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