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

Welcome Back!

Speech at the ECC is back in full swing.  It has been great seeing all of my friends come back to school as well as meeting new friends!  The first few weeks focused on different types of "getting to know you" activities that I think we all enjoyed.  We have moved on now and are working on our first theme: FOOTBALL!!!

We have been working on all kinds of fun activities related to football.  Here are some of the things we have been working on!

In preschool, we have been reading books about football, learning football vocabulary, and sorting by size (big, medium, small).

Coloring footballs by size: big, medium, and small

Our book of the week: Little Football

In Kindergarten and 1st Grade, we are also working on vocabulary.  We are solving riddles such as "It's full of air and mostly brown, but in this sport it isn't round."  The students love figuring out these riddles.  We are also working on not only learning the football vocabulary but also how to describe and expand our definitions of different football vocabulary.

Football is our "word of the week"

Working on our word of the week: describing where it is found, what category it belongs in, drawing a picture, and thinking of sentences that use our word

Learning new football vocabulary such as jersey, cleats, helmet, pads, goal post, and football

This week has been a fun start to our football theme!  More fun is to come as we continue learning about football next week.  Please check back often to see the great activities we are working to improve our speech and language skills!

Cassie

Spring is here!!

We are celebrating spring this month in therapy at the ECC.  The students are very excited to be outside and to be onto the spring season!

In preschool, we are working on spring vocabulary, following fun multi-step directions, sorting flowers by size, and going on a scavenger hunt.  

In kindergarten, we are having fun using our speech and language skills to describe, compare, contrast, and practice speech sounds.

Hope you are all having a great beginning to spring!!  

Cassie 

Taking the Plunge

This past weekend, 35 dedicated individuals from Coal City School District took a plunge in to icy water in order to support Special Olympics Illinois.  The Law Enforcement Torch Run sponsors the Polar Plunge throughout the state of Illinois in order to raise money and awareness for the athletes of Special Olympics.


Special Olympics is a global organization that "unleashes the human spirit through the transformative power and joy of sport, every day around the world.  Through programming in sports, health, education and community building, Special Olympics is changing the lives of people with disabilities solving the global injustice, isolation, intolerance and inactivity they face.  Special Olympics Illinois provides opportunities for more than 21,000 athletes, 40,000 volunteers and thousands more statewide through 18 area programs in all 102 counties of the state."




Who wouldn't want to support such an organization?!

The Polar Coalers once again raised funds over the course of 4 months in order to show support for the athletes of Special Olympics and in exchange took a plunge into some frigid water in order to honor their bravery and courage.  Due to the incredibly cold and icy weather, a modified plunge was set up off site from Loon Lake, where the plunge has traditionally been held.  With an air temperature of 8 degrees and a windchill around 10 below, it was still very "polar!"  Steam poured off of us and from the tanks of water because the air was so cold around us!!  You'll find video footage of the plunge below.



Despite the crazy weather and the modified conditions of the plunge, the Polar Coalers were proud to have raised over $21,900 for Special Olympics Illinois!!  We won the Golden Plunger for the third year in a row by raising the most money of any team that the Yorkville plunge site.  

The Yorkville plunge raised over $130,000 in total!!  I know I can speak for all of the Polar Coalers when I say that these totals warm our hearts.  

We wish the very best of luck to all Special Olympians as they continue to compete throughout the year and we echo the Special Olympics oath with you: 

"Let me win.  If I cannot win, let me be brave in the attempt."

Learning all about transportation at the ECC!

This has been a fun week in speech-language therapy at the ECC.  We have been learning about vehicles and modes of transportation.  The kids love anything that moves so this is right up their alley!   Here are some of the fun activities that we have been doing throughout the week.

We started the week making a book that introduced all different vehicles including car, boat, plane, dump truck, digger, train, van, fire truck, taxi, and hot air balloon.

We also played a train board game where the students answered different types of wh-questions including who, what, where, when, and why.

Towards the end of this week, we started making a train.  We used our describing skills and help from the EET (Expanding Expression Tool) to think of attributes to describe a train.  We will be finishing up our trains next week.  This activity was a big hit with the kindergarten train lovers.

Next week we will be continuing our fun transportation unit and I can't wait to see what the kids think of the activities I have planned for them!

Cassie

Oh The Weather Outside Is Frightful . . .

. . . but inside the speech room things are delightful!

We are taking cues from the weather and talking about all things winter since coming back from Christmas Break at the elementary and intermediate schools.  Last week we discussed favorite winter activities including building snowmen, drinking hot chocolate, sledding, and making snow angels; this week our theme is arctic animals.  The snow falling outside (AGAIN!) has served as the perfect backdrop for some great conversations about winter fun.

I have tried something new with the students the past two weeks where at the start of each session I ask them to take a one question survey.  Last week's question was, "What is your favorite winter activity?" Many of my students had a difficult time narrowing it down to just one favorite (with the exception of one third grader who very quickly announced his favorite winter activity is staying inside where it's warm), and in the end the results looked like this:

Looking at this graph gave students a great opportunity to talk about concepts like "more" and "least", and the survey taking also allowed for great persuasive conversation when students tried to convince each other why their choice was the best one.

This week we are talking about arctic animals including orca whales, seals, polar bears, penguins, narwhals, and snow owls.  Once again I'm asking students to take a survey:  which is their favorite polar animal?  Students are watching videos about different polar animals and we are targeting skills like answering questions following the videos, describing the animals by their critical attributes, and practicing articulation while reading stories about animal habitats.  What will the favorite arctic animal be?  Stay tuned for the final results!

Happy New Year!

Welcome to a brand new year!  We hope you all had a very relaxing holiday season and that 2014 is off to a great start.

After having an extra day added to their winter break, the students at the Early Childhood Center were ready to get back to work in both the classroom and therapy settings.  In speech therapy, our weekly theme included activities focusing on snow and winter.  With freezing cold temperates and snow piles all around, it was the perfect fit.

One activity I used with some of my kiddos was assembling an Olaf snowman, from the Disney movie Frozen.  Using the different snowman pieces which had already been cut out by an adult, students got to assemble their own snowman and then decorate their Olaf.  They were able to practice their speech and language goals, while still keeping busy.  This snowman, along with other great Frozen activities your whole family can enjoy, can be found here, courtesy of the Teachable Mommy blog.

Here is an example of one student's Olaf:

My kiddos with articulation goals also enjoyed a new snowball game from Jenna Rayburn of Speech Room News.  Each student was given a snowball pile, and the pictures on each of the snowballs contained words with their target sounds.  They went through the snowball pile, practicing their sounds while collecting snowballs.  There were also 'wild cards,' where students could either gain or lose a turn.  Whoever had the most snowballs at the end was the winner!

I am looking forward to the second semester of speech therapy and watching the students grow and learn everyday.   If you ever have any questions about your child's speech and language growth, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Margaret 

Toy Tips

Better last minute than never!  At holiday season parents are often overwhelmed by requests from their children for new toys they want and by family members asking what they can buy for the children.  I would like to share an information sheet that is provided by the American Occupational Therapy Association to help parents figure out what toys to buy their children.

In case you would like to read more about this, you can follow this link to the AOTA website.

Happy shopping and happy holidays!

Thankful :)

The focus this week in the therapy room at the ECC has been on Thanksgiving.  I think we sometimes forget how lucky we are and to take time to be thankful.  This past week has reminded all of us to take that time and be thankful for the people we love and the things that we have.  I'm so thankful for all of my friends at the ECC and that they are safe and healthy following the tornado last weekend.

Here are some of the fun activities we have been working on this week:

In kindergarten, we made a giant turkey and used the feathers as a way to describe the things that we know about turkeys.

In preschool, we added feathers to our turkeys based on categories such as food, animals, and people.

This activity was used to work on articulation skills.  We added our target sound feathers to the turkeys and then came up with our own words to add.

In the preschool language group, we learned all about the different kinds of food that we can eat at Thanksgiving and used the pictures to make our own Thanksgiving dinner.

With my older students we worked on some writing and describing.  I love hearing what the kids are all thankful for.  They put a smile on my face everyday!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday, we will see you in December!

Thankful

With Thanksgiving just around the corner, the therapy rooms at CCES and CCIS have been filled with all things Thanksgiving.  This week we have several Thanskgiving themed activities to play targeting skills such as answering questions, following directions, describing by attributes, and practicing our good speech sounds such as /r/ and /th/.   Last week most of my students took time to write down three things they are thankful for, and in light of the recent events within our school district recognizing all the things we have to be thankful for takes on a whole new meaning this year.

Here are a few of the things my students mentioned that they are thankful for this year:

"I am thankful for my XBox because I like to play video games."

"I am thankful for Mrs. Ludes because she helps us read."

"I am thankful for days off school because it gives us the freedom to do activities like riding bikes and playing outside."

"I am thankful for Mr. Spencer because he does cool things like Minute to Win It."

"I am thankful for my house because it keeps me warm and safe."

"I am thankful for my family because they protect me."

"I am thankful for food because it helps me be healthy."

"I am thankful for my dog and cat because they love me."


I know I am speaking for all of us at Tales from the Therapy Room when I say that I am thankful for my students, their families, the first responders, and the amazing support, love, and generosity shown by the members of this entire community in so many ways.

Happy Thanskgiving to all of you!

ASHA 2013

It has been a shortened week in the speech therapy rooms at the ECC due to the annual American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) Convention in Chicago.  The theme of this year's convention is "The Magic of Teamwork: Science and Service Delivery."

As Chicagoland therapists, this is a great opportunity for speech language pathologists, audiologists, and speech and hearing scientists to come together and learn about the latest technology and evidence-based practice in our field.  More than 12,000 attendees are expected to gather at McCormick Place for this annual event.  Multiple oral and poster presentations are offered by experts in the field, and an exhibit hall is set up for companies to showcase their products.  Not only do professionals who have been practicing for years get to participate, but many graduate students are also given the opportunity to display posters based upon their research.  I had the opportunity to present a poster at the 2012 ASHA Convention in Atlanta.  The topic of my research was the complexity of narrative stories in school-aged children.

To learn more about this event, click here.  We are excited to learn new information that can be used in therapy sessions and help advance our skills and knowledge as clinicians, and to share this information with colleagues and families. ASHA's website is a always a great resource for information about speech, language, and hearing disorders.

Fine Motor Friday

The preschool kids had a great time playing a new game in Occupational Therapy this week.  It's called The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game.

The game, for up to 4 players, includes acorns of different colors that are meant to be collected on a log.  Each player uses the spinner to determine if they are to pick up a specific color or number of acorns or if they steal an acorn from another player with the Sneaky Squirrel.  The first player to fill their log wins the game.  

The occupational therapist in me loves this game for so many reasons.  This is the first reason:

The adorable little squirrel is actually a pair of tweezers and the children have to pick up the acorns using his paws.  Taking the fine motor fun to an even greater level, I had the kids take the acorn out of the paws and insert it into the log with their fingers, which was a great opportunity to use the small muscles of their hands to manipulate and orient these little objects.  

My friend will demonstrate. (watch how nicely he turns the acorn around to put it in the log!)

I love coming up with fun activities to work on in-hand manipulation of objects.  It is so important for kids to be able to do this because the skill supports refined control over pencils and crayons.  The in-hand manipulation skills you see the kids do in this next video complete are called translation skills.  

These skills are usually present in children by about age 3 and continue to be refined up through about age 6.  This game is such a fun way to refine in-hand manipulation skills, which will support hand function and participation in school activities.

The Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game is made by Educational Insights and can be purchased through their website or through Amazon.

It's Called Respect!

A group of students at Coal City Middle School taped a video message in honor of Bully Awareness Month.  I think their performances were fantastic and sends a great message about being respectful.

 

Great job, Warriors!  I respect your talent and courage in spreading this very important message about standing up and doing what's right!

Monsters visit the Speech Room!

These last few weeks at the ECC have been fun in speech and language.  We have been going crazy with MONSTERS!  We have been using monsters to practices our size concepts (big/medium/small), follow multi-step directions, make descriptions, expand vocabulary, and answer a variety of question types.  The students seem to love the little monsters, it has made therapy very motivating.  Here are some pictures of our activities!

I look forward to seeing many of you at Parent-Teacher Conferences this week!  Please feel free to contact me at any time!  

Cassie

What's Been Happening in the CCES and CCIS Speech Rooms?

Since my last post, we have been very busy in the ES and IS speech rooms working on our speech and language goals and objectives.  Our themes over the last month have included pirates (students really enjoyed this unit so we stretched it out over two weeks!), football, and community helpers.

This week we are doing a Zoo Animals theme.  Students are working on identifying and labeling zoo animals based on descriptions of each animal as well as using EET to describe the animals by their attributes.  Some of my students are practicing answering and asking wh- questions about zoo animals while others are following multiple step directions with zoo themed worksheets.

So far the favorite activity of the week is a "Who Am I?" PowerPoint.  I have provided a link to the document HERE that you can download if you'd like.  In this activity, three clues or riddles are provided and students are then asked to name the correct animal.  After that, we click on the animal's picture and learn more about that animal on the San Diego Zoo's website.  Students are loving expanding their knowledge with interesting information, pictures, videos, and even live animal cams!  The website is loaded with great information - you should definitely check it out! Another great zoo website that's a little bit closer to home is the Brookfield Zoo.  Fourth graders at Coal City Intermediate were lucky enough to visit the zoo in person on Tuesday, but you can check out what this local attraction has to offer by checking out their website.

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Next week will be a short week due to parent/teacher conferences on Thursday and Friday.  Although I do not set up a formal conference schedule, if you would like to schedule a conference in advance or just stop in to chat while you are in the building I would love to discuss your student's progress with you.  You can reach me by phone at (815) 634-2334, ext. 1363 or via email at apatten@ccu.net.

Fall Fun in Speech/Language Therapy!

Happy Fall everyone!

To celebrate the start of a new season, the past 2 weeks in speech therapy focused on fall-themed activities.  One game I played with my kiddos was Scarecrow Memory.  This was a great activity to target both speech and language goals.  The game was played just like any other Memory game (where you start off with all the cards, or in this case scarecrows, flipped over so you can't see which scarecrow is which).  Scarecrows were matched by color.  The student with the most matches at the end was the winner!

Many of my speech only kiddos enjoyed getting to make "speech spiders" in therapy.  The body of the spider had the sound we have been working on in therapy (or in the case of some language kids, a vocabulary category), and students then got to draw the face. Each of the legs had a word that contained their target sound, that they had to practice before they could glue on the leg. Many of these speech spiders are now crawling around on the walls of my speech room!

Students also enjoyed getting to draw their own pumpkins!  Using a game called "Roll a Pumpkin," students would first practice their articulation and language skills, and then get a chance to roll a dice.  The order in which they drew in all the parts of their pumpkin depended on the number they rolled on the dice.  Each kiddo got to give their pumpkins a stem, nose, mouth, teeth, eyes, and even some silly accessories such as earrings and hats.  

The students have really seemed to enjoy getting into the fall spirit!  Click here for some more great activities to help build your child's language. Please continue to check back frequently with our therapy blog, especially with Halloween right around the corner!

Margaret 

Mat Man Comes to School

The preschoolers in Ms. Stout's early childhood classroom spent a week learning about body parts.  As an occupational therapist, I am very invested in children developing a good understanding of their bodies.  Without a good sense of what their bodies look like, how they move, and where their bodies are positioned in space, children may struggle with motor coordination.

During group this week, the children visited with Mat Man.

Mat Man is a character and learning activity that we use from the Get Set For School curriculum.  The purpose of Mat Man is to provide an engaging learning experience with music and hands on manipulatives to support body awareness, communication, motor planning, and pre-writing skills.

The students help sing a song about all of the different parts of Mat Man and build him with lines, curves, and a large rectangle.

   

The song that we sing not only names the part and how many of those parts Mat Man has (two ears, one body), but also tells us what that part is for: Mat Man has two hands so that he can clap.

After we completed Mat Man, the children each tried drawing him.  This was a great opportunity for them to project their perception of how the body is assembled in a 2-dimensional way.

We had discussions about how our arms are attached to our bodies (not our heads!) and our feet are at the end of our legs (not our bodies!).

Click here to meet Mat Man and explore how to use this activity at home with your preschooler!

Football Week in Speech/Language Therapy!

Hi everyone!

This past week was a fun week in speech and language.  We learned all about football!  We used a football and football helmet to follow directions and practice our location concepts such as under, behind, and on top.  We learned all about different football vocabulary words and played games to practice the new words that we had learned.

We also practiced our size concepts: big, medium, and small all while following silly directions.

The kindergarten friends had a great time learning to describe and expand their thoughts and ideas about the vocabulary that they had learned throughout the past two weeks using the EET (Expanding Expression Tool).

The next few weeks we will be focusing on Fall in therapy.  Don't forget to check back to see what we are up to!

Cassie