Love it & List It Behaviour Management

Love it and List it!

Time for another Love it & List it hosted by Jenna at The Speech Room News.

This month.....

Behavior Management

The part we all love, right! NOT! Just kidding. If you're therapy kids are anything like mine then you don't really have many problems but every now and then.... the you know what really hits the fan.

I am pretty lucky, like I said, most of the kids like participating in speech, love coming, and love to do the work.  But there are those times when you have to "lay the law down", so to speak. Now keep in mind- in our area children with severe needs have their own aide so we don't provide speech therapy to them, their aide does it. I know we do have it a bit easier in that regard. But this is what I do...

1. My iPad - even when we do speech related games they love using it. I tell them "OK lets do this work then we can have a game on the iPad"- sometimes I pick the game- sometimes I let them. Even if the game is Angry Birds for a few minutes. I use this for behavior because if they don't want to follow the rules then they are not able to have iPad time. This works almost 99% of the time for me- even if the game is them working on their aritc. goals on the iPad. I have occasionally heard, I just want to play the iPad, and my response is "you don't get paid before you do the work!" lol! This has always worked for me.

2. My Treat Bucket- If I don't have the iPad I tell the kids "we are going to do these activities and if you have tried really hard then I will let you pick anything you want from the treat bucket." If they don't participate, or act goofy I will give them one warning and then I tell them no treat.  I am always very clear, you were doing this  or not doing that, and you've lost the privilege of choosing something from the treat bucket. They may not like it but boy do they remember. I have heard before "if I don't do the work I can't get something from the bucket, right Mindy?!" Yip, you said it! :) It is a little bit difficult sticking to your guns on this one, but you only have to do it one time and they never forget.

 

3. Empower the kids- Let them be in control- as much as possible. I don't like to dictate everything, I really want the kids to feel in control and have them practice making decisions. I am not big on the control thing (I hope!!!) I think I am pretty easy going during the sessions. The kids can sit on the chair, or stand, their choice.  When the session starts I  put the activities on the table and let them choose which one we do and in which order. I let them choose if they want to play a game at the end or get a treat from the bucket. When an opportunity arises for a decision to be made and it can be made by the kid(s), I always take advantage and let them choose even when I am in control of the choices. This really helps my sessions to run more smoothly. They buy into the activities because they have had some input and say into what was happening and in what order it happens.
Don't forget- I also take Sensory needs into consideration. When kids are misbehaving there may be a reason that you are not aware of. Some of the kids have a hard time focusing, and staying still. When they keep getting up and moving around remember it may have  nothing to do with you or the session, it might be them.  I like to have little fidget toys ready in case they need them.  This is why I allow them to sit, or stand,  let them move around (when it is possible) and change activities. 

My kids playing games 

doing some "speech therapy"

These are my kids trying out some of my speech resources. 

I buy stuff and try it out on them! :)

 

And hey, while were here don't forget about my giveaway!

 a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cheers, 

Mindy

Love it & List it Linky

This month the love it and list it linky with Jenna from Speech Room News is dedicated to social skills. To be honest, I don't work on pragmatics much. I am not too sure why, but my guess is that maybe some of the kids I work with have more severe language skills....? I just do what the SLP tells me. :)

I did look into some activities on Teacherspayteachers because my son is having some difficulty with peers in his classroom. I thought what an excellent opportunity to try out some of these activities with him! I bought 2 activities the first one is Think it or Say it? from The Word Shop. 

 
 
This activity was so easy to use, set up, print, and get ready! I always a fan of easy resources!!! My daughter, son and I played it and definitely thought it was fun and we had a good laugh at the Silent but Violent phrase!!! I won't tell you too much more- but I am sure you get the picture. Be sure to check this one out! This activity really hit home because of my children's age- it was clear and to the point and I really feel like they got a lot out if it! Thank You THE WORD SHOP! :)

The second activity I purchased was Winter Village- Social Language Activities by Speech Room News.This one was a bit more tedious to cut out, download and set up. With that being said, it did target more skills. You can use the game board for groups and target different goals for each child. This makes it so easy and practical for busy people with large case loads. My kids did enjoy playing this game though I think it was a bit above their skill level.

Until next month, 
Cheers!
Mindy

Love it & List it -Articulation Apps!

Articulation Apps

 

http://speechroomnews.blogspot.ca/

Articulation Apps are a great and easy way to target speech goals for your students! Your bag is so much lighter when you don't have to carry all of those cards and materials!!!! Just grab your Ipad and you have access to all the sounds you need, in all the positions. When I have a large caseload, I will grab the kids and pull them out of their class and target their sound(s) right in the hallway. I don't always need my treat bucket either because the iPad is a reward in itself!

 

My website- lots of freebies

1. Articulation Station- Love this app because it is so easy to use. You can work on sounds, and blends, in all positions. They can be worked at the word, sentence and story level! The kids love to play the matching game! You can also keep data and have a final percentage at the end to make taking notes super easy!
   
   

2.Speech 2 Go- A good, simple app. It has some really great pictures but you can only play it in a flashcard fashion. This can get a little boring for the older kids.

3. Say It Again- The child rolls the dice and chooses a square, and then they are given a word to say. This game is cool because it is a bingo type game that you can play in groups. You can choose different game styles: lines, letter x, or cover all. The only thing missing is data- this app will not let you collect data on the children.

                                                          

4. Webber Photo Artic Castle- This is another great one. Easy to use and it will keep all of your data! You are able to set up your students and choose their goals. You can also go back and view their results, later on, by the date or by the goal. This is especially nice if you are working on multiple kids with multiple goals!                                                                                                                                                                      

            

5. ArtikPix- The graphics on the home screen are a little simple but this game lets you choose different word positions at different levels, and it will let you keep score. There are 2 different games: flashcards and matching. Plus, the matching game has 3 levels: easy, medium and hard. 

                                                             

 

6. Articulation Games is a great app by Virtual Speech Centre! It has 4 games to keep the kids interested! It has all sounds in all positions and the pictures are great! I love this app! 34.99 for all of the sounds! The kids love the spinner game!

                                                        

I hope this helps you! Check back to Creating Communicators blog again!
Thank you Jenna at Speech Room News!!

Cheers,
Mindy

Love it & List it: Language Apps!

 Language Apps

I have so many kids that are working on language goals and it is hard to find resources to target them that the kids will like. Especially with the older kids! I usually use the Ipad with my school aged kids because it is a reward in itself. When I bring it I don't even need to bring my treat bucket!...Usually! LOL

1. The first app I like is Talk About It: objects from HamaguchiApps. This app works well for older children who are reading. You can use this app to have the students decide which of the sentences is the most important piece of information about a certain item and then at the end they go over all of the sentences. Great idea!  
                         
2. The next one Categories Learning Center from Smarty Ears Apps is so great for groups! You can sort items into their groups and it keeps score at the top of the screen for you! It also includes categories that are more difficult for your older students.
                           
3. Category Carousel by Pocketslp is a great vocabulary game because you can include up to 6 categories. It is great for one on one or group sessions!
                          
4. Easy Concepts is great for younger children who are working on following directions and learning concepts- It targets concepts like first, next, last, superlatives, before and after, all receptively. It is a simple idea but it works well to target those pesky concepts in a fun way!
                           
5. Magical Concepts from Virtual Speech Center Apps is a game that targets concepts and following 1 step directions receptively. You can choose the concept that you want targeted and then when the student has competed a few tasks they get the choice of watching a magic show.
                            
6. WH questions from Autism iHelp  is a great one for working on ... of course, wh questions. It asks the student a wh question and they choose one of the 4 possible answers.
                           
7. Last but not least......Prepositions Remix from Smarty Ears- I LOVE this one! I use it all the time. This app also targets concepts and the great thing about this app is you can use it to target any concept you want. If you student is only working on a few concepts you can concentrate on those ones! The student receives feedback from the "voice" on the game which is nice! Plus at the the end it gives you a detailed report of which concepts were worked on, what percent they got and which goals they got right and wrong!