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All long time ago and very, very far away from my current location, I got my first job as an SLP. In addition to many students in the general education setting, I served two severely impaired classrooms. In one class, the students spent much of the day on side liers being tube fed and given…
Circle time! Last month, I went through how I do circle time in my Kindergarten self-contained classroom. The students there are minimally or non-verbal. You can read the post here. Today, I am explaining how I do circle in my 1-3rd grade self-contained classroom. Most of these students have verbal skills and are speaking in…
Circle time is my baby. When I started my current job in 2002 and had one class of highly-impacted and self-contained students, I knew I wanted to lead the class in some way. Circle became my “thing”. I now serve three self-contained classes and do circle in each of them. Each classroom’s circle looks somewhat…
Although I’ve only seen this sold in special education catalogs, this timer is awesome for all students. Set the timer by spinning the red inner circle to the desired number of minutes. It will then count backwards visually; the red inner circle slowly starts to disappear. Time is up with the red has disappeared. Super…
When many people refer to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), they have something in particular in mind. They might be thinking of picture exchange. They might be thinking of an iPad app with a voice. They might be thinking of something else altogether. What many people do not realize, however, is that there are multiple…
Speech pathologists have an important role to play in literacy instruciton. Unfortunately, my graduate program never taught me what that role was or what to do about it. So…I have spent at least a decade scoffing at presenters who tell me that I need to take on yet ANOTHER responsibility. Isn’t the SLP’s scope of…
Please note before I begin this post that I am aware that PECS is a specific and trademarked system. I have been through the formal training, however, like most, I have adapted it and can no longer officially call it PECS. Over the years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with picture exchange. I have gone…
Although picture exchange can be an effective communication system for some individuals (Tien, 2008), there are limitations to its use (Flippin et al, 2010). This includes the fact that comments are not introduced until phase IV of training, and protests and refusals are not directly taught. Core vocabulary, on the other hand, is…
I’m about to admit something that I never thought I would say again… I love teaching. I don’t just mean teaching students in a small group about irregular past tense verbs. I mean whole group instruction in a class of 30. The reason that this is such a revelation for me is that many, many…
She was agitated and upset. This was not a good day. Her routine had gotten out of whack when her aunt dropped her off at school instead of taking the bus. She dropped her backpack on the way down to class. She hadn’t gotten enough sleep. As so, during our normal circle time activity, when…
Around this time of year, thoughts of “What am I going to do this year?” start popping in my head. I wonder if I’m going to run my speech room and therapy exactly the same as last year, or if I am going to change it up. Let me tell you a little secret. In my…
As far as speech pathology jobs go, I have a tough population. I wear Kevlar sleeves as part of my uniform. I have developed wicked fast reflexes. I get drool, spit, and occasionally blood on me regularly. However, there is nothing about my job that I love more than my self-contained classrooms. Yes, I adore…
My nephew is at the best age! He is just starting to develop formal language; he has about five verbal words and ten signs. He babbles, follows one step directions (when he feels like it), and imitates (again, when he feels like it). Today, I was able to accompany him at a baby swimming class….
If there is one thing I have learned, it is that my earliest language learners will NOT just sit nicely at a table or at circle time and say their words/sounds. They need to move and interact and somehow be involved. They like to see completion and know they are done. They need a lot…
