Using YouTube Videos in Treatment: A Toy Train in Space

I stumbled upon the most wonderful video yesterday on YouTube.  It's called A Toy Train in Space.

It's a wonderful little video made by a father about his son's favorite train, Stanley.  Together, father and son attach Stanley to a weather balloon and launch him into space.  A video camera captures Stanley's journey to the stratosphere and back to earth, while father and son track him on their computer.  There is very little dialog, if any, but the fabulous video footage and editing/animation tell a very engaging story that's sure to delight kids young and old.  I've used it several times already this week with great results.  After viewing the video, my kids have asked wonderful questions, such as "What is the stratosphere?" and "How did they make Stanley's face move?" which lead to rich discussion and research.  View this video for yourself here:

I can see using this video with my youngest to oldest kids on my caseload.  One way I used it this week  for my older kids working on the /r/ sound was to make a list of words that might be used to retell the story in the video that contain the /r/ sound.  Then, I made a template for them to use to generate the story sequence and to use the target words in sentences.  It looks like this:

You can download my worksheet here.

I've got some more ideas of ways to use this video, but I've got to create the materials before I share them with you.  Check back in a few days!

Nice chatting with you,

Pam

Ideas for Home Projects Using Tapikeo HD App

I'll admit it...I just can't get enough of my Tapikeo HD app!  I've been using it with my families for "homework" projects.  Let me tell you how.

The first activity is one that I've been doing with my itty-bitties.  It's called "Where's Mommy?" and I use it for working on family member names, vocabulary building, and early concepts.  I also use it for my CAS kids at the VC level in the Kaufman program.  I send them home with the instructions to take pictures of various family members demonstrating the concepts I want to teach, as well as close-up pictures of each family member.  After I receive the photos from the family, I import them into a Tapikeo grid.  I made a grid as a template, which you can download at the end of this post, to help me organize my story.  This is what the grid looks like:

The words and the background color in each cell of the template disappear when a new photograph is added, so you can put a picture of Daddy in a cell that has a different family member's name and no one will ever know!  As I said, the template is just to help me organize my story.  You can add your own words to each cell by typing in the "text" box.  My kids love this story, and it generates a TON of language.

If you would like to use this template, you can download it here:


The next idea I'd like to share is to make stories about individual concepts.  Here is one Charlie and I made together.  I made the orange slide using Microsoft Word and saved it as a PDF.  I imported it to my iPad, and then used it as the first cell of a new story.

Then Charlie and I used objects around my office to demonstrate the concept of "between".  I took photos of him directly from the app (as I've explained in earlier posts) and then recorded Charlie using the word "between" in a sentence.

Press "new" to take a picture, then record voice.

Charlie said, "The bear is between my arms."

We completed seven different examples of demonstrating "between" for this story, and then played it back.  Charlie was so proud and really learned the concept well.   I  exported this story to his iPad at home, and asked him and his mom add to it using items from around his house.  I can't wait to see what they add!

I made a generic "cover page" for this story that you can download here if you want to make one, too: My Story of "Between".


Another great idea:  Charlie's mom purchased this app and promptly put it to use to work on his articulation skills.  She knew we were working on the /l/ sound in the final position of words, so she and Charlie found objects around their house and made a story of Charlie saying words that end in /l/.

I hope you're using this app.  It has so many amazing possibilities!

Nice chatting with you,

Pam

Valentines and Vegetables? Why Not?

This year Valentine's Day happened to occur while our Grocery Store theme was in full swing. So how does one mix Valentines with vegetables?  By adding a Post Office, of course!  Let me explain.

I found these wonderful metal mailboxes in the Target dollar section and bought one for each child on my caseload.  We decorated them with foam hearts and Valentine stickers, which (of course) they earned for saying target words correctly or by completing whatever treatment task fit their needs.  I displayed them together in "The Post Office", which was a cardboard storage box with dividers (ex. a box to store bottles or glasses) laid on its side.

I used my Cricut cutter to make a pile of Valentine notes

for the kids to use to send messages to each other.  I've noticed that the kids in my practice really enjoy knowing that other kids come to "Speech Class", since I work with them one-on-one and they rarely see another child at my office.  I think they are relieved to know that other kids need a little extra help with their talking, too.  Since I started displaying "evidence" of other kids around the room, I have found that the kids will ask questions about the others and make comments about their artwork or props (ex. their mailbox).  Sometimes it gets a little tricky answering their questions due to confidentiality issues, but for the most part, I can usually provide something to satisfy their curiosity.  The bottom line is that they really enjoy interacting with the other kids, even if it is remotely.

The messages we wrote to each other for this activity were riddles.  I had each child choose a person he or she would like to send a message to, and then told them to find an object from the grocery store they would like to make a riddle about.  First we would describe the object by listing its attributes and talking about which category it might belong to.  Next we would talk about when we might eat that item.  Then, together we would compose the riddle.  For my preschool children, I would have the child dictate the riddle to me and I would write it on the note, letting them sign their own name at the bottom.  The older kids enjoyed writing the messages themselves and loved trying to stump the other older kids by creating more difficult riddles.  Here are some examples of the riddles they wrote:

In many cases, the riddles the kids wrote missed important identifying information, which I used for additional teaching moments.  If the receiver of the message needed more information, he or she would need to ask me questions such as "Is it a fruit or a vegetable?" or "What time of day would I eat it?"  After they made a guess to answer the riddle, they wrote their answer on the back side of the note and put it back in the sender's mailbox.  The kids loved receiving mail in their mailboxes and were excited about sending mail to others.  I loved the fact that I could work on a multitude of goals with one simple activity!  We worked on articulation by choosing objects for other kids based on the speech sounds they are working on.  We worked on carryover of speech sounds by including words that started or ended with a target sound in the riddles.  And we worked on describing objects, sentence formulation, processing auditory information, and answering questions.  I will definitely be repeating this activity next year!

Nice chatting with you!

Pam