Teachers I need help!

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Posted by bettybcafe

I will be starting my job on monday as a speech teacher. I will be working mainly with 5yr olds..so I figured since it will be my first day working with them I would just get to know them and start off simple. So I figured I use some activites which target initital sounds and rhyming..each group gets therapy for 30mins...would you say thats enough for one session..if not, what else would you do? Please keep in mind I dont know what their impairments are, I woul dhave to take a look at their IEP's which I havent had the chance to do yet. TIA

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i don't know if that's going to be enough for one session... you should prepare a bunch of things to do as 5 year olds tend to have fairly short attention spans! also, expect that they will occasionally refuse to do certain activities!

definitely make sure your therapy goals are targeted through play-based activities... and just make sure it's fun!

is this just a basic session to establish rapport and determine what goals you'll need to be working on? if so, i think that you'll need something broader to just get a sense of where these children are communicatively.

Perhaps you could go through a list of sight words to assess their knowledge of the words and take note of their speech patterns.

You may also want to take another approach and bring a fun game just to break the ice and make the children feel comfortable.

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Posted by hayleyandsteve

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Posted by bettybcafe

I will be starting my job on monday as a speech teacher. I will be working mainly with 5yr olds..so I figured since it will be my first day working with them I would just get to know them and start off simple. So I figured I use some activites which target initital sounds and rhyming..each group gets therapy for 30mins...would you say thats enough for one session..if not, what else would you do? Please keep in mind I dont know what their impairments are, I woul dhave to take a look at their IEP's which I havent had the chance to do yet. TIA

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i don't know if that's going to be enough for one session... you should prepare a bunch of things to do as 5 year olds tend to have fairly short attention spans! also, expect that they will occasionally refuse to do certain activities!

definitely make sure your therapy goals are targeted through play-based activities... and just make sure it's fun!

is this just a basic session to establish rapport and determine what goals you'll need to be working on? if so, i think that you'll need something broader to just get a sense of where these children are communicatively.

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Thats what I was thinking. One activity that I will be using is targeting the K and M sound in initital position. So the activity consists of many different pictures scattered on a sheet of paper and then the letters Kk and Mm written in the middle, the child then has to color all the pictures that start with the K sound in yellow(for example) and all the pictures that start with the M sound in green then they would have to draw a line from the pictures to the letter that matches the sound. I plan on having about 3 sheets each targeting 2 sounds so in total would be 6 sounds for one session. Then I have flash cards which I would use for rhyming...so on one side of the card is the word 'cat' then on another would be 'mat' and then 'flat' and when the cards are flipped over it forms into a story.. 'The cat lays flat on the mat' something like that. My problem is I dont want to do too much for one activity session..but if you think that I should do more I would def. take ur advice being that you have had more experience in this then me Thanks Hayley!!!!

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Posted by jessamyn78

Perhaps you could go through a list of sight words to assess their knowledge of the words and take note of their speech patterns.

You may also want to take another approach and bring a fun game just to break the ice and make the children feel comfortable.

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i wouldn't incorporate any reading activities yet! their use of spontaneous language is probably a bit more important at this point in the game...

i think you'll be able to assess their overall language abilities through pretend play activities....

you definitely need to get a look at their IEPs!

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Posted by hayleyandsteve

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Posted by jessamyn78

Perhaps you could go through a list of sight words to assess their knowledge of the words and take note of their speech patterns.

You may also want to take another approach and bring a fun game just to break the ice and make the children feel comfortable.

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i wouldn't incorporate any reading activities yet! their use of spontaneous language is probably a bit more important at this point in the game...

i think you'll be able to assess their overall language abilities through pretend play activities....

you definitely need to get a look at their IEPs!

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Yep. I def. have to take a look at their IEP's..but do you think for the first day what I have planned is appropriate?

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Posted by hayleyandsteve

well what made you decide to target /k/ and /m/?

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Well, I have learned that by the age of 5 they should have the following consonants m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n.ng, and y. Since I dont really know what their defecit is I am just testing out ramdom consonants...just to see if they are at that level yet. Would you recommened other consonants?

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Posted by bettybcafe

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Posted by hayleyandsteve

well what made you decide to target /k/ and /m/?

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Well, I have learned that by the age of 5 they should have the following consonants m,p,b,h,w,k,g,t,d,n.ng, and y. Since I dont really know what their defecit is I am just testing out ramdom consonants...just to see if they are at that level yet. Would you recommened other consonants?

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okay....

do these children only have speech problems? or are there language deficits too?

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Posted by hayleyandsteve

i think you should go more general.... instead of targeting specific phonemes, i'd just look at their overall speech and take note of any misarticulations..... and also get a general assessment of their language skills through different activities....

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So what kind of activities would you suggest?

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Posted by bettybcafe

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Posted by hayleyandsteve

i think you should go more general.... instead of targeting specific phonemes, i'd just look at their overall speech and take note of any misarticulations..... and also get a general assessment of their language skills through different activities....

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So what kind of activities would you suggest?

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any kind of pretend play activities....

you could just use a simple tea set (for girls obviously) and just play with them.... (well, they play... you assess their speech & language) -- use lots of different words (pour, drink, sip, cup, plate). see how they interact with one another and how they interact with you. and just use a lot of language while you're 'playing' and let them just spontaneously speak..... does that make sense?

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Posted by bettybcafe

It makes complete sense!!! So from there I can see if they are having any difficulties and then build my lesson plans from that...Gotcha!!! You rock!

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no problem! i think that once you get a look at the IEPs you'll be able to get a MUCH better sense of their strengths/weaknesses... the IEP will have objective measurable long-term and short-term goals that you can work from! once you get those, i can do my best to help you plan some tx sessions!

good luck.... you'll be great!

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Posted by hayleyandsteve

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Posted by bettybcafe

It makes complete sense!!! So from there I can see if they are having any difficulties and then build my lesson plans from that...Gotcha!!! You rock!

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no problem! i think that once you get a look at the IEPs you'll be able to get a MUCH better sense of their strengths/weaknesses... the IEP will have objective measurable long-term and short-term goals that you can work from! once you get those, i can do my best to help you plan some tx sessions!

good luck.... you'll be great!

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You are absolutely right. Thank you soooo very much, you dont know how much I appreciate it!

Always OVERPLAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!