Educational Speech Language Pathologist
Hello! As you will notice from the dates on these posts, I am no longer maintaining this blog. I considered taking the whole website down, but there are quite a few posts that people still view, and links to other resources, so I’m going to leave it up for now.
If you need to contact me you can find me at my school district email, or on LinkedIn.
Last week I received a wonderful surprise at work. I had asked for our district CORE boards to be translated into additional languages, and they were finished! We now have the 1-page CORE board for home translated into Korean, Vietnamese, Amharic, Arabic, Spanish, and Russian!
An SLP friend shared this resource with me, and I thought it was so cool that I needed to share with you! It uses Thinglink to show ideas for AAC modeling at home: during morning routine, meals, bath time, bed time, and all over the house! To see the suggestions, you click on the area of the house you want to view. It is a really neat way to organize a lot of tips into a simple, easy to navigate graphic. Enjoy!
I have been meaning to make a parent handout about AAC modeling for a while. Now that I am participating in “social distancing“, I have the time! That’s a silver lining, I guess.
The handout is available to download for free on Teachers Pay Teachers. I hope it is useful to you!
This fall has flown by! I am in shock that November is here, and two months of school have already passed.
She hates wearing her cone. 😦
One thing that has been occupying my mind this fall is the health of my therapy dog, Ginger. She is almost ten years old, which for her breed is a senior dog. As you dog lovers know, we never expect our pets to get old, and are surprised when they do! In my mind, she is still the 7-week-old puppy I brought home from the shelter in 2007.
2007, a few days after I brought her home.
Since I brought her home, she has certified and recertified 5 times as a therapy dog with Pet Partners (the certification is renewed every 2 years). We have taken buses, trains, and even airplanes together, and she has interacted with hundreds of students and teachers along the way. Right now she is being treated for some autoimmune issues, and hasn’t been able to come to school since June.
This blog post is dedicated to her recovery, cataloging some of the things I miss about working with a therapy dog.
Having a therapy animal creates an “aura of safety” (my term) in the therapy room. Students who are shy or unsure are often much more outgoing and confident when Ginger is with me, and it becomes much easier to establish rapport and trust. I need students to trust me, in order for them to feel confident to try new, hard things and make progress on their goals. I need their parents to trust me, so they will tell me important info about how things are going at home, and also be willing to put in the work to support their students.
I also need teachers to trust me with their students, who they care about and want the best for. Teachers have a wealth of knowledge about their students, and it is so valuable to me when we are able to establish enough of a connection so they can share it. When Ginger is in my office, teachers, students, and their parents are much more likely to come by and chat. It is during those informal chats that I gain the most insight into student needs, parent priorities, and teacher observations. Having a therapy dog facilitates these interactions in a natural way, with so much ease and grace. It is wonderful to experience.
I have been amazed over the past 10 years how quickly rapport can be established when I have Ginger with me. People trust her, so they trust me. (And I am a trustworthy person, I promise!). Working in a new school this year, I very much miss her ability to connect. I can do it without her, but it takes much longer, and is much more work.
School photo from 2012. How could you not trust this face?
Students LOVE THIS DOG. They want to come to therapy to see the dog. Their friends want to come to therapy to meet the dog. They work hard in therapy sessions to earn a treat to give to Ginger at the end of the session. Students bring their friends to my office after school, introducing Ginger to their friends, and their friends to Ginger. Older students, who are much too cool for candy, stickers, or high-5s, will still come to get pets and licks from a furry friend.
We’ve all had students who were difficult to motivate. Stickers, candy, and prize boxes have all failed me at one time or another, but a fuzzy puppy has never failed to engage and motivate my hard-to-reach students.
2015, when we visited a medically fragile classroom every week. This student LOVED petting Ginger, and would use her switch to ask for Ginger.
This is a big one. Therapy animals have been shown to provide positive social benefits to children with Autism. I have had minimally verbal students say multiple words together as they were petting Ginger, talking to Ginger, or talking about Ginger. Even some of my unpredictable students, who I would worry about using gentle hands when petting, seemed to intuitively understand how to be gentle with Ginger. They would get quiet, kneel/sit down, and sometimes just smoosh their faces into Ginger’s neck or chest. Her moments with students who have autism have been some of the sweetest I have ever seen.
Even for students (and teachers, and ME) who do not have autism, having a therapy animal can provide a topic for conversation, and a level of comfort which fosters more social interaction than would occur otherwise. During Ginger’s training I took her out into the community to socialize and desensitize her to novel experiences. I was always amazed by how many strangers would start conversations with us when we were out as a team. We had conversations with everyone! This happens in the community, and it happens in my school. I miss those opportunities for interaction that happened so naturally when Ginger was coming to school with me.
Ginger and me, at a university recruiting event in 2013. She was the star attraction at our booth, and facilitated many great connections.
I cannot count how many times Ginger has helped me get through a marathon testing session with a student who had difficulty focusing. Our routine was simple: 5-10 minutes testing, 2 minutes of “dog time.” I could get through the most grueling standardized tests, with students who had the most difficult time with testing, so long as I had a dog to play with during the breaks. It served as a “brain break” from concentrating, a sensory break for students who needed it, and a fun respite from the hard work of testing. Even the most wiggly preschooler has been able to sit for a few minutes, with the promise of doggie time after 5 more questions.
I have also used Ginger with students who were easily frustrated (mostly students who had autism), to decrease melt-downs as we worked on difficult skills. One student in particular needed Ginger to be sitting on his feet, and he could handle anything. Without her he might be under the table refusing to work, but with HER under the table, we could work for an entire session without interruption. I would see him reaching down towards her as the tasks got harder, using a few pets to calm himself down so he wouldn’t lose it.
And for my own stress reduction, during hard days or when I was working under a deadline, I have used Ginger more times than I can count. I have crawled under my own desk to get a hug and a kiss when I needed it, to keep myself sane and stable.
My sister, snuggling with Ginger over winter break last year.
So here’s to a quick recovery, and thankfulness for wonderful veterinarians who provide the best care possible, and to every old dog who has spent their life giving love and snuggles.
Long-time readers of this blog may remember waaaaaaaay back in 2012 I started a pilot program in my district doing what we called FIT therapy. A group of SLPs in the district wanted to try to implement the new model of short, frequent, intense therapy sessions to see how it would work for our articulation students.
The pilot year went very well, and the following year we kept data on our rate of students graduating from speech therapy. The data was impressive, and I’ve been doing FIT therapy with my articulation students ever since. I have also expanded to use it with students working on vocabulary as well.
This past October I presented the method, along with our district’s pilot program and data, at the Washington Speech Language Hearing Association’s annual convention in Tacoma. My presentation was well-received, which was a relief to me because I was very nervous about it! Several other SLPs have since asked for my slides, in order to present the method to their colleagues and spread the information further.
Me, nervously waiting to present!
I am thrilled that others are interested in implementing FIT therapy (also known as QuickDrill, 5-minute therapy, or 5-minute kids) with their clients. I have put my presentation on Google Slides, which is available for viewing for anyone who is interested. The handout is also on Google Drive, free to download (see below).
I would love to know if anyone else uses this service delivery model, or if you are inspired to try it!
In October I presented at the Washington Speech Language Hearing Association’s annual conference. I spoke about QuickDrill Therapy, and had a great response to my session.
While I was at the convention I had the privilege of hearing Elyse Lambeth from Children’s Hospital in Seattle present about tools for stuttering therapy. One of the tools she shared was the concept of “fluency lanes.” I loved her graphic, and have adapted it into a handout that I use with my students.
The handout is a drawing of a freeway, with the goal of “say what you want to say” at the top. The goal for every student who stutters is that they are able to say what they want to say, when they want to say it. We work on speech strategies as a way to help students towards that goal, but they have other options also. The real goal is not that a student use X strategy. The goal is that each student will chose whatever option works best for them in each situation, even if that option is stuttering openly. Sometimes saying what you want is more important than using a strategy.
The graphic helps students to visualize their options. The box at the side of the road is a parking space. A student is “parked” if they decide not to talk at all. Will it get them to their goal? No. But it is an option they have the power to chose. In therapy we talk about this option, and the consequences of choosing it. Will people know what you think if you stop talking? How will you let your friends know what you like or what you want to do with them? I rarely have a student chose to park instead of drive, but it is still an important option to point out.
The bumpy shoulder on the side of the road is for when students avoide words to prevent stuttering (circumlocution). If a student continues talking, but is avoiding words to keep themselves from stuttering, it will take them more time to go around the tricky words. They might not say exactly what they want. They are still talking, but it is a slow and bumpy road.
The lanes on the road are for different ways to say what they want. One of the lanes is to continue talking and allow the stuttering to happen. Easy stuttering is always an option for communication, and sometimes it is the fastest option! A student can always feel okay choosing to stutter if that will get them to their goal. Working on stuttering acceptance, easy stuttering, and voluntary stuttering are good ways to practice communication in this lane.
The other two lanes are for changing the way you talk (fluency shaping) or using a strategy to alter a stutter (stuttering modification). I don’t differentiate between these two approaches much with elementary-age students, but the difference may be significant in some situations. A student can chose to use their tools to speak more fluently, which will get them to their goal of saying what they want. A student may chose to travel in these lanes if it is important to them that they not stutter while they talk, such as during a class presentation, or talking with a particular person or in a particular situation.
The freedom to chose how to communicate is a fundamental human right. I love this handout because it helps children who stutter to express themselves however they want!
I am thrilled to announce that I have received a fellowship to attend the Stuttering Foundation Western Workshop this year! The workshop is 5 days of professional development around stuttering therapy – this year focusing on adolescent children who stutter. I got my acceptance letter in the mail on Friday, and have not stopped grinning since! I’m sure this will mean more posts about stuttering in the future, as I learn more and more about my favorite topic. Now you know what I will be doing in June!
Previous Stuttering Foundation workshop attendees.
I know, I know. It’s been ages since I’ve posted. I can only say, that’s because I’ve been very busy doing therapy! Also, I’ve been busy updating the Fluency Homework for the Whole Year packet, which is up on TPT. I added 10 new stuttering missions, so there are now 4 per month (3 in December and June).
I have a lovely graduate student intern coming on board this month, so hopefully that will give me some breathing room to post more frequently.
Happy February!
This made me cry, sitting in my office this morning. I hope each of my students who stutter find their way to this place.
“My voice is the only one like it. My stutter is not a speech impediment… My speech, composed by God.”
Credit to http://stutterrockstar.com/ for posting it.
Ms. Petersen, SLP 