Putting Therapy Into Practice
Take a walk around your neighborhood. Comment on what changes outside you and your child hear and see. For example, do you see sprouting flowers? Do you hear the birds chirping? Discuss how your observations are different from what you saw during the winter months. Predict what you will observe in the summertime.
Monthly Activity
Rain Gauge
You will need:
- a clear and empty container
- a permanent marker
- a ruler
- a sheet of paper
Use a ruler to make markings on the gauge to represent quarter, half, three quarter and one inch marks. Then, have every family member guess the amount of rain that will fall on a weekly basis. Write down the guesses on a piece of a piece of paper. At the end of every week, compare the guesses to the amount of rain that fell.
Aileen’s Recommended Game
The Diggity Dog game is great way to incorporate both language concepts and speech-motor objectives in a fun turn-taking game. The game contains one large dog that barks and four small colored puppies. Bones are placed on each pile of dirt. Each player takes turns pushing the large dog to hear how many barks (it varies from 1-3 barks). The player then moves his/her colored puppy according to the number of barks. If the player lands on a bone, the puppy picks up the bone with his nose (it is magnetic) and checks to see if it is a color match to their puppy. If it is, bring the dog bone home. If it is not, either put it back on the board or share it with another player depending on language and speech motor concepts (i.e. “It isn’t it” and placing the bone down or “Do you need it?” and asking the other player). Once a dog finds all three of their bones, the game is finished.
Language Objectives:
- Turn Taking: This is a structured game that allows for children who struggle with labeling turns multiple opportunities to practice the skill of turn-taking. This is also a way to elicit different ways of labeling turns depending on the question asked. For example, the questions “Who goes now?” elicits the response: “I do” or “You do.” Or, you could ask “Whose turn is it?” and the child would say: “It’s my turn” or “It’s your turn.”
- Commenting: Children can comment as bones are being picked up (i.e. “Uh-oh”, “Wow, it’s a match”, “It’s the same”, “It’s not mine”). Be sure to vary your own comments as you are acting as a language model.
- Question Formation: There are many questions you can ask depending on each child’s question generation abilities. You could ask “Do you need it?”, “How many barks?” “Which way should I go?” As stated previously, be sure to take your turn and ask the child the same question.
- Answering: Children can answer many types of questions with this game. They can answer “How many?” with the number of barks heard or with the number of bones they have. They can also answer: “What color is it?” when they pick up a bone.
- Directing: For many children with language delays, they often do not initiate interactions. Using the wait method, hover your hand over the large dog until the child tells you to “push it down.” You can also wait for the child to direct you to pick up a bone by holding your dog near the bone. The child can say any variation of “pick it up” or “get it” depending on speech-motor targets.
- Auditory Processing: After the child pushes down on the large dog, he/she must listen to the number of barks and move the small colored dog accordingly. This is a great way to target sound processing skills.
- Speech-Motor Lexicon: This game can be used for a variety of speech motor goals and objectives. Lexicon for this game can include: you go now, my bone, push it down, pick it up, what is it?, not my bone, its his, its not his, its not his bone, Do you need it?, go home. Speak with your PROMPT© trained SLP to develop an appropriate vocabulary to use to match your child’s level of motor speech control.
*Please note that this game is not available at the moment but can be found on Ebay.com, pricefalls.com*
Upcoming Events
- March 4th 7:30 to 1:30: Autism Research Symposium at the Fairview Marriott
- March 5th at 10:00: Alexandria St. Patrick’s Day Parade
- March 12th thru April: Cherry Blossom Festival
- March 15th at 12:00: Nation’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade
Ongoing Events
- AMC Theatres offers sensory friendly films once a month on Saturday at 10:00 AM
- Meet a Farm Animal at the National Zoo every Saturday and Sunday at 11:00
- Special Needs Night at Flight Trampoline Park on the first and third Tuesday of every month from 5:00-7:00