Gratefulness & Gratitude

Happy Happy Thanksgiving to all of my amazing kiddos & their wonderful families!! :)  I am so grateful to have all of you in my daily life and to be able to serve and help your children!! I hope that your holiday is full of fun, love, language learning, and laughter. #littleturkies  #gobblegobble

Thanksgiving Buzz Words

Wednesday Word:

Hi friends!! I often give homework for families each week when working on building expressive vocabulary and overall language. One common task is suggesting the family choose at least three "buzz" words/signs/sounds that would be functional throughout the child's daily routine. The can be silly sounds that are familiar to the child and family and often uses, words to comment, label, and/or request, or words/sounds that are related to a particular activity or routine. In addition, for those kiddos who are working on expanding utterances from single words to multi-words, I suggest using and modeling "please", "more", and "want" in addition to the "buzz word". Be sure to model the sign, word, and/or sound no more than three times, and provide 5-10 seconds to allow your child to imitate you. As all of us celebrate Thanksgiving tomorrow, I generated a list of words/signs and sounds that can incorporated during tomorrow's festivities! Good luck, be consistent, & have fun :)

1. thank you
2. eat
3. drink
4. sit
5. up
6. down
7. hungry
8. yay
9. mmmm (yum)
10. all done

http://www.babysignlanguage.com/flash-cards/

Thanksgiving & Language Learning

Tips on Tuesdays:

I have been encouraging families to take advantage of the holiday and create as many opportunities for language learning during this fun holiday. One of my families took the opportunity to use Halloween to create a social story about the "Trick-or-Treating" experience due to this child's difficulty with change, transitions, and new experiences. I have listed a couple of ideas and focus points for social stories below, in addition to websites for templates and examples of social stories. #getcreative

Thanksgiving Social Story ideas:

1. Taking Turns: pictures of people passing food around the table, getting attention by tapping an adult or raising hands when you want to speak, using indoor voices, etc.
2. Fun Foods: discuss and show various foods that may be on the table, it's ok to try different foods or say "no thank you", discuss textures and colors, etc.
3. Thanksgiving visitors: take pictures and discuss who will arrive, who will sleep over, manners, etc.

https://support.office.com/en-ie/article/Autism-Speaks-Microsoft-Office-Templates-f8a90293-b8c6-4fd1-b7cf-616b67615bf6

http://www.pinterest.com/momtotwokiddos/social-stories/

Thanksgiving Favorites

Motivational Monday:

Happy Thanksgiving week!! Be sure to stop by the Spik My Language Pinterest board for some of my favorite Thanksgiving crafts and books :) #3days&counting