Welcome Back!

It's hard to believe that we are already in our fourth week of the 2014-2015 school year.  Summer went by in a flash, and it seems as though this school year is going to follow suit.  We are off and running!

I have so enjoyed visiting with my old speech friends and getting to know my new students the past couple of weeks.  We have been busy completing All About Me activities as well as collecting baseline data and creating charts so that we can use progress monitoring as a way to observe students moving closer to accomplishing their speech/language goals.

All of my speech groups have learned about Whole Body Listening as well during these first couple of weeks of therapy.  Whole Body Listening teaches students that listening requires more than just using your hears to hear.  Whole Body Listening requires you to listen with your eyes, ears, mouth, hands, feet, body, brain and heart in the following ways:

Listening with your eyes - eyes on the speaker
Listening with your ears - hear what the speaker is saying
Listening with your mouth - mouth is quiet (no talking or making sounds)
Listening with your hands - hands are quiet at your side or in your lap
Listening with your feet - feet are quiet on the floor
Listening with your body - body is part of the group facing the speaker
Listening with your brain - think about what is being said
Listening with your heart - care about the person is saying

In addition to learning about Whole Body Listening in the speech room, students at Coal City Elementary and Coal City Intermediate Schools are also getting lessons about this topic during their second step groups with school social workers Mr. Dzubian and Ms. Marketti.  Whole Body Listening isn't just something we do during speech, or during Second Step, or in our classroom.  Whole Body Listening is an important tool that we should be using EVERYWHERE!  Ask your child about Whole Body Listening - can they tell you what it means or show you what it looks like?  Can they point out times when YOU are using Whole Body Listening?  Encourage your child to use Whole Body Listening at home!

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This year I will be splitting my time between four buildings - Coal City Elementary, Coal City Intermediate, Coal City Middle, and Coal City High School.  If there is ever a need to contact me, you can check this blog for my contact information (located on the right hand side) or visit the Coal City Unit District 1 homepage and click on the Student Services link on any of the individual school's home pages.  You can also follow me on Twitter (@mrspatten_slp) or on Remind (send a text to 202-417-2676 with @443ef in the text box) for weekly updates on what is happening in the speech room.

Mrs. Patten