it from me though, there are plenty of resources that talk about this very thing! (I have some listed at the bottom of this blog post).

Here are just a FEW reasons why reading is so important:

📕Imagination- listening to stories read aloud increases imagination skills. Imagination is so important for our little ones. Listening to stories and then being able to tell stories are the fundamental components of imagination. To find out more ways imagination is helpful, check this Link from Speech Buddies.

📕Vocabulary- Listening and reading along to stories actually gives your children access to a variety of vocabulary that they might not hear in their day-to-day lives. Glen, from LifeDev stated that one actually gains better vocabulary from reading than from direct teaching or talking. He also explained that children’s books are “more sophisticated than (our) average conversations!”

📕Literacy skills- When you read to your children, you are showing them how to hold a book, that you read from left to right, that those symbols on the pages mean something. You might tell them that all the letters on that page actually make a word, and when there are many words together they make a sentence.

Not only does reading do all sorts of great things to your child’s mind, it creates a bonding experience for the two (or 3, or 4…) of you. Some of my most favorite memories as a child are when my mom read stories to me at bedtime. You are making those memories each time you open a book!

Give yourself a pat on the back- you deserve it! 👍 You’re making memories AND making your kiddo smarter- you ROCK.

So, now that we know that reading is awesome and we should do it every day (or as often as we can), lets talk about some ways we can actually help increase speech and language skills in our children.

💥Encourage them to read the book WITH you. I really love ‘There Was An Old Lady…” books for this. (You can find a plethora of those books HERE). Really, any repetitive books can serve this purpose. ‘Brown BearBrown Bear,’ ( I see a _____ looking at me!) ‘Dooly and the Snortsnoot,’(FEE FI FO FUM) ‘Go Away Big Green Monster,’ (Go away _____!)…

Basically, any way that you can leave a PAUSE while reading for your kiddos to chime in, is perfect!

💥While reading, if there are any words that jump out at you for being able to explain- DO IT! While this shouldn’t be done throughout the whole book (no one wants to be quizzed every single page), you could pick one or two words a story that could provide wonderful teaching moments.

For example… ‘The Day the Crayons Quit,’. There you go, a great teaching moment has presented itself before you have even begun reading. You could start out by saying, “The day the crayons QUIT. I wonder what this story will be about. Quit means to ‘stop’. What do you think it will be about?”

And there you have it! Teaching moment has come, been discussed, and now they will be thinking about how the crayons are QUITTING, or stopping, throughout the whole story! You could even say at the end, “You were right! The crayons wanted to stop doing their jobs; they wanted to quit!”

💥Whenever I receive new clients (and of course with my present ones), I like to go through books, and take note on how I could target that child’s particular challenges within that story. Teaching is typically not achieved by been talked AT, but rather talked WITH. Basically, I am providing therapy without the kiddo even knowing that I am!

I consistently change the words to target their specific goals, make up names for the characters within the book for the child’s target sound… You really have a plethora of ways to use books to encourage speech and language.

Be looking for the opportunity to subscripe to Rollins Speech Therapy’s blog, where you can get updates on my posts as well as resources that can be used to encourage speech and language therapy!

Thanks for reading! Signing out, Kassi, the speech therapist in Phoenix.

Resources 

F., Holly. (May 9, 2013). Speech Buddies. Using Imaginative Play in Speech Therapy. https://www.speechbuddy.com/blog/speech-therapy-techniques/using-imaginative-play-in-speech-therapy/

Glen. (December 17, 2014. ‘8 Benefits of Reading (or Ways Reading Makes You Better at Life). LifeDev. https://lifedev.net/2009/06/01/reading-makes-you-better/

Felicity. Best Books for Kids. http://www.best-books-for-kids.com/benefits-of-reading.html