Helping a Child Who Stutters in Their New Classroom

Hello All.  Only a couple more weeks until it’s back to school. I thought I would dedicate my blog post this week to discussing fluency, concerns and strategies, with your child’s new teacher.

The Stuttering Foundation has compiled an excellent list called 7 tips for talking with your child.  Let’s start with my number one suggestion, which happens to be the first suggestion on the list, to improve fluency at home:

.        Reduce the pace. Speak with your child in an unhurried way, pausing frequently. Wait a few seconds after your child finishes before you begin to speak.  Your own easy relaxed speech will be far more effective than any advice such as “slow down” or “try it again slowly.” For some children, it is also helpful to introduce a more relaxed pace of life for a while.

Please visit stutteringhelp.org to see the rest of the list.

The Stuttering Foundation is a helpful resource for teachers as well.  Here’s what they recommend to help teachers improve their student’s fluency:

1.     Don’t tell the child to slow down or “relax.” Be patient and let her finish.

2.     Don’t complete words for the child or talk for him or her.  Once again, be patient and let him finish.

3.     Help all members of the class learn to take turns talking and listening. All children—especially those who stutter- find it much easier to talk when there are few interruptions and they have the listener’s attention.

4.     Expect the same quality and quantity of work from the student who stutters as the one who doesn’t.

5.     Speak with the student in an unhurried way, pausing frequently.

6.     Convey that you are listening to the content of the message, no who it was said.

7.     Have a one-on-one conversation with the student who stutters about needed accommodations in the classroom. Respect the student’s needs but do not be enabling.

8.     Don’t make stuttering something to be ashamed of. Talk about stuttering just like any other matter.

I would add a few more:

9.     Develop a system with the child who stutters, or implement class-wide, to decide who gets to answer questions.  Randomly calling on students can put them on the spot and increase the likelihood of stuttering. This could be raising a hand if they would like to be called on or walking around and tapping on the arm to signal that the student will be next to answer. 

10. To improve fluency when reading aloud have small groups or pairs of children to each other instead of to the entire class.

11. Teasing is unacceptable classroom behavior. It’s best to deal with teasing swiftly, whether a child who stutters is being teased or someone else.

12. Once again, focus on the content, not delivery, of the response or comment from the child who stutters (and all students) to positively reinforce respect in the classroom.

Wishing you a happy and healthy week,

Elizabeth

Visualizing the Autism Spectrum

A common saying among people who know or work with people on the Autism Spectrum is, "If you know one person with autism, you know one person with autism."  Roughly translated, this means that each person on the Spectrum is unique, and that knowing one person with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) doesn't mean you necessarily know much or anything about any other person with ASD.

Because it's such a multi-faceted condition, ASD is often difficult for people to fully understand when they're first introduced to the concept.  Recently, artist Rebecca Burgess (who is on the Spectrum herself) created a new visual to help illustrate what ASD is all about and how much it varies from person to person.  Below is a sneak peek:

For the entire comic, look here.  

Where do you think your traits fall on the spectrum?

--Sarah

Welcome Megan!

Rock Therapeutic Services welcomes a new member to the team.

Megan is an aspiring Speech-Language Pathology Assistant (SLPA) and will be observing speech-language therapy sessions at the Maple Valley office, scheduling evaluations and therapy sessions, and being a general assistant to clinicians and administrative staff.

She is a recent graduate of the Communication Sciences and Disorders program at Eastern Washington University and is working toward becoming a certified SLPA.

Megan is friendly and capable.  We look forward to working with her and continuing to serve our clients and their families together.

Enjoy the lovely weather and be sure to meet Megan at your next appointment,
Elizabeth

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC): Two Approaches

Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) is a growing part of the field of speech-language therapy, and it is my absolute favorite part of the job.  AAC is used by individuals who cannot use natural speech as their main means of communication, so they use other methods to add to or replace their speech.  Recently, many AAC users use a communication app on a personal iPad or other tablet.  They select words or phrases by touching the touchscreen, and the device says the words or phrases aloud for them.  One of the most common AAC apps, Proloquo2Go, looks like this:

Learning to use a system like this is a lot like learning a second language.  It takes time and effort on the part of the learner, and learning happens faster if the learner is surrounded by other people who are competent communicators with their AAC system. 

While immersing myself in AAC for the past few years, I’ve come to recognize that there are two main approaches to learning how to use AAC that parallel two methods for learning a second language.  I call these two approaches the Phrase Book Approach and the “Take a Class” Approach.

The Phrase Book Approach

Imagine you’re planning a vacation to Japan.  You’ll start in Tokyo and hit the most popular tourist locations while you’re there.   You’d like to learn some Japanese to help you get by while you’re there, but you don’t have much time to learn before your trip.  So you pick up a phrase book.

You quickly learn a lot of really useful phrases that will serve you well during your trip.  But you only learn the phrases that the author of the book predicted you might need.  Surely you’ll run into situations where you’ll want to say something that the book’s author didn’t think to include. 

An AAC system that follows the Phrase Book approach might look something like this:

Most of the buttons contain phrases or sentences – not single words. 

The Phrase Book Approach has many advantages for AAC learners.  It can be learned and implement very quickly.  It doesn't take much time for the AAC learner to figure out how to make highly-motivating requests or statements with the touch of a single button.  Phrases that create access to or participation in highly-preferred activities can be programmed in, which makes the AAC learner more motivated to use their AAC system.  Phrases can also be programmed in that are meant to replace negative behaviors that sometimes occur when the student cannot communicate effectively with speech or gestures alone.  The Phrase Book Approach is hands-down the best approach for reducing the frustration that many AAC learners experience when they cannot express themselves to others.

However, this approach does have some downsides.  Since the message are all whole phrases or sentences, the AAC learner is limited to being able to say only what the person programming their system puts there.  There is no easy way to create their own messages.

The “Take a Class” Approach

Now imagine that you’ve just received a job offer for a position in Japan, lasting at least a year.  You know that you’ll need to speak Japanese with most people at work and in the community, since you won’t be in a place like Tokyo where a lot of people speak some English.  The job doesn’t start for at least another year, too, so you have plenty of time to prepare for the move.  So you sign up to take a Japanese class.

You begin learning basic vocabulary and grammar rules.  You also spend plenty of time listening to your instructor speaking fluent Japanese.  It’s slow going, especially at first.  It takes awhile before you feel like you’d be able to make yourself understood to the average Japanese-speaker. 

By the time the class is complete, however, you’ve built up a respectable vocabulary and a good understanding of essential grammar rules.  You may not sound like a native Japanese speaker, but you can express yourself in most situations.  You can combine the words you know into a huge variety of messages that, while they’re maybe not grammatically perfect, clearly get your message across.  You’re likely to continue to improve your Japanese skills the more you practice and interact with native speakers.

 AAC systems that follow the “Take a Class” Approach often look something like this:

 

The majority of the buttons contain a single word each.

The “Take a Class” Approach’s major drawback is the time and effort it takes to learn.  It takes a good long time – sometimes multiple years – for the learner to learn enough vocabulary and basic grammar rules to be a truly spontaneous communicator.  It works most efficiently when the AAC learner is surrounded by other people who also use their AAC system to communicate with them, “demonstrating” how the learner can eventually use the system themselves.  This is a similar concept to immersion programs for language-learning.  So there is not only an investment of time but also of effort.  The AAC learner’s friends, family, teachers, co-workers, etc., need to learn to use the system themselves in order to be effective AAC “role models.” 

The advantages of this approach, however, are numerous.  While the process of learning a new language word-by-word and rule-by-rule can be slow and often frustrating, it leads to a worthwhile result – Spontaneous Novel Utterance Generation (SNUG).  This is an acronym used in the AAC field to mean the ability to say anything you want to say by combining the words you know – without having to be taught the word combinations.  The “Take a Class” approach is typically the only way for an AAC learner to achieve SNUG. 

The Best Approach?

Like many things in life, there is no One Right Answer when it comes to AAC.  Generally, the best approach tends to be a combination of both the Phrase Book Approach and the “Take a Class” Approach.  That way, the AAC learner gets the advantage of being able to say a few highly-motivating phrases immediately but also begins the longer process of developing truly independent language use.  But each AAC learner is different, so the approach or combination of approaches should always be tailored to the specific needs of the AAC user.

--Sarah

Encouraging speech and language skills at home

One question I get asked frequently is how to work on speech and language skills at home.  You can target many things in your daily routines such as labeling items to expand vocabulary, following directions and asking wh- questions.  The American Speech-Language and Hearing Association (ASHA) has a great list of different ways to do this.  Here is the link:

Activities to Encourage Speech and Language Development

I hope this list helps to think of some ideas to try!

-Cassee

Getting Ready for Summer (and Keeping a Schedule)

The school year is winding down.  This is a busy time for kids and families with end of the year celebrations, wrapping up a year of learning, and preparing for summer.

It is tough to maintain a predictable schedule/routine right now, but it is a good time to plan and create a new summer routine.  You can help your children maintain and improve the skills they learned this school year by creating opportunities to use them at least weekly over the summer.

You may find that your child thrives without the limits of a routine or your child may like the predictability that comes with a schedule.  Either way, here are some key elements to work into your summer plan.

1. Reading time.  This probably involves reading to your child.  There are many wonderful summer adventure stories out there.  If you child is a reader encourage them to choose topics of interest to read over the summer, before assigned reading begins again in the fall.

2. Writing.  I've been hearing a lot about journaling.  It seems like journaling has been part of some school routines beginning in kindergarten.  Keeping a summer journal and chronicling activities and vacations will encourage and maintain narrative skills.  Writing 'snail mail' to a family member/pen pal would be a fun activity too.

3. Math.  Some kids in my neighborhood have been doing their math with sidewalk chalk and I love to walk by and see what they're working on.  Recently, they've been incorporating addition and subtraction into their hopscotch squares.  Brilliant!

4. Science/Engineering.  I'm not talking about complex experiments that take a lot of materials here.  I'm talking about blowing up balloons and seeing how far they go when you let the air out.  Timing how long it takes to freeze a batch of popsicles.  Building block towers to see which base is most stable.  Digging in different areas to compare soils.

5. Creativity/Art.  This includes ideas like painting, decorating bikes with streamers, making obstacle courses at the park.

One last thing I want to add is that none of these activities involve media or technology.  Summer is a great time to take a break from iPads, etc. to entertain your kids.  As long as they are safe, send them outside to solve their boredom.  Stargazing is encouraged.

Enjoy the last few weeks of school and the beautiful weather!