Thanksgiving Crafts & Projects

Happy Monday & Thanksgiving week!! I wanted to share a couple of frugal, fun, and super creative crafts that I've seen around the community this month! It is my clinical opinion that functional communication is everywhere and the possibilities and opportunities for skills and development are endless with these and many other crafts. Some ideas for implementing and increasing communication skills and overall development include: narration of actions, labeling colors, exploring and discussing texture, turn taking, building on oral feeding skills, increasing imaginary play skills, collecting objects that are the same, practicing fine motor skills with cutting, discussing shapes, practicing "please/thank you" using signs and words, etc.

Materials Needed:

Paper plates
Construction paper of various colors
Paint/Paint brushes
Scissors
Smocks
Glue
Box/es
Tape

SLP….Born to Lead

Motivational Mondays:

Last week my ASHA Leader came and one article that caught my attention was the one regarding leadership about Tommie L. Robinson Jr. (division chief of hearing & speech, Children's National Health System, DC) and his significant influence and achievements in the speech-language and hearing field. My motivation and mantra for the remainder of 2015 will be this:

"There is something about our skill set that's inherently related to leadership positions. If we are, in fact, communication experts, then we're able to communicate with anybody and everybody in so many ways, and that becomes the door to leadership opportunities". "That's what leadership is about,  empowering & helping people to get to that next level".

Double the Fun!!!

Happy Tuesday & Happy November!! I just started visits with a new family who has a set of twins. I have previously worked with countless sets of multiples as they have a high rate of premature birth, therefore automatically qualifying them and their families for early intervention services (yay for EI!). I wanted to share some strategies and thoughts that I often share with parents with you all. Please enjoy and feel free to add your experiences and/or effective strategies used when working with multiples and their families as well J #thankGODformultiples #themorekiddosthemorefun #doublethespeech&language

1.     Scheduling: I like to try and schedule back to back sessions on the same day, however, ask the family which is best to do (same day or different days), as it may be too big of a time block and too much information and steps during coaching for the parent to remember for two or three separate kiddos.

2.     Individuality is Key: I always remind and strongly encourage parents to try not to compare language skills & development or development in general (I know this MUST be extremely difficult). Each child should have separate outcomes and strategies to reach those outcomes, as it had been my experience that one child always requires a bit more attention, time and prompting than the other. Also, encourage parents to not allow one kid to answer for the other; this is also difficult. EI providers & caregivers during sessions: consistently use individual names and “your turn/____________(name of kiddo's) turn”.

3.     Inclusion: As an early intervention provider, it is our job to promote language learning in the most natural form and environment, which means more than likely the other sibling/s will be present as well as the caregiver/s. This is the perfect opportunity to practice turn taking and help build on skills through models (using the stronger language model and encouraging caregivers to model). Encourage the family to imitate these activities and routines throughout the week, providing a protocol and specific examples of language learning opportunities. Be specific to activities routines of high interest and incorporate individual needs and interests.

4.     Behavior: It’s also been my experience that the more kiddos incorporated into the session the more behaviors (desired & undesired) are displayed as well. The strategy that has been most effect is encouraging the parent to parallel an activity of interest for the other kiddo, while practicing the outcome of whoever’s session it is within the routine or activity while in the same room. This way everyone is busy as well as getting individual attention, which seems to decrease the behaviors. Also, any activity involving movement (going to the park, jumping on the trampoline, dance parties, yoga, etc.) helps to expel energy, wiggles, and the burning desire for attention.