BUILDING effective communicators: The one who gives a monologue

The one who gives a monologue:  

This client has the opposite problem of the one who needs to be interrogated.  If I ask anything about their weekend they start at 4 pm on Friday and give me a blow by blow account of every single thing they did.  "I got on the bus and I sat with Tommy and we talked about how I didn't think we should have homework over the weekend and he agreed and we both said homework is stupid and then I got home and I was hungry so I had a snack so I walked up 10 steps to the kitchen and I saw that my sister was there and I told her that she needed to get out so I could have my snack and play mine craft with my online friends because we all love mine craft and......"  If I let them, they would probably keep talking until the end of the session.  These are usually my clients who tend to have very specialized interests (Minecraft, Lego's, Star Wars, Trains, the inside workings of air conditioners...)  They can usually speak at length on their preferred topics.

Here are some of the challenges these clients face and a few activities to address them.

Limited Perspective Taking Skills:  These clients also need to work on perspective taking.  They have a hard time choosing what information needs to be shared and what information can be inferred.  For them, we focus on shared knowledge.  We use visuals to talk about what shared interests or knowledge they have with their peers/teachers.  This can help them start to think about what and how much information they would need to share with different people.

Poor Turn Taking Skills:  We spend a lot of time talking about how we take turns within conversations.  We practice taking turns sharing 1-2 sentences worth of information.  Sometimes I use a balance scale and pom poms to help them visually see how many turns they are taking.  We may work on throwing a ball back and forth as we are talking.  This is another quick way to visually reinforce the idea that conversations are a series of turns.

Poor comprehension of main ideas vs. details: I find that a lot of these clients tend to focus more on the details vs. understanding the main idea of what they are trying to say.  Some of these clients seem to focus on the "irrelevant" details-for instance the client who perseverates on the FBI warning before a movie.  We work on identifying main ideas vs. details and discuss the importance of sharing our "main idea" with our listeners.

Summarizing deficits:  Once we are able to identify main ideas vs. details, we start working on summarizing.  We might have conversational rules that we can share a story or information but we want to start with the main idea and then we can share (only) 2-3 fun facts about our topic/interest area.  It's fun to use movie trailers to address summarizing.  Watch the trailer and have them restate it in 1-2 sentences.  (I think this is an action movie that is about fighting in outer space.)

Do you have great strategies or activities to use with students who share TOO much information? Share your stories and successes below.  Check back next Monday to read about the one who you need to a flow chart to understand.

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BUILDING effective Communicators: Personal Narratives and the one who needs to be interrogated

One of the things that many of my clients struggle with is being able to share a simple story or information about what they have done during their day.   If I ask them what they did or what they ate for lunch, they simply shrug and say, "I don't know."  These same clients struggle when I ask them to tell their caregivers what we JUST did in therapy.  "Um, I don't know" they say as they look down at their feet.  My response to this is always, "Oh no-nothing stuck!  Sorry mom/dad-we are going to have to go back and redo this session."  Usually this gets a giggle out of the child and they are able to  at least come up with a single word answer or something that they did.  

I'm a story teller by nature.  I know that I tell more stories than my friends-and I'm sure sometimes it gets a little annoying.  I fill my blog with silly little stories.  Story telling is how we connect with other people.  It is the basis of communication and conversation.  Take time and think about the conversations you are having with people at your school or clinic.  Are you sharing stories about your weekend, something your pet did or a cute thing your toddler did?  It's how we strengthen our relationships with our friends and acquaintances.  Remember that time when I went out to throw out the trash and got trapped inside the dumpster?  

I find my clients tend to fall into four categories:

• The child who responds with "I don't know" or give single word answers.  
• The child who shares too much information.  Usually I have to cut them off.  
• The child who give me information but it starts in the middle and jumps all over the place.  
• The child who uses non specific vocabulary.  

Today I'm talking about the first type of client: the one who needs to be interrogated.   

This is the client who only gives me little bits and or pieces of information.  If I ask them what they did over the weekend, they probably say, "I don't know."  Or they will tell me one little piece of information.  "Zoo."  or "Played a game."  I am forced to ask a variety of questions to try to figure out what they did.

I know there are many more reasons why these clients are just giving me a little bit of information.  Here are a few things that I look at and some treatment activities that I use:

• Limited Perspective Taking Skills:  Do they understand that I have different thoughts than they do?  Or do they think that I just know what's in their brain?  I want them to understand that I only really know what they tell me.  Barrier games are a great way to help them understand that you only know what they tell you.  When we are looking at our pictures to see if they are the same, I make comments like "Oh I remember you said to put it on the page-I didn't know you wanted me to put at the TOP of the page.  
• Syntax disorders:  Some children struggle to formulate sentences for their thoughts.  Instead they speak primarily in 1-2 word utterances.  I usually start working on noun-verb-object sentences and continue to expand their sentences.  Modeling longer utterances can be helpful.  For readers, I might write out their responses and then see what information we can add to expand the sentence.  
• Poor time conceptualization or memory issues:  Some children have a really hard time remembering what happened yesterday or relating it to a certain time.  They might tell me a story but when I ask the parents about it, it turns out to be an event that happened 4 years ago.  Some kids may not remember what they had for breakfast.  I can't remember what I worked on with my first hour group if I don't write it down right away!  Calendars can be an effective tool for helping the child improve their understanding of time as well as being able to relay information about specific events.  
• Organizational challenges:  What information is important to include?  What do people want to know? Visuals and graphic organizers can be really helpful to provide a structure for what they should include.  I think organizers focusing on the 5 W's (who, what, where, when and why) can be a great start for what information to share.  

What strategies or activities do you use with students who need to be prodded for information?  Share your stories and successes below.  If you liked this post, please consider sharing it with others by pinning or sharing this post on Pinterest or Facebook.  Check back here on Thursday to read about the one who gives a monologue.  

Soapbox Saturday: Collaboration-is it an Urban Legend or Real Threat

Did you know that my friend's friend's cousin's brother went to a local fast food chicken restaurant and when he went to bite into his chicken leg there was a tail sticking out of it?

That is one of my favorite urban legends.  It's so gross to think that you would accidentally eat a cooked rat.  I'm fascinated by these.  One of the spookiest that I remember was the one about the college roommate who was heading out to the library.  She forgot her book so she ran back in the room but didn't turn on the light.  After she finished studying, she came back to find that the police were at her dorm.  Her roommate had been murdered.  Written on the wall in her blood were the words: "Aren't you glad that you didn't turn on the light?"

That will probably win the award for the most gruesome Speech therapy blog intro.  I find Urban legends fascinating.  Another favorite story of mine is the one about a woman who always cuts off both ends of a roast when she is cooking it.  Someone asks her  why she does that and she responds that her mother always did that.  She asks her mother and she responds that that's how her grandmother fixed it.  They ask the grandmother and she tells them that she had to cut off both ends of the roast because her pan was too small.

Did you hear the one about the friend of a cousin of an aunt of a family who worked for a principal's nephew?  His speech pathologist told them that they might need more speech therapy.  The parents went to court and sued the school district and now they have to pay for private speech therapy and to do that they had to lay off 15 speech teachers.

I'm not really saying that this is an urban myth-but I'm also wondering how many lawsuits were filed where the district had to pay for private speech therapy because of a recommendation for more services.  It's probably not a good idea to recommend additional services in the school.  Instead, you could ask if they receive outpatient services.  If the parents ask what that is, you could say that some parents are able to receive additional services through their medical insurance.  When parents are requesting things that aren't possible in the schools, you could also mention that some parents choose to receive additional services which are billed to their medical insurance.  

I work at a clinic as well as within the schools.  Most of my clients or students do better when they are able to access both therapies.  We learn about the importance of collaboration in graduate school.  But when we get out into the "real world," we sometimes find that collaboration (or at least referrals) is discouraged.

I think students do better when they have access to both services for several reasons.  They are able to practice (typically in a group setting) at their school with their peers.  The school speech language pathologist has access to the teachers and can help to incorporate generalization of these skills with indirect services over an entire school day.  Private therapy is typically conducted in one on one settings.  The student receives intensive services and can achieve multiple repetitions of a target.  One on one can be especially effective for middle to high school students who tend to have "attitude" within a group setting.  The private therapist is generally able to coordinate on a weekly basis with the child's family working on carryover to the home environment.  The student benefits by practicing his or her skills in more than one setting with more than one professional which helps to increase the likelihood of carryover of skills to all environments.

Awhile ago I put on my school speech language pathologist hat to talk about how unhelpful it is when private therapists try to make a million recommendations for how you should do your job.  Today, I'm going to put on my clinic hat.

Here is what is most frustrating.  People don't know that there is an option to access speech therapy through their medical insurance.  It saddens me when I have a client come in at 16 whose parents didn't realize that they could access additional services.  Coming in at a close second is insurance plans who deny coverage for speech therapy or articulation therapy.  Or the plans who only cover services until age 5.

Students who no longer meet educational criteria for speech and language services may still benefit from one on one private speech therapy.  Students who haven't yet qualified for articulation services may be able to access habilative therapy sooner.

Doctors are thought to be the main referral sources for outpatient services but they often hesitate to recommend additional services.  In general, they do not understand how school coverage works.  I've had doctors who've refused to sign orders because they wanted the parents to access school services for a patient who wouldn't qualify for school services for two more years.

Schools sometimes seem to be the missing link in getting children access to all of their community resources.  The school speech and language pathologist is probably going to have some type of contact with most children who need or would benefit from speech and language services.  One of the bigger challenges for private clinics is how to get the information to families that there are additional community resources for speech and language intervention.  Many families will choose not to access these services for a variety of reasons-including insurance coverage, financial cost or an inability to devote the extra time to outpatient therapy.  I don't think I expect that every student should get private therapy nor do I think that every student needs private therapy.  But I just wish that each family knew that private therapy exists.  That's where I could really use the help of my School Speech Language Pathologist friends.

Next week I'm going to talk a little bit more about how collaboration benefits both school and outpatient therapy clinics and also how we can make that collaboration successful.

I'd love to hear your thoughts (good or bad) on this topic!  You can comment below.  If you thought this was particularly interesting or relevant, please think about sharing this post with others by using the social media buttons below.

What's New at Speech2u: April/May edition

Once a month, I take some time to share what I've been working on.  I completely forgot to post last month, so I'm catching you up on the last two months of products. 

Nothing Minimal about these Pairs: Fronting/Backing:
This is the third product my minimal pairs products. This one focuses on fronting/backing.  It includes 55 different minimal pair sets, sentences containing minimal pair sets, rebus stories and memory homework sheets. 

I Want My Hat Back: 
This was my first book companion.  I wrote about this book last month HERE.

Intelligibility Checklist: 
I love to use checklists during assessments.  This is a checklist I made up years ago to describe what is impacting my student's intelligibility.

Silly Name Quizzes:
I love those silly quizzes you find on Facebook (ex. What's your pirate name?)  I figured my clients would like them too.  Here is the vocalic and prevocalic /r/ version.  I'm hoping to have additional versions posted by the end of next month.

Easter Conversational Starters & WH questions:
I really like these products to check generalization for WH questions as well as a fun way to address articulation carryover during sessions.

Next month I'm thinking a lot of narratives and sequencing.  Check in often for activities, products and posts about sequencing!

Enter to win your choice of one of my new products below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Mama-on-Days: My Summer Bucket List and a FREEBIE

This is it.  It's our last summer before the big K-KINDERGARTEN.  I'll probably blink and he will be graduating from high school.  I'm alternating between being excited AND trying to figure out how old I would be, if I tried for just one more, when that child graduated.

The Biscuit is at the age where he is just starting to get a little self conscious about things he says.  But he still has some hilarious ideas.  Yesterday I asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.  He says, "Oh.  I'm going to be a spy.  Or an artist.  Maybe I could be a spy who draws people."  I asked him what he had to do to become a spy.  He told me he thinks he needs to practice being a spy. It seems that if he can hide for 10 minutes without anyone finding him-then he's an automatically in the spy agency.

I know this summer is going to go fast-so I thought I'd write out are summer "bucket" list.  I know my analogy is a little off-but I think I can make it work by thinking of all the fun things I want to do before "summer" kicks the bucket.  

Here's a few things that I have so far:

1. Run through the sprinkler.
2. Start keeping cash on hand so that I can buy ice cream bars from the ice cream truck I hear roaming our neighborhood.
3. Go on a nature scavenger hunt.  Try to catch a frog.  I'm still cool if I wear gloves when we do this, right?  
4. Pick fresh berries, come home and make a pie.  
5. Sit on the burlap sacks and ride the big yellow slide at the State Fair-twice.  Intellectually, I understand that the laws of physics will not allow me to fly out into space when going down slides but my brain is still pretty worried that it's a possibility.  
6. Make a fire in our fire bowl that has been sitting in our back yard unused for years.  Make S'mores.  Sing campfire songs.  We are surrounded by neighbors-so maybe we should reconsider the campfire songs.  
7. Go to the beach for the whole day.  Try to build the world's biggest sand castle.  Let the biscuit try to bury me.  
8. Go to our local amusement park.  Ride the rides.  Try to win a giant stuffed animal. 

As I was writing this, I thought it might be fun to use this activity with my clients.  What do they want or wish to do in the summer.  So I made this (very literal) summer bucket list.  

You can grab it for FREE by clicking on the image or clicking HERE.

I hope you enjoyed this post.  If you did, I'd love for you to share it with your friends by clicking on the Pinterest or Facebook pages listed below!

Speachy Feedback

Nicole over at her awesome new website, Speechpeeps.com is hosting the last Speachy feedback party for this school year.

I love getting feedback on my products.  It really helps me to figure out things that are working and not working and guides my decisions regarding new products.

This month we are picking feedback from a freebie as well as feedback from a paid product.  One of the many reasons why TPT creators make freebies is to get feedback.  (There are lots of other reasons including feeling grateful to followers, wanting to share your knowledge and expertise, giving back to your profession and wanting to acquire new followers.)  I love freebie feedback because I know it takes the extra effort to either review the product once you've downloaded it or to REMEMBER to go back and leave feedback.

The Speech Space took time to leave feedback on my newest flip-flap freebie for Better Hearing and Speech month.  I love that she gave me some specific feedback.  Plus I love finding new blogs so was excited to check out the site.  There are some fun therapy ideas on there.

Shannon S. is the winner for my paid product.  This came at a really great time for me as I'd just gotten some intense criticism related to my choice of themes.  I was so thankful to receive such specific feedback related to my product.  Zombies aren't for everyone.  But a lot of my clients really related to them.

Shannon S and Speech Place please email me your choice of any product (excluding bundles).  Thank you again to everyone who takes the time to leave feedback!  You are amazing!

Head on over to Speechpeeps.com to see all of the other great feedback-or to link up!

The Eye contact debate

Should you encourage eye contact for children on the autism spectrum?

 When I first started working as a speech language pathologist, it was common to see goals such as "Johnny will sustain eye contact for 5 minutes" or "Johnny will maintain eye contact for 90% of a conversation."  This is a great goal if your annual IEP is written to encourage Johnny to be a creepy stalker. Try this, go to the grocery store and initiate a conversation with sustained eye contact. How long did you last? I'd be surprised if you made it longer than 30 seconds.

Individuals with Autism have reported that eye contact is painful. Others have said that if they are looking at you they can't listen. I've thought about some of my kids on the autism spectrum as one channel processors. For instance, if they are looking at the something very visually appealing, they may not respond to our verbal overtures. They may attend to smaller details but have difficulty synthesizing everything they see and hear to come up with the whole picture.

Last year I wrote a similar post about eye contact.  Since then, I've started to prompt my clients in a new way when they are speaking. I cue them to use a START/STOP approach with their eyes on the listener or speaker.

We try to START our verbal communication by using visually checking in with the speaker.  If they need to look away while they are speaking, they are able to do that in order to compose their thoughts.  When they are done with their thought-they need to visually check in again. We talk about how we need to make sure that the person understood us so we look at their face and decide if we need to reword what we said.  In general this has worked pretty well.  My clients are able to check in to make sure the listener is ready to receive their message and then again at the end to see if the listener has understood the message.  We talk about making judgments or inferences to decide how the other person feels about what we said.  Sometimes, we need to work on how long they should talk-conversations are not monologues.

We use the same START/STOP approach when we are listening.  We try to check in visually when we first hear someone talking to us to let the speaker now we are listening.  We use "whole body listening" strategies for them to know we are still paying attention.  We check in again when they are done speaking to let them know that we understood them.  You can download your copy of GO/STOP rules by clicking the above picture.

Do you work with eye contact with children on the Autism Spectrum?  What are your favorite tricks?  I hope you enjoyed this post.  If you did, please consider sharing it with others on Pinterest or Twitter by clicking the links below.