sounds of my days...

1. This child may or may not have Selective Mutism. I've seen her for 15 visits and these are the first true sounds that have managed to escape her little mouth.... I almost cried. Ignore my stupid voice...



2. This little girl has a huge vocabulary and imagination but a very small phonetic inventory...


3. No idea what he actually said...



4. Not really sure about this one either...

Phonological Awareness

Lesson 1 – Listening

Goal:

Understand what we use when we listen.

Recommended book:

The Ear Book – Dr. Seuss

What to do:

• Talk about what we actually do when we listen.
• Stress the behaviors that show how well we are listening:
• Eye contact
• Sitting still
• Responding appropriately
• Discuss how fidgeting, talking to a friend and not paying attention interfere with listening.

Lesson 2 – Make some noise!

Goals:

Focus listening/attending behavior

Become aware of a variety of ways to make sounds
Follow directions to start/stop noisemaking

Recommended materials:

drums, bells, horns, pots/pans, game buzzer, toys that talk

What to do:

• Talk about the different ways we can make noise (clapping, snapping, stomping, mouth noises, etc.)
• Talk about how we can turn them on and off.
• Make some noise together and then say “off” or “stop”
• They may not respond right away. Calmly, say it again. You may also want to use a hand motion or a picture of stop sign.
• Practice until the child learns to respond quickly and appropriately to the commands.

Lesson 3 – Hearing Sounds

Goal:
Learn that objects and people make sound
Learn that there are many different types of sounds
Encourage children to respond to verbal cues
Learn that you hear sounds

Feech

S: When ah we going to wuk on ah's (R's)?
Me: Why do you want to work on R's?
S: Because that's what we ah wuking on at feech (speech) class (at school).
Me: Let's get those s blends under control first.
S: Oooookay

Peas sues me

After multiple unsuccessful attempts at the same word, a little patient of mine said. Peas sues me foa a moment. Layed her head on the desk and silently moved her lips around like she was practicing.

Updates

4 yo little girl with deletion of final consonants… we have been working on various ending sounds, most recently we worked on T vs. K at the end. She gets them confused a lot. I was going through some animal flash cards to get her to produce final consonants. I held up a picture of a bird with the word”parakeet” at the bottom and expected her to say “bird”. She looked at it very hard and finally said… “parakeet”. I said, “how did you know that was a parakeet and not just a bird”. She says, "I can read words just not boots”. (sounds like books with a T instead of a K)


**We have 2 brothers in therapy right now and they are just too much fun. Every child in this family has been through our clinic. The older one was very quick to let us know that the younger one “don’t say his wuds wight”.


**I had a little 94 year old lady with unilateral vocal fold paraylsis due to an intubation experience. The first time she came in she was a classic case of diplophonia. This sounds just like the scary voices in scary movies. It’s almost like a really freaky echo. She worked very hard and within 2 weeks she was back to 100%. She couldn’t stop thanking me. It was just too sweet.


**I got certified for Vital Stim the last weekend in sept. It is amazing. I’ve already got my first patients and they’re doing great!


**We have a kid that can do the soulja boy dance exactly…  You should ask your kids what their favorite dance move is. They might just surprise you.