 Well, this month has been interesting, hasn't it? I'm sure you're reading this from home because, let's be honest, we're all stuck at home these days. It has definitely been interesting trying to keep my kids (aged 4 and 7) busy while also trying to get some work done. Fortunately, I was mostly scheduled to be off on Spring Break this week, so not too much has changed in our daily routine. Yet. :) I'm sure most of you are going through the same things! So, to help you guys out with the new challenges of entertaining kids without all of our usual activities, I decided to write a post that includes some of my favourite online resources. Stay tuned for another post all about my favourite stay-at-home (or otherwise social-distancing) fun activities.  If only working from home with kids were always so...color-coordinated! First off, I want to add a little caveat. As a parent, language development expert, lover of all things kids and play, I have to say: It is okay for your child to be bored. I'm going to say it again for the people in the back. It is okay for your kid to be bored! Bored is not a bad word. From boredom comes the fire of creativity. Okay, maybe that's a bit much, but certainly boredom helps our children develop certain important skills like problem solving, emotional regulation, executive functioning, play skills, social skills (especially if your bored kid has an equally bored sibling!), and - yes - creativity. So, if your child is whining about being bored, maybe wait a smidge longer than usual before handing them some entertainment or suggestions. More often than not, after about the 5th (or 500th? Eesh) time they ask you to entertain them, they will go off and find something to do themselves.  BUT, that's not always the case. Sometimes they don't. And sometimes, we as parents just don't have it in us to wait through all the whining. And that's why I'm here to help! Here are a couple online sites (mostly learning-related) that you can give your child when they really need some downtime or screen time.
I wish you all the best in these trying times! Stay tuned for an upcoming post about my favourite do-at-home activities for keeping kids busy and learning. Feel free to comment with other favourite online resources below. Thanks for reading! Amanda
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As I mentioned a few posts ago, Grow has grown! Our two new clinicians have been getting familiarized with the clinic and our clients and have been having a great time engaging in fun therapy sessions over the past month. Please meet our second new clinician, Catherine, who has come all the way from England! Due to the recertification process, she is currently only working as an SLP assistant, though she is certified as a Speech Therapist in the UK. We're hoping her Canadian recertification process should be finished in the summer. For more about Catherine, read on!  Where did you go to school and how long have you been practicing?
I studied at Leeds Beckett University in the UK and graduated in 2013. I worked as an SLP in the UK for 5 and a half years. Since moving to Canada in July 2019, I have been working as a remedial teacher for students with language-based learning disabilities and am thrilled to now also be working with Amanda. What made you decide to become an SLP? I have an older brother with Down Syndrome. My family used a form of sign language called Makaton to help him to communicate before he started speaking verbally when he was around 5 years old. He also has a severe stutter, but due to a shortage of SLPs, he was unable to receive ongoing support for his language skills and his stutter. This inspired me to become an SLP so that more people can be supported with their speech, language and communication skills. What is your favorite thing to work on in therapy? Social Skills! I love helping children to work on their social communication skills so that they find it easier to navigate the idiosyncrasies of the social world they are living in. It's lovely to watch the children I work with to feel more at ease with understanding both their own and other people's body language, thoughts and emotions. What is your favorite thing about being an SLP? I can't decide between 2 favourites! 1) The moments when the children I work with begin to notice their progress and surprise themselves with their newly developed skills. The pride they feel and their growth in confidence makes the job so rewarding. 2) The amount I learn from children whom I work with. They open my eyes to new ways of thinking, providing different perspectives and helping me to continue growing both as a person and as a professional. What is an area you'd like to learn more about? For a long time I have been interested to learn more about how and why certain difficulties with cognition, language and social-emotional skills sometimes tend to occur together. One day I would love to research learning disabilities in greater depth to understand the different areas of the brain that affect these areas of development. What do you like to do when you aren't helping kids improve their communication skills? Vancouver is a prime spot for exploring the great outdoors! It is also a prime spot for rain. On sunny days I love to spend time exploring this wonderful city and hiking through the beautiful nature that surrounds it. On rainy days I can be found with my head in a book, sipping herbal tea and eating chocolate. You may have guessed from the front page of my website that I like play doh a little bit! And you are right. I love incorporating play doh into my speech and language sessions. It keeps kids' focused and also allows them some tactile sensory input if they're into that. (NOTE: some kids really DON'T like touching play doh and I certainly don't use these activities with them! If you're even unsure if play doh is appropriate for your kids, you can consult an OT.) There is pretty much no end to what you can do with play doh. Okay, maybe there is, but I haven't found it yet. I've only got 2 play doh activities to show in this post, but at the bottom you'll find a short list of some of the other fun ways I use it!   Kids get extra into it if you write on the table! :) dry erase marker comes right off. Speech sound smash mats: This works for pretty much all speech goals, but I find it most useful for working on speech sounds in isolation or at the syllable level, when you can't really find the sounds in books or other fun games. In isolation, I'll have the child help me make a row of play doh balls in coolers of their choice and they go down the row saying the sound and smashing each ball as they go. For syllables, I most often write out a "wheel of sounds" and have them go "around the clock" saying each syllable. So if it's /s/ in the middle, they'll smash each play doh ball as they say "say, see, sigh, so, etc." If I'm really on top of my game, I sequence the syllables from what's easiest for that child to what's hardest as they go around.  Story Retell: The picture I snapped doesn't really capture all the ways I use play doh for this, but it's good enough! Because play doh is so versatile, you can use it to go with any book! Especially when I don't have the particular manipulatives I need for a certain story, I like to make some out of play doh! You can see play doh pictured above as the "Muck" in the sleepy slimy marsh where the duck is stuck. (One Duck Stuck by Phyllis Root) I have made all sorts of animals and objects to go along with the books we read or stories we create in our sessions. I have even gone so far as to plan and film a claymation movie with one of my clients, which was great fun! Other ways to use play doh:
Feel free to comment with all the ways you use play doh at home with your own kids or at your clinic! Thank you for reading and happy speaking! Amanda We have exciting news over at Grow! Two new clinicians have come on board this month and are ready to bring the fun in speech and language learning. Currently they're only on Fridays, but they'll be expanding in the future. So if you're looking for an SLP, now is the time! For the first time in awhile, Grow doesn't have a waitlist. So, without further ado, let's meet our first new SLP on the staff, Ashley Debrouwere!  Where did you go to school and how long have you been practicing?
I received my undergraduate degree from the University of Manitoba in linguistics and psychology. From there, I went on to complete my Master of Science Degree in Speech Language Pathology from Minnesota State University Moorhead. I have been practicing for about four years now, and have been enjoying every minute of it! After graduating, I worked for a private practice in North Dakota, and then moved back home to Winnipeg to work in the public sector at a hospital, serving mostly preschool aged clients. Now that I have moved to Vancouver, I am working both in a school, and part-time with Grow. What made you decide to become an SLP? I always knew I wanted a career where I would be able to help people, and also allow me to pursue my passion of language, and communication. I have always been fascinated with how language allows us to connect with each other in such a meaningful, and profound way. Both my parents worked in the medical field, and knowing me as well as they do, encouraged me to spend time shadowing some of the SLPs at the hospital where they worked. I quickly discovered speech-language pathology was the perfect fit for me. What is your favorite thing to work on in therapy? I really enjoy working with preschool aged children, targeting social emotional development, and early language skills. I love seeing how a child’s mind works, and exploring new skills with them as they learn, and we practice together. I find working with families very rewarding, so providing parent education and counseling is another part of working with this population I really enjoy. What is your fovorite thing about being an SLP? The best thing about my job is that I get to help children be their best selves! I find it extremely rewarding to be able to work with a child and his/her family, build strong relationships with them, and help them reach their goals. There is nothing better than watching a child make positive steps towards his/her goals, and feeling so proud of them for everything they have accomplished. What is an area you'd like to learn more about? I would love to learn more about literacy, and reading therapy for children. This is a skill that many children struggle with, and one that I am only just starting to gain experience in. What do you like to do when you aren't helping kids improve their communication skills? I just recently moved to Vancouver from the prairies, and I am having so much fun exploring all that the city has to offer. New hiking trails, restaurants, festivals - I even went downhill skiing for the first time recently, and had a blast! Other activities I enjoy include learning new languages, and exercising my “creativity muscles”. I have been studying both Spanish, and ASL for the last few years back home in Winnipeg, and would really like to get back into that here in Vancouver. I enjoy expressing myself through creative outlets, so I spend my free downtime journaling, knitting, or trying new recipes from cookbooks. (You might have noticed that the title of this post has changed from "Activity" of the week to "Book" of the week. This is because I noticed that I'm most often posting about one book and many accompanying activities. So, each week I'll post my literacy-based activities under "book" of the week.   This week is all about Valentines Day! I've been using this cute little book for lots of my younger kids this week. I like it because it has great pictures with a lot of action, but few words. That way I can get the kids to make more inferences and think a little bit more about what's happening in the story. This story is about a family of mice that make and deliver Valentines to all of their neighbours. Like all of the other books I do, this one lends itself to lots of different levelled activities. My kids who are just learning how to put words together can practice describing the pictures: "He is falling," for example. For kids using more complex language, I use this book for inferencing questions as I mentioned above. It also lends itself well to a few vocabulary words, such as "deliver," "anxious," and "relieved."  The mouse is UNDER the slide  There are so many great activities that can accompany this book. For one kiddo learning location prepositions, we played a hide and find game. I mentioned there were lots of good opportunities for inferencing and predicting in this book because of the limited words. Some questions I might ask are:
You can see, there are a lot of questions about feelings here! Valentines Day is also a time when I focus on feelings with my kids. The Story Grammar Marker from MindWing Concepts uses a heart shaped icon to indicate feelings in a story, so it gels in nicely with Valentines Day. We start in the context of the book, discussing how the family feels when they're delivering Valentines, when they realized one of the mice is lost, and when they find him again. Then we do an art project thinking about all of their own feelings. This is a great jumping off point for the Zones of Regulation as well. In the art project below, we just used pink hearts, but you could easily use hearts to correspond to the Zones.  This book can also be used for some articulation practice. There are quite a few consonant clusters to target, such as "sl," "gl," "fl," and more.
Stay tuned for next week (or the week after that, let's be honest!) where I share the next selection of book-related activities. Thank you for reading and happy speaking! Amanda Well, it turns out it did take me over a week to get out our next Activity of the Week. It has been a busy time at Grow, as we are GROWing! Two new clinicians have been hired this week, so stay tuned for some "Meet the SLP" entries to get to know the new team members better.  But, finally and without further delay, here is this week's Activity of the Week. To continue on our snow theme, even though all the snow has been long rained away here in Vancouver, we read Snowmen at Night last week. This is a great book for discussing perspective taking and expected/unexpected behaviour in a fun and silly way. With some of my preschool and early elementary kiddos this week, we did the following extension activities with it:
 I did read this with a few older kids as well and used it as a jumping off point to make a bio poem. After reading that bio poems ("bio" as in biography) can be a good way to increase perspective taking skills in middle schoolers, I've started to incorporate this into some of our narrative language sessions. We first make bio poems about ourselves and then we work through the template with characters in the books we read. Typically I do this with more serious characters, but this week, we made a bio poem about silly snowmen! :)
Stay tuned for the next Activity of the Week! Thanks for reading, Amanda  The Mitten by Jan Brett Welcome to our first Activity of the Week! This is where I’ll showcase something I’ve worked on this week. Most of my sessions center around a storybook, as storybooks are an effective way to teach vocabulary, grammar, narrative structure, inferencing, and more. It also keeps my kids engaged! AND, I just love books, so any excuse to read them works for me! For those kids that have a bit more trouble sitting through a book, sometimes I will make modifications, such as reading the book while sitting on a platform swing, reading the book one page at a time and acting out whatever action is happening while we read, or giving the kids manipulables or small figurines that go along with the book and letting them play with those while we read. A little disclaimer, obviously not ALL clients are right for this activity. Be sure to match your book and activity choice to your client’s interests and abilities. That said, I’ve been able to use kids picture books with a lot of my older clients as well and, to be honest, they have loved it! I think a lot of “big kids” actually miss having picture books read to them (that’s not research-based, just my own experience!). I often tell my older kids, “We’re going to learn older kid skills but with a younger kid book,” and they don’t mind at all. I’m just always sure to extend their learning with another “older kid” activity after. I may pair the picture book with a related article from ReadWorks or may tack on a writing activity on a topic from the book. For my book this week, The Mitten, I often use the Winter Is Coming article, which often segues into a nice discussion about why some of the animals would probably not be wandering around in mid-winter to find the mitten!   But now, without further ado, my activity this week! Last week we experienced a massive snow-dump here in Vancouver. (Well, massive for Vancouver!) So my book choices have been all snow themed. (Stay tuned in the future for a list of some of my favourite kids’ books organized by theme!) This week we did The Mitten by Jan Brett. This book has so many amazing teaching possibilities, I just love it. Here is a sample session with The Mitten: First we read the book. With any kid above Kindergarten level, I let them help with some of the reading. Depending on the child’s literacy skills, they may read the whole book, do one page here and there, or at least help with a word or two on each page. This book has some words that are repeated and fairly easy to sound out, like “Baba,” “snow,” “mitten,” and more. Most kids, even those with reading difficulties, can at least get those words and then feel some success in the book reading part. Then, I usually prime them with some questions about the narrative elements. I use the Story Grammar Marker format from MindWing for this. Studies have shown that asking children questions about narrative structure can increase their success in including the components in their retell. I also love to use manipulatives to go along with the story. I have a little snow-white mitten myself and I made a few paper animals to go in it. We use some dolls from the dollhouse for Nicki and Baba. After the retell, with the story fresh (and then re-freshed!) in our minds, I often jump into some inferencing questions. Depending on my client’s goals, this may be a larger part of our session. If the child is working on anything social-learning related, I will really increase the amount of time and discussion we spend on inferences and emotions in books. The Mitten, along with most of Jan Brett’s books, often include some excellent pictures for inferencing. It’s so nice how she includes a little clue about the following page on the current page, so the kids can guess what might happen next. Here are some questions I may ask about The Mitten:
I also love using books to teach vocabulary. I use a vocabulary chart that I found through a presentation by Jennifer Schultz, MA, CCC-SLP called “Building Vocabulary Through Children’s Picture Books” on Northern Speech Services. I will include my vocabulary chart for The Mitten in another post. [Also, if you are interested in using picture books to teach vocabulary, I found this presentation full of great ideas and information!] To teach the vocabulary in my session, I usually pick 2-4 words from my list that the child didn’t appear too familiar with. We write them on cards, along with a friendly definition. I often use ELL dictionaries to find the definitions as they’re written in plainer English. Then I have the child draw a representation of the word. We may act out the word then, or go through the book and find other places where that word applies. (for example, in The Mitten, if the word is “Burrow,” we might look through and see which other animals burrow.) I’ll often try to find some synonyms for the word. We use the words in sentences. I try to make a few funny and ridiculous sentences as I have found when I get the kids laughing, they remember things better! :) We keep these vocabulary cards in clear plastic pages (I use baseball card pages) in a vocabulary journal. As we amass more words, we sometimes take the cards out for a variety of activities, but that’s a post for another time. ;)   The final activity I may do after a book read is a related story. Together with the child, we tell the story, but change a few elements. I wish I had snapped a photo of the latest one I did for The Mitten with a little friend of mine! We created a comic-style story about a fisherman who lost his boot in the water. As the boot drifted down, all sorts of sea critters crammed their way in, until finally a great blue whale squashed in. Suddenly, he blew air out of his spout, sending all the animals in all directions, and the boot right back into the old fisherman’s boat.
It’s rare that I will do all of these activities with one child. When I do, it is obviously over the course of a few sessions. However, I often do cycle through different activities with different kids. For example, in one day this week, I used the book for vocabulary with one child, for a story retell and narrative practice with another, for attention and simple sentence structure with another, and inferencing with another. Lots of birds with one stone — err, I mean book. :) I hope you enjoyed this Activity of the Week! Stay tuned for more next week! Feel free to leave pictures and descriptions of what you have done with this book in the comments!! Thanks for reading, Amanda Welcome to the new blog! The delay in uploading a "first post" was primarily due to me trying to figure out who and what this blog was for. Is it for you, parents, deciding whether to see an SLP or looking for ideas of what to work on at home with your child? Is it for you, fellow SLPs looking for new therapy ideas and evidence-based practice? Is it for those interested in pursuing a future career as a speech pathologist? Or is it a mix of all three and maybe a few I haven't even considered? In the end, I decided it's most likely going to be the latter, because I think I can provide content for all 3 of those options. I'm going to try to make it easy to navigate by using the "categories" links located in the right-hand sidebar. There you'll be able to click on whichever category suits you best and find all the posts specifically tailored to you.  Me with my 2 daughters For this first post, I'm going to provide some more information about myself as a bit of an introduction. If you're a parent considering hiring a private speech-language pathologist, you definitely want to make sure you're hiring someone whose expertise and temperament is compatible with your child and their needs. To help in that process, I've answered a few interview questions below, so you can get a better idea of who I am and how I work.
Where did you go to school and how long have you been practicing? I graduated from the UBC School of Audiology and Speech Sciences in 2007. After that, I worked in the public sector for awhile at the Surrey Centre for Child Development. I also consulted to an amazing private SLP who used to work in the Vancouver area. I have been practicing privately on my own since 2009. What made you decide to become a speech pathologist? I studied psychology (with a minor in Spanish) in my undergrad at Boston University. At that time, my degree advisor was Jean Berko Gleason, a massive name in the field of Developmental Psychology and Language Development. When I realized that my favourite part of psychology was learning about how children developed language, Dr. Gleason advised me to look into becoming a speech pathologist. What is your favourite thing to work on in therapy? Though I do do speech sound therapy in my practice, my *favorite* things to work on are higher level language skills - anything from forming sentences all the way up to social skills and pragmatic language. I love working on narrative language, reading comprehension, and discourse. I often think this is because my undergraduate degree is in psychology instead of linguistics. What do you love most about being a speech pathologist? So many things!!! I love that I get to read books and play games as part of my job. I love that I get to find the fun in all of the goals I target. I love seeing the look on the kids' faces when they achieved a goal or gave the correct answer and they know it! I love working with families and supporting real, functional communication in the daily lives of the kids I work with. What is an area of the field that you would like to learn more about? I'm really interested in learning more about the building blocks of literacy and how it is so intertwined with oral language development. One of my professional development goals for 2020 is to learn more about literacy development. Another is to really continue to increase and hone my skills when targeting social competencies. What do you like to do when you aren't helping kids improve their communication skills? I have two daughters (pictured above), so I spend a lot of time with them. We love playing Uno and creating elaborate pretend games. I also am a writer so am always trying to carve out time to work on my manuscripts. When not writing, I love being outdoors, hiking, swimming, camping, all of the above! Stay tuned to see more posts! I'll be adding a "therapy activity of the week" documenting one activity I did each week. In addition, I'll post lots of info about books and activities I use frequently. I'll have some posts coming up about typical and atypical speech and language development, as well as some red flags for when you might want to seek an SLP. Stay tuned for all of that and more! One quick note, to anyone hoping to become a loyal follower of my blog, my posts might not be as frequent as on other blogs you may follow. My primary priority is to provide the best service I can to my clients, so therapy time, prep time, and professional development will always take precedence over blog-writing time! That said, I will update here at least weekly with my activity of the week. :) Thank you for reading and feel free to comment! |
AuthorCarla Monteleone & Deborah Carter own and operate Grow Speech and Language Therapy in Vancouver, BC Archives
May 2023
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