Tag: speech therapy

Read With Me PD: The Power of Our Words (Part 1)

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Read With Me PD: The Power of Our Words Reflection Series

Photo of cover of The Power of Our Words by Paula Denton, EdD

My PD read for the month of June is The Power of Our Words: Teacher Language That Helps Children Learn by Paula Denton, EdD. The Power of Our Words is published by The Center for Responsive Schools, Inc. It is recommended reading as part of their Responsive Classroom Model. Every educator, related service provider, and support staff member in my school district attended a Responsive Classroom training at the start of the 2018 school year. The training and information disseminated largely pertained to the general education classroom setting. However, I was able to walk away from the training with with game changing behavior management ideas that I felt I could adapt to my speech therapy room. I am ashamed to say that I actually bought this book back in September 2018 and am only now getting around to reading it, but at least I am reading it!

I was drawn to this book, because of the subtitle, Teacher Language That Helps Children Learn. In almost every IEP meeting I attend, I try to convey to parents and educators the huge role language plays in learning and all of life really. Classroom lessons and social interactions are mediated through language. Having a good grasp of language skills and an thorough understanding of how others comprehend you is essential to academic and social success. Too often I walk into a classroom and hear a well-meaning educator give a five-step direction with negation, conditional commands, temporal concepts, and figurative language, and I primarily work in the kindergarten wing. Even as an SLP, I sometimes stumble into using complex, complicated, convoluted language with my students. Understanding how your students understand you is integral to your ability to provide adequate instruction. Enter: The Power of Our Words.

General Guidelines for Teacher Language:

1. Be Direct.

2. Convey Faith in Students’ Abilities and Intentions.

3. Focus on Actions, Not Abstractions.

4. Keep It Brief.

5. Know When to Be Silent.

Denton, P. (2018). The power of our words: Teacher language that helps children learn. Turners Falls, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.

Today, I want to discuss the Be Direct part, because when I first heard of it I thought it sounded insincere. The book framed the idea better than the trainer had.

Being direct with children is respectful.

When you are direct with children, you clearly tell them your expectations. When children understand your expectations, they are (a) able to rise to the occasion and (b) more likely to trust you. Reciprocal trust and respect are invaluable in creating a learning atmosphere.

The book reminded me of the first lesson I thought I learned, but apparently forgot, from grad school–don’t ask, tell. When you ask a student to complete a direction, you are giving them options. For example, I often say things like, “Could you come sit down at the table?” The could implies that there are two options in this situation: sit down at the table or don’t. When the child chooses not to sit at the table, because he thought there was a choice in the matter, and I become upset that he is not sitting at the table with me, he feels confused. Confusion leads to distrust and does not foster a learning environment. It is much more respectful and effective for me to say, “Sit down at the speech table, we are ready to begin.”

I have also fallen into the trap of comparing students, by praising the ones who are doing what is expected. “I like how Johnny is sitting at the table.” The author of the book says something along the lines of, well that’s great for the two of you, but it is completely useless information to the other children (Denton, 2018 p. 14). Saying that you like how another child is behaving, does nothing to explain what that child is doing to meet your expectations. Instead, try describing the behaviors you would like to see. In the example above, I should say, “Come sit down at the table and show me whole body listening.” Use clear, easy to follow expectations that children are able to execute to direct their behavior.

The next, be direct no-no that I absolutely struggle with, is avoiding sarcasm. When I am becoming frustrated by bad behaviors it is easy for me to slip into sarcasm for some comedic relief. During a recent, particularly terrible teletherapy session, a student paused his maladaptive behavior to say, “Did you just roll your eyes at me.” Yehp! I did…

There are two problems with sarcasm:

-It is confusing to children, especially those with language disorders.

-It is also damaging to your role as a compassionate, caring adult in your students’ lives. The author wrote, “[When a teacher uses sarcasm, students] no longer see the teacher as an authority who protects their emotional safety but someone who freely uses the currency of insult” (Denton, 2018 p. 16). Sarcasm, like indirect language, is damaging to the trust you are trying to build with your students.

When you are feeling frustrated, don’t deflect. That is exactly the moment to define your expectations clearly to improve the situation.

Do you struggle with being direct in your directions and expectations? Stay tuned for more insight from this month’s PD read: The Power of Our Words.

Thanks for reading!

References:

Denton, P. (2018). The power of our words: Teacher language that helps children learn. Turners Falls, MA: Northeast Foundation for Children.

Speech Therapy Materials Organization (& A Cautionary Tale)

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First, a cautionary tale. When I was in graduate school, I discovered Teachers Pay Teachers and quickly became addicted. I invested in speech therapy materials that I still use five years later, and I downloaded ALL of the freebies. This was far too many materials to store on my little baby laptop, so I stored everything on an external hard drive, which I remember being very expensive.

Flash forward to the end of my graduate experience, I am beginning to study for my comprehensive exams and preparing to begin my career within the next six months. I plug in my external hard drive on a cold January morning only to discover it is empty. EMPTY. Everything…EVERYTHING…was gone! All of those materials I had discovered and carefully organized. I was upset about the materials, but the hard drive also had all of my pictures and every study guide I had made during my graduate career (Reminder: I was beginning to study for my comprehensive exams and those were the study guides I had planned to rely on).

I frantically took my hard drive to Geek Squad only to learn that, sometimes hard drives just implode. It had to do with it being jostled, temperature, and age. It cost a LOT of money to retrieve the data on the hard drive. Somethings were unfortunately lost, like every photograph I took in 2010…but, I learned an important lesson and leaned on my friends for their notes to study.

These days, I store everything in two places. I pay for upgraded storage on Google Drive and I have a backup of everything on two different external hard drives.

Now let’s discuss how I keep all of my materials organized. During my Clinical Fellowship, I quickly learned the importance of having organizational systems in place. This lesson came after I (a) tried to purchase something I already owned… and (b) purchased an identical product to something I already owned. I’d being lying if these things only happened one time. Anyone else experience this problem?

I currently have four integrated organizational systems that have been working for me!

1. All of my digital files are stored on Google Drive (and on a back-up hard drive) by skill and/or theme.

I like having the digital materials stored on Google Drive. First, I can easily search key words and find materials that meet my needs. Second, I can access all of my materials on any computer, which improves my work flow.

2. My prepped skill-based materials are displayed on the wall of my therapy room for easy access.

This display has expanded. When I am finally allowed back into my therapy room I will take an updated photo. I use command strips and hanging file folder displays to store my most-used, prepped skill-based materials. For example, all of the Grab n’ Go decks by Live. Love. Speech (pictured below), the WH-Curriculum by the Speech Bubble, Interactive Vocabulary Books by Speech Room News, and skill binders I have assembled from materials on the SLP Now membership.

Originally, I stored these items in a file cabinet and I quickly forgot about them or left them in an unorganized pile on my desk, because I used them too frequently to put away in a creaky file cabinet. Being able to quickly see all of my materials is very helpful!

3. Paper copies and prepped thematic materials are organized into seasonal file boxes.

This is by far my favorite organizational tool. Just look at those adorable labels, they make me want to be organized. The labels are by The Type B SLP, check them out here.

I store these bins away on a metal shelf situation in the back of my therapy room. When a new season comes, I place the appropriate box beside my therapy table for easy access. I store all of my seasonal prepped materials, plus extra copies of paper activities in the boxes. Yes, I do have two Fall boxes. I love Fall!

This system also helps me with purging materials regularly, because the boxes can only hold so much. Plus, it is easy to make copies in advance. A few weeks before the new season I carry the box into the copy room and replenish any activities that are looking low.

A peek inside the seasonal storage boxes. I stand a regular piece of paper upright to serve as dividers between themes.

4. Finally, I keep a written log of all materials by skill and/or theme in inventory binder.

I purchased the Ultimate Organization Labels & Planner by Texas Speech Mom and it makes my Type A, organization heart smile. I use the inventory pages to keep track of all of my materials both digital, hard copy, and prepped. I use this binder when I am planning sessions.

Below is a screenshot from my personal inventory binder. Template is from the Texas Speech Mom Ultimate Organization Kit. (Check it out here).

And that is how I organize my therapy materials. Do you have a similar system? Do you have a better system that you would like to share?

Thanks for reading!

Teaching Narrative to Young Learners

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My favorite goal to target in speech therapy is narrative expression. First of all, it is a powerful skill. The world is mediated through language…just try to go a day without telling someone a narrative. Narrative expression is required in both academic and social interactions! It is even included in common core standards. Second, it consistently shows up in research articles as an evidence-based practice for widespread gains in developing expressive and receptive language skills.
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I work on developing narrative expression with nearly all of my elementary-aged language students. One study I have been referencing a lot recently has been:

Adlof, S. M., McLeod, A., & Leftwich, B. (2014). Structured narrative retell instruction for young children from low socioeconomic backgrounds: A preliminary study of feasibility. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 391. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00391

There is tons of literature available that looks at the benefits of shared book reading in young children for vocabulary development and the benefits of narrative instruction in older students, but a big missing gap looking at the impact of narrative instruction in developmentally young children.

The authors of this study were specifically researching the impact of narrative instruction on young learners from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Their results indicated significant gains in the areas of vocabulary, narrative expression, and grammar.

The clinicians in the research study implemented a specific protocol for targeting narrative with the young learners. Here is a brief outline of the Structured Narrative Retell Instruction (SNRI) Protocol: ⁣
1. Read aloud a picture book with a true narrative structure. Meaning it has a character, setting, at least one problem, at least one attempt, and a resolution. ⁣
2. Guide the student(s) through think-alouds as you read the story (e.g., make predictions, draw attention to story grammar elements, define Tier 2 vocabulary), using visual supports to scaffold success during and after reading. ⁣
3. Review story grammar elements in the story through comprehension questions. Provide “modeling, prompting, recasts, and expansions to encourage more complex language use.” ⁣
4. Students retell the story using visual supports and verbal prompts from the clinician to scaffold success.⁣
5. Students further engage with the story through an art project.
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Using the information from this study and my clinical experience targeting narrative expression in early elementary-aged students, I created the Story Grammar Review Boom Card Deck Bundle to help me systematically target story grammar elements in a consistent, visual, and interactive way. ⁣
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The Bundle is available on both Boom Learning and Teachers Pay Teachers. It contains two products, which I will describe below:

Story Grammar Review Boom Card Deck

Introduces and reviews each of the story grammar elements (i.e., character, setting, blast off, emotional reaction, plan, actions, resolution, and wrap-up) through:

Image of Story Grammar Review Boom Card Deck hosted on Boom Learning
  • Say & check definitions
  • Fill-in definitions
  • Sorting tasks
  • Interactive instructional tasks (Examples, design a character, design a setting, create a blast off, match the emotion, match the plan, identify the actions, and match the resolution)

Two graphic organizers to use with any narrative, includes visual supports.

Five open-ended scenes with story grammar element checklists to support students in independently creating their own narratives.

Book Companion Story Grammar Review Boom Card Decks

Each of the book companion Story Grammar Review Boom Card decks were specifically designed to follow the format of the SNRI protocol outlined in the Adolf et al., 2014 article. ⁣

1. Picture books with true narrative structure were chosen for instruction
2. Story map to aid with think-alouds during reading ⁣
3. Story grammar comprehension questions
4. Story retell organizers with and without visual aids from the story
5. Open-ended scene, which can be used to support students in independently retelling the story, as well as help them further engage with the story through creative expression

Slide show of Book Companion Story Grammar Review Decks available in the Story Grammar Review Decks Bundle on Boom Learning Now

Thanks for reading!