Chicken Soup Blog hop

It’s pretty easy to get caught up in all of the “noise” that comes along with being a speech language pathologist.  You’ve probably experienced it.  Productivity, caseload size, IEPs, reports, documentation, insurance, Medicare…..  When we have all of this extra stuff that HAS to get done, it’s easy to forget about celebrating the end result.  That’s one of the reasons that I am so excited to be part of Felice from the Dabbling Speechie‘s Chicken Soup for the SLP soul blog hop.  What a great opportunity to get inspired-and celebrate some of our successes or insights.

Each blog has a number on it, keep track of each number and at the end of the hop, enter to win one of the one of three gift certificates (75.00, 50.00 & 25.00 from Teacher’s Pay Teachers!!!   If you are new to the hop, head on over to Speech Time Fun to make sure you don’t miss a blog and their number.

The Egg in a Cup

Many years ago, I started working with an older student who was classified as multiply impaired.  He had a history of attention seeking and escape behaviors in speech therapy as well as in his regular classroom.  His goals were focused on articulation, following directions, categorization and answering questions.  Our first month of therapy was pretty traditional.  I chose fun games and used card decks and had a behavior sticker chart for rewards.  It wasn’t working.  We could usually get through one activity but then the rest of the session was me trying to manage behaviors after the fact. It could have gone two ways.  I could have made a case for terminating therapy.  Motivation to complete therapy tasks was minimal and he had been in therapy for awhile.

One of my college professors made us study and write papers on Vygotsky’s Zones of Proximal Development.  Her example has stayed with me,  We don’t teach a child to climb by standing at the top of the steps and telling them to walk.  Instead we stand one small step above them and help them up-until they are able to achieve it on their own.  I thought about the student’s attention and cognitive level.  I wondered if we would be able to make more progress by embedding these goals into a functional activity.   My stomach was usually growling around the time that I saw him, so I thought an early afternoon snack group would be a good idea.  Our first activity is still one of my favorites, we made a microwaved egg in a cup.  

We worked on sequencing, verb tense forms and answering questions about the activity.  We worked on narratives and procedural recall.  As the sessions progressed, I added in goals for pragmatics.  We worked on small talk, manners and mealtime conversations.  Eventually, I did add some more drill activities back in to address some syntax and articulation goals.  I’d established trust, and it was easier to complete table top activities.  It ended up being a good year in therapy.

Sometimes, we are so focused on our goals that we don’t realize other changes that we’ve made in a student’s life.  About 5 years ago, I ran into this family.  We spent some time catching up and as I was leaving the dad caught my arm.  He said, “He usually gets up before I do.  It’s so nice, because now he gets up and he makes one of those egg in a cups that you used to make in speech therapy.”  Egg in the cup wasn’t my goal in therapy-but it ended up making a big difference for this boy-who was now independently making his breakfast each morning.

I hope you enjoy all of the other stories, I’d love to hear your success stories below!  Don’t forget to write down my number before heading to the next blog by clicking on the button below.