Category Archives: Speech Therapy

Aug5

Sensory Room part 1

Posted on August 5, 2012 by jd785

We run the Fine Motor group twice a week in Jeannie’s classroom and each time we go to our sensory room before beginning the group. In the sensory room our students are able to engage in a variety of movement activities to help build body awareness, strength and endurance. As students engage in the activities it also allows for choice making and language opportunities.

This view shows the fabulous mural that some college students

painted for us. We also have a crash pit—great for

proprioceptive and vestibular input. There are also

two swing mounts which we can hook up our

different swings.

The college students also constructed these sensory boards which have such awesome tactile and visual things to explore.

The jump and play island (purchased from Southpaw catalog)

is a very popular piece of equipment. The combination

of vestibular and proprioceptive input is so

important!

The hanging bolster is great for hitting or

practicing karate kicks 🙂

And what child can resist a ball pit!

We are also lucky enough to have a “quiet” room with our

various lighted equipment. For some of our students

this is a favorite space.

So yes, we KNOW exactly how lucky we are BUT see our next post to see what one creative teacher has done on a much smaller budget 🙂

Jul29

Building a Group

Posted on July 29, 2012 by jd785

Building a Group

This is what Cara says about getting started:

As with anything new that is started, there are some frustrations which go along with the process of building groups. When we started the groups this year, we knew that they would be different from the ones we had last year: different students, different times, varying topics. At the beginning of the year, we had to become familiar with the ways in which each group would work. The great thing about these groups is all of the support that we give to each other and get from the teachers and the instructional aids. Without this support, these groups would truly not be possible.

Jeannie’s class was one of the groups which was the most challenging at the beginning of the year. There were times when we all thought, “is this really going to work out?” We still had those kind of days as the year progressed; however, the students began to understand what was going to be asked of them: sit at the table, listen to the book, complete the activity, and have snack. To get students with varying disabilities to follow this order is a challenge in itself, but sticking to the routine has helped tremendously.

We decided that having 3 different groups works well. The sensory group is for the more profoundly disabled who may not be able to do fine motor activities as well. With all the students we talk about the items in the boxes and encourage exploration and communication. We describe the properties of the items to promote language. We ask them questions about what is in the boxes, for example how it feels or if they like it. We also have them verbalize (if they are able to) the repetitive line in the books. The fine motor group is for the kids who have emergent skills in using scissors, paint, glue, and color (with assistance if needed, of course). The language group is a mixture of kids who are presented with a language based activity as well as either a fine motor or gross motor activity. The dichotomy between the groups is ALWAYS fun to watch!

The biggest key to having varying groups is preparation! Joy and Cara come up with the group topics for each week of the month and try and come up with ideas throughout the month. Joy came up with an awesome idea of putting a giant white board in her room where she’s able to write down any ideas that come to her! We’ve found that relying on our memories for ideas for the groups is not always the best idea 🙂

To conclude, forming groups may be challenging and a lot of work goes into them, but the final result is very gratifying for everyone.

Jul9

Fun Friday

Posted on July 9, 2012 by jd785

Fun Friday

We finish the week with our Language Group in Robin’s classroom. We cram a LOT of activities into a 30 minute group but its lots of fun! Joy started the group as a fine motor group based on Robin’s “letter of the week” theme. When Cara came on board we added more of a language/literacy emphasis. We are still tweaking the group but feel its combination of action and games is particularly successful. We have found, for this class, changing the activities frequently and writing the words on the post-its helps keep the students interested and engaged.

It gets pretty wild at times but a great way to end a week of learning —-a Fun Friday 🙂

Robin and her assistants Arlene and Candy—we couldn’t do it without them!

Jun10

Timing is Everything

Posted on June 10, 2012 by jd785

Timing is Everything

As we have probably said before, every class we do a group in is different and we have learned something from each one!

We learned a lot about timing in Tonja’s class. Her students are still learning to attend to activities and are easily over stimulated. Staying at a table for any length of time is difficult for them. Tonja’s sensory group was structured to allow her students to move in and out freely. We also found that quickly rotating the sensory boxes encouraged refocusing of attention—and when we say quickly, we mean 20 seconds or less!

Gradually as the year progressed, we noticed some of the students were staying at the table for longer periods. We also saw more purposeful interaction with the materials and voice output devices. By ACCOMMODATING to the students and TIMING our presentation of materials rather than making Tonja’s class fit our “vision”—- the group was the success we had hoped for.

Thanks to Tonja, Mary and Sonya for a great year.

May28

Book for the Last Week

Posted on May 28, 2012 by jd785

Book for the Last Week

We decided to have ONE last group for the year. We focused on Birthday’s because they are SO much fun and they relate to everyone! For the book, we asked the question “where” after each line was read, so the students were able to answer “at the Birthday party”. The students loved looking at all the pictures of diferent things that happen on Birthdays. One student was very impressed with the Spiderman wrapping paper!

It was great to end the year with a party for all! Enjoy!

Here is a link to the book: At the Birthday Party

May28

Week 32—Birthdays

Posted on May 28, 2012 by jd785

Week 32—Birthdays

We managed to squeeze in one last week of groups before summer and decided the theme Birthdays would be lots of fun for all our groups!

Sensory Group—Birthdays

As usual we started by reading Cara’s latest book and marveled, once again, at how good our students have gotten at pressing the voice output device to repeat the repetitive line.

Our first box contained an assortment of birthday related items. We had confetti (made from a shredded magazine), party horns and paper streamers—very interesting visually.

We put in the words Family and Friends (along with some play people) because that’s who come to our birthday parties! Toy cookies and a squeaky (a nice auditory component and also good for hand strengthening) cupcake reminded us of all the yummy food.

We also tucked in a voice output device with the “happy birthday” tune for our students to find. Again, lots of language opportunities along with interesting things to touch and look at in this box!

Our box of ribbon was a big hit! We filled the box with pieces of curled paper ribbon but also added some fabric ribbon for an interesting textural comparison.

Some of the students especially liked pulling the curled ribbon to watch in straighten out—-a nice way to practice bilateral skills!

Access points are addressed comparing the straight and curly properties of the different ribbons. In addition, relative lengths can be compared, addressing more math access points.

As always, colors are noted and discussed.

Birthday cakes always have candles—or at least at home they do 🙂

We aren’t allowed to have candles at school so we used our Wikki Stix to represent them. The Wikki Stix have that waxy feel, just like candles. They can be twisted into shapes, numbers and letters—or just crumpled into a ball all the while addressing hand intrinsic functions!

We are all huge fans of funfetti cake and thought our rainbow rice looked just like those colorful sprinkles.

Since birthdays are all about numbers, we put a few in for the students to find.

Speaking of cake, it starts with flour which we put in our next box. We also put in some laminated candles to count (addressing math access points) and a hidden surprise—-a birthday cake picture taped to the bottom.

Visual discrimination skills and fine motor skills are also addressed in this box.

…..and of course if you like messy play, this is totally the box for you—this stuff gets EVERYWHERE 🙂

We had to had some balloons! Since some of our students and staff have latex allergies we stuck with mylar balloons. Our students really enjoyed playing with them!

Visual tracking is, of course, addressed as they move about. Eye hand coordination skills are addressed when reaching for or hitting the balloons. There is also an auditory component as the slightly deflated ones are grasped and crumpled.

Literacy skills are addressed when reading the words on the balloons.

We let our students vote which color to make our shaving cream “icing” and then let them have a blast mixing it all in.

Great to practice prewriting patterns or just to engage arm movements.

Afterwards we got to rinse our hands in cake scented body wash (from philosophy) and rubbed on our vanilla sugar lotion to help us remember what a “sweet” time we had today!

Fine Motor Group—-Birthdays

On Thursday we read Cara’s book and proceeded to make party hats! We started by passing out and counting 8 red party hats. The hats were give aways—which we love 🙂

We discussed the hat’s shape (cone)—-addressing math access points.

We glued on pieces of tissue paper. Some of the students applied their glue by using brushes to reinforce tool use skills. Others dipped the paper into glue bowls (made from caps), addressing eye hand coordination and pincer grasp.

We discussed the colors of the various tissue paper squares and counted how many were put onto the cone.

Some fabulous foam glitter stickers gave us another opportunity to work on pincer grasp and bilateral coordination skills. Some of our students could peel them apart independently but most needed some help.

Alright, these are some pretty festive looking hats!

Time to get the party started 🙂

On Thursday we read Cara’s book again and had fun picking out different details in the pictures. Our art activity was making cupcake pictures.

First we gave the students an opportunity to make a choice regarding what color paper they wanted. When everyone was finished we counted the 8 rectangular pieces of paper, addressing math access points.

Everyone practiced “writing” their name on the bag of the paper.

Next we asked out students to decide if they were going to make 1, 2, or 3 cupcakes and handed them the corresponding amount of small brown rectangles.

In addition to addressing number identification, this also practices answering in the testing format our district uses.

We asked the students to draw vertical “down” lines using a marker.

Some really nice skills emerging with this student, we are so proud 🙂

After the rectangles were glued to the paper we added some colorful cotton ball frosting.

Lots of opportunities to work on pincer grasp and eye hand coordination here!

However, for some of our students just allowing their hand to be placed to help tap down the cotton balls is a huge leap in their participation.

Needless to say, we celebrate every students efforts 🙂

We added some glitter sprinkles and——Ta-Da—–some yummy cupcakes that look good enough to eat.

Language Group—Birthdays

We started by looking at the directions for making cupcakes that Cara had printed out. Lots of steps to keep track of and remembering what comes “next” and who’s turn it is!

Next we picked out a big mixing bowl.

And then we put in the cake mix. We discussed the concepts of in and out addressing language and access points.

Then we added water and oil. Comparing the different measures and cups addressed math access points.

In addition, graded motor control, bilateral skills, and eye hand coordination are practiced.

The recipe called for 3 eggs so this gave us an opportunity to practice number identification.

Due to concerns regarding possible salmonella issues, the adults handled the eggs.

Time to stir—-some students used a switch to operate the mixer. We used an Ablenet Power Link device to accomplish this—-a very useful assistive technology device!

Everybody got a turn to put the cupcake liners in the pan—counting them to address more math access points.

Then students filled the liners with the cake batter (working on more fine motor skills) and put them in the oven for 15 minutes while the class went to music class. If they had been staying in the room we would have used a visual timer to help reinforce time concepts.

After the cupcakes cooled, it was time to decorate!

We counted out spoons and each student scooped a spoonful of icing to spread on their cupcake. A few needed to be reminded to spread the icing—not to eat it straight from the spoon—kids will be kids 🙂

Then they got an opportunity to choose which color sprinkles they wanted. Again, practicing choice making from an array of 3 which is related to our alternate testing format.

Time to enjoy—-effort should always be rewarded!

YUM YUM YUM

And finally, a quick look at our cupcake words. Wow, there are a lot of words associated with making cupcakes!

Well, that really was our last group for the year! We will continue to do some posts about our school and classrooms this summer so be check them out. Hope everyone has a great summer and hope to see you again in the fall for more fun Group by Group!

May15

Sensory Group—beginnings

Posted on May 15, 2012 by jd785

Sensory Group—beginnings

People often ask how we got started with our groups and so we thought we might run a few posts describing “our history”, so to speak!

I (Joy the OT) came up with the idea for the sensory group a couple of years ago in Danni’s classroom. She had two students that had significant physical and intellectual challenges. In addition, one of them was also visually impaired. We just felt like there was something more we could be doing to better engage them in the learning process. We’ve all been there——————-you KNOW there HAS to be a better way!

Thinking from a developmental perspective, I came up with the idea of bringing in a “fluid play” activity and Danni was all for it. I found some pumpkin scented body wash and hand lotion, then picked up a couple of cans of pumpkin pie filling and we were ready to go.

I showed up on Thursday morning and we gathered her students around the table and together with Nita and Metra (classroom assistants), we helped the students finger paint in the pie filling, splash around in the scented water and finally rub their hands and arms with lotion. Danni and I continued in a similar fashion week after week finding new items to explore from chocolate pudding to grape jelly we dove in—the MESSIER the better!!!!!

After the winter holidays, Cara (speech therapist) came on board and switched her schedule to be there during the group time. She thought it would be a great idea to include a book related to our theme and we started looking for books to use. Very shortly we discovered that many of the books were “too wordy” or the pictures “too busy” to engage our students interest, so Cara started writing her own books. Each book was made with a repetitive line so the students could help “read” the book. Having a repetitive line also helps with expanding language as well as turn-taking as the voice output device is passed around.

Our group really started to come together—everyone was enthusiastic, having fun and the students were ENGAGED. Cara and I even got stopped in the hallway one day by another teacher who had heard about what we were doing and wanted to know what she had to do to get us to start doing a group in her classroom!!!! When I excitedly shared that information with Danni, Nita and Metra to thank them for their endorsement I learned a secret…..

Metra told me that initially she and Nita would dread OT day because of the mess I created—in case you didn’t know, fluid play tends to be a tad messy, ha ha!

The ladies went along with the chaos anyway and as they saw the changes in the students and how engaged they were, well ——–

the mess just didn’t matter anymore! In fact, they realized not only were the students having fun but THEY were also 🙂

So there it is, we started small and have gradually evolved to where the sensory group is today. Thanks to Danni, Metra, and Nita (a little too camera shy for the blog) for being willing to try something different and for their continuing support and great ideas.

P.S. did you notice all the cool colorful rice they made 🙂

May8

Week 31—Mexico and Measuring Time

Posted on May 8, 2012 by jd785

Week 31—Mexico and Measuring Time

Our Fine Motor and Sensory Groups learned about Mexico this week in preparation for Cinco de Mayo! The theme for our Language Group was Telling Time.

Sensory Group—Mexico

Our students really enjoyed Cara’s book. We had fun discussing what we saw in all the bright colorful pictures and took turns wearing this awesome hat—thanks Ms. Dani!

Our first box contained a variety of items related to our theme to give lots of language opportunities. We put in straw which is what traditionally is used to make baskets and sandals and paper streamers like the ones on pinatas.

Hidden amongst this were sea shells (for the beautiful beaches), a Mexican flag, a toy taco (yum), butterflies and a colorful bird. We put in the word “Friends” because the people of Mexico are our friends.

We also recorded some traditional Mexican music on a voice output device that was tucked into the straw and activated by both accidental and deliberate touches.

The colors on the Mexican flag are red, white and green. This box filled with soft round pompoms and long hard beads addresses color identification in addition to math access points when counting items or comparing shapes.

More red, white and green with our box of rice.

A great tactile feel as it sifts through the fingers and as the rice is shifted a surprise picture of a cactus (there are lots of cacti in Mexico) taped to the bottom of the bottom of the box.

We love eating refried beans, burritos and other Mexican foods that contain beans—yum yum 🙂 With the addition of a spoon, scooping skills are addressed. The beans are also a wonderful tactile sensation as they trickle through fingers….

…. or when in a bottle, fun to

shake!

Corn tortilla’s are also a part of Mexican cuisine and were represented here with our cornmeal. Students searched for the letter M for Mexico and the number 5 for Cinco de Mayo.

Of course, its also fun to scoop and catch as it spills down—-just plain wonderful stuff!

Monarch butterflies migrate to Mexico each year, so we brought back our pasta butterflies and put in some laminated pictures of monarch butterflies.

The green caterpillars and orangey red butterflies had both shape and color comparisons.

And they are just so bright and colorful 🙂

We added green food coloring to our shaving cream and made guacamole (unfortunately not edible though!). Before we added the green food coloring we hypothesized “what will happen” to address science access points.

Shaving cream is always popular and a fun medium to practice pre-writing strokes.

We rinsed our hands in lime scented water and then rubbed some lime scented lotion on our hands to help us remember all the wonderful things we learned about Mexico.

Fine Motor Group—Mexico

On Tuesday, we had a great time reading Cara’s book and had fun discussing what we saw in all the bright colorful pictures. For our art activity we made some Papel Picado banners which are colorful paper fiesta decorations.

First gave our students a choice of 3 colorful rectangles of tissue paper (recycled from presents past).

Then we folded it over twice and made sure that the folds were pressed really flat. We had pre-folded and then opened the paper back up as we anticipated most of our students would need help with this step.

We used either hole punches or our table top scissors to make cut outs in the tissue paper.

Counting the cutouts in the paper addresses math access points.

This is how it ends up looking when

unfolded, pretty terrific!

And look at how bright and colorful they look decorating the hallway.

On Thursday, we read Cara’s book again and proceeded to make some maracas for our fiesta!

First we used our paper cutters and adaptive scissors to cut a strip of bulletin boarder trim (it was a give away and therefore free, and we like that!)

We gave each student a recycled water bottle, counting as we passed them out, of course. The strip of boarder trim was then taped around the bottle.

Manipulating the tape promotes thumb finger opposition in addition to eye hand coordination.

Then we placed 8 cups filled with different items onto the table.

We discussed what each cup contained and then gave 1 to each student.

The students were instructed to put their items into their bottles. This activity promotes bilateral coordination and pincer grasp skills.

We adapted this activity by using a funnel for those students whose grasp and release patterns were not as precise.

The cap was screwed on (working on wrist rotation) and Ta Da—-a fabulous maraca!

As each student got their Ta Da and shook their maraca, we discussed the different sounds they each made (addressing science access points, differing properties of materials).

Everyone LOVED shaking their maracas 🙂

Language Group—Measuring Time

We talked about different ways to measure time and then had each student begin putting together their own Friday schedule. Using a completed schedule for reference, they were given 3 choices as to what came next on the schedule.

We also referenced time of day, addressing math access points.

Breakfast being first was easy but choosing “what comes next” was more difficult.

Some of our students needed us to give them some assistance by pointing to the model’s visual cue.

And here is the final product!

Continuing with our look at time measurement, we discussed the end of the school year and began making a summer countdown paper chain.

We started by using our paper cutters to cut strips of paper.

Don’t you just love the teamwork in this picture 🙂

Next we used the stapler to fasten a strip into a circle.

And took turns putting another strip

of paper into the chain.

We counted the loops periodically and discussed how many more we needed—addressing math access points. Its getting bigger!

Wow, 18 loops in the chain. It will be so much fun to take a loop off day by day as we countdown to summer 🙂

We finished as usual by looking at some of the time related words we discussed today.

Its been a great week but things are getting a little crazy around here with IEP’s, field trips, special programs and some unexpected surgeries! We may not be posting regular groups for a while but we are planning some alternate posts such as how we organize all our “stuff” and other logistical information. We are also planning to upload some of Joy’s original drawings as templates for you to download. And we will DEFINITELY be back in the fall with new ideas and activities Group by Group!

Apr30

Week 29—Earth Day

Posted on April 30, 2012 by jd785

Week 29—Earth Day

This week out theme was Earth Day for our Fine Motor and Sensory Groups. Unfortunately we had to cancel our Language group this week.

Sensory Group—Earth Day

Cara’s latest book gave us lots of ideas on how to save the earth. We passed around a stuffed globe as a prop while reading the repetitive line.

We filled our first box with shredded paper (something we can recycle!). Scattered about were some toy cans and bottles, cardboard, and plastic toys—-all things we can recycle. We also put in the word “home” to remind us that earth is our home and we need to keep it clean. A little energy saver sign, reminding us to turn out the lights when we leave the room. We put little people in the box to discuss that it is people who are responsible for keeping our earth clean.

As you can imagine, our students loved the paper shred, so much fun to shake and wave around!

From space, our planet looks like a big blue and green ball. In our next box we put a variety of green and blue items. From hard beads and blocks to soft pompoms and chenille strings.

Lots to material properties to contrast addressing science access points.

Our next box continued our blue and green theme. We recycled our playdough from our under the sea week!

We added some green glitter which gave it a nice sparkle and had car and tree cookie cutters to remind us to plant trees and combine car trips to save gas.

We love using playdoh to improve fine motor skills but math access points can also be addressed when counting the shapes cut out. In addition, prewriting skills can be addressed when making letters with the playdough.

More blue and green! We added some green split peas to our blue rice and it turned out so pretty and eye catching. Our students looked for big and little letter E’s hidden in the rice.

How about a box of aluminum foil!

Something we can recycle and ever so much fun to crumple and wave around.

It also makes noise as it is played with, adding a nice auditory component!

Our sensory bottles helped us discuss global warming. One bottle was filled with clear hair gel and some foam shapes. The foam shapes don’t move around the gel—it looks just like solid ice, and thats how we want our ice caps to remain! The other bottle was filled with hand sanitizer, clear marbles, and some more foam shapes. The foam shapes and marbles move around in the hand sanitizer, just like melting ice.

They made a really cool visual comparison.

Next we made some clean mud. We tore up a roll of toilet paper (from the dollar store) and sprinkled in a bar of grated soap (from the dollar store). Tearing up the paper help address bilateral coordination.

We added a cup of warm water—eye hand coordination and measurement!

Then squished and squeezed until we ended up with mud! Its got a really cool consistency which some of our students

liked—-and

others absolutely did not!

Fortunately, we had a bowl of Juniper Breeze (from Bath and Body Works) scented water in which to wash hands 🙂

We finished with our Juniper

Breeze lotion to remind us of

our beautiful earth.

Fine Motor Group—Earth Day

We read Cara’s book, again using the stuffed globe as a prop.

Then we counted out 8 large blue construction paper blue circles and used a communication board to find the number 8.

Green paint was added to a mixture of glue and shaving cream and we asked our students to guess what was going to happen.

Everybody got a chance to stir the mixture—-and we watched as the glue and shaving cream mixture turned green!

A fun way to address science access points.

We put the mixture on one hand and counted out loud as we printed on the paper 2 times.

For our students who were unable to tolerate the paint on their palms (tactile defensiveness), Joy adapted the activity by painting her own hand and placed the students hand on top to help make the print.

Ta Da! Doesn’t this just like the earth!

It will be even cooler when it dries because our mixture dries just like puffy paint. The raised texture will also make it perfect for our student with a visual impairment to explore.

On Thursday, after reading Cara’s book again, we made Recycle Man!

We used an aluminum pie plate for the head and counted out 2 bottle cap eyes. 1 yogurt container became a nose and can tabs made teeth.

Of course we counted everything as we put it on but we also described the position (ex. on top, under) to address more access points and spatial relationships.

As our Recycle Man is on a vertical surface, shoulder stability is addressed items are placed.

We chose which cap to use as a

belly button…

….and added it to our aluminum roasting pan body!

Perfect!

Then we counted out 8 cans (1 for

each student.

And used them to make arms and legs

for…..

Recycle Man!!!

Isn’t he awesome!

Hope you had fun celebrating Earth Day with us this week. Join us again Group by Group!.

Apr23

Book for Week 29

Posted on April 23, 2012 by jd785

Book for Week 29

Spring is in the air! There are so many things to enjoy now that the weather is more permitting. The book this week covers different things that we see during Spring such as colorful flowers, leaves growing back on the trees, and baby animals. While Cara read the story, Joy used some of the objects we had to show the students when they were being talked about such as big leaf placemats when we mentioned the leaves on the trees growing back, and also a mist bottle which was used to emulate the April showers we experience.

Here is a link to the book–

Spring Has Sprung