Mrs. Reed's Speech Blog

Have a Great Summer!

 Remember to use your strategies that you learned in speech class, have fun playing games, and read lots of different materials (e.g., books, magazines, comics etc.) for your reading pleasure.

Have a GREAT summer!

Our focus has been on skills drills and strategies. One strategy to use to help determine the correct answer when answering comprehension questions is a strategy by Larry Bell.   The strategy is called Reading UNRAAVEL.  Listed below is L. Bell's reading UNRAAVEL strategy.

Reading UNRAAVEL

U- underline the title

N- Now, predict the passage

R- Run through and number the paragraphs

A-Are you reading the questions?

A-Are the important words circled?

V- Venture throughthe passage (read it marking the important words)

E-Eliminate wrong answers

L-Let the questions be answered (put the paragraph number where the answer was found)

*Double check your work!

This strategy is a researched based strategy used to help determine the correct answer after reading passages.

This Week in Speech/Language

This week has been a week filled with stories, games, and lots of practice using strategies on goals and objectives.  Students worked on their articulation, vocabulary, sentence structure, and story retelling skills, while using their Braidy rubrics to help them determine if they remembered to add all of the story elements during their retells. One of our featured books for this week was St. Patrick's Day in the Morning, by Eve Bunting. Students used complete sentences during their retells. 

For fluency practice, the focus has been on using easy onset and continuous speech to help with producing fluent speech.  Students are doing a great job using their strategies. Way to go!

 

Speech & Language Update

One of our featured books for this week was The Great Valentine's Day Balloon Race by Adrienne Adams. This book was about 2 bunnies, a brother and sister, who wanted to build their own hot air balloons and compete in their local Valentine's Day hot air balloon race. Their first attempt at building their hot air ballon was unsuccessful, so they tried again and even won the balloon race.  The bunnies applied the knowledge that they had about air temperature and wind direction to advance their way to victory. 

During our classes, the students enjoyed listening to this story.  They used their Braidy graphic organizers to help them organize their thoughts, while working on story retells.  For home practice, ask your child to use his/her book mark to retell the story to you, with the use of complete sentences and good articulation.

Vocabulary

Many students with language impairments have a difficult time learning and remembering new vocabulary words.  They need frequent repetitions and use of their target words to help them to remember the words so they can successfully add the new vocabulary words to their repertoire.

If your child enjoys completing puzzles, then www.PuzzleMaker.com could be another fun way to practice using vocabulary words.  Once on the website with the selected puzzle, students can enter their subject area/unit of study, and type in each vocabulary word for their subject or unit of study.  When they enter their words into the puzzle maker, a puzzle is generated for their use.  They can search for the target words while creating sentences or definitions. If your child like puzzles...then it's worth a try.

Sharpening Speech and Language Skills

As we move forward on Speech and Language goals and objectives, we will continue working on sharpening skills in boths areas.  Some of the key areas that students will continue focusing on, for a demonstration of comprehension, are:  Predicting (by indicating what they think will happen), recalling (through the use of answering questions and providing complete sentences), summarizing (by retelling stories and summarizing information), comparing (by expressing similarities and differences) and Evaluating. They will also continue working on strategies for good articulation, voice, and fluency.  For extra reinforcement, always encourage your child to use complete sentences when answering questions at home.  

Speech Happenings

Over the past few speech classes, students have been using their strategies for good speech and language.  Some students have been using a "straw technique" to help centralize airflow for correct speech sound (e.g., s,z,sh) production. Some have been using a rubber band stretching technique to help promote fluent speech. Others have been using their notebook to help with pragmatics skills, and some have been using Braidy/Story Grammar Marker to help improve narrative/ story retelling skills.  They have been working hard and doing a great job!

As you prepare for the break, remember to continue practicing your speech/language strategies.  Until next year.....HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Happy Thanksgiving

With Thanksgiving approaching, we took advantage of the opportunity to read a few books pertaining to the topic.  Over the past few days, we've read a variety of books/stories including  Thanksgiving on Thursday,  Thanksgiving : A Day of Thanks, and Thanksgiving at the Tappletons'.  Students worked on their goals and objectives while practicing their strategies to help them improve their communication skills.  Some students started making mini books with the Braidy symbols in the books to help the students organize their thoughts.  In addition to the Thanksgiving books, some students read about Paul Revere.

Students in Mrs. Jones' class have been doing a very good job of identifying key story elements such as the main character, the setting, and the character's feelings.  Articulation skills are also improving! Nice job!

As the Tappleton family did in Thanksgiving at the Tappleton's, make sure you enjoy your break, time off, and time with your family (and friends).  We will see you on 10/28.  

Fluency

Here are some facts and tips about stuttering.

Did you know that over three million Americans stutter?  Some famous people who were affected by stuttering are: Winston Churchill, Marilyn Monroe, James Earl Jones, Joe Biden and John Stossel, to name a few. 

It has been noted that some children experience a period of disfluencies that last 6 months or more.  Most of the children outgrow the stuttering. However, approximately 1% of the children continue to stutter.  Stuttering is also more common in males than females.  It affects males 4 times as often as females. 

In the school setting, students are evaluated and receive speech services if there is a negative impact in the classroom setting.  Below are some strategies to use when talking with individuals who stutter.

1. Speak with a slower relaxed pace of speech, rather than telling the child to slow down.

2. Allow the child to complete his/her words without completing them for him/her.

3. Show that you are listening to the "content" of the child's message, as opposed to how he/she is saying his message.

4.  Encourage good turn-taking and discourage interrupting.  Students who stutter can talk in a more relaxed manner when their conversational partner is actually listening.

5.  Use natural eye-contact as the child expresses his ideas.

Keeping these tips in mind can help to make a bit easier for a child who stutters.

To see the complete article or learn more about stuttering, here is a helpful website to view:

www.stutteringhelp.org

(This information was abstracted from the: 7 tips for talking with your child, Tips for Speaking with Someone Who Stutters and the article with famous people who stutter by  --The Stuttering Foundation)

Speech and Language Update

October has been a busy month packed with standardized tests, as well as students doing their best. They've been working diligently on their speech/language goals and objectives.  This month, we read many different books such as, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, Big Al, Swimmy, and The Furry Newspaper: How to Make a Newspaper.  Students practiced asking and answering "WH" questions (i.e., who, what, where, when, why, and how).  They also practiced expressing the importance of getting key pieces of information (the 5 W's and how) when writing or reporting a story.

My next update will provide information about students who stutter.  While there aren't many cases of students who stutter in the school setting (in comparison to other areas of speech/language cases), fluency cases still exist.  With that in mind, my next update will focus on "Fluency Strategies" for parents and others to use when communicating with children who stutter.