Label this and love it!

Labeling is a very important skill for a variety of students that we may encounter in our practice. But what to label is the question. How do we choose what targets we should choose for our students with more intensive needs? I wanted to give you a snapshot into the process I use when choosing labeling targets for students with more complex communication delays.

We are assuming that you have given your student a robust assessment and it indicates that labeling is an important skill to target. Labeling for a majority of early learners may be a socially significant skill to work on directly. It may be a part of a comprehensive and collaborative communication program. Other skills might include requesting, following directions, gross motor imitation, echoic training, etc..

So if our early learner is working on labeling, what should we target? When I am working with a student who is very limited verbally and does not currently label anything, I always take into consideration the students motivation. Ask yourself “what does the student enjoy?” Let’s start here! When a student is motivated by the target- the progress they make may be faster.

I had been working with a student who a year prior had no way to functionally communicate. The first IEP year, we focused on helping the student develop a response form or way to communicate with the world. With a lot of hard work by all members of the team, the student was ready to work on labeling. The student loved going to the gym, so we started with this. I took a picture of our gym at school that he would utilize 2 periods a day. He baselined at 100% - wow!!!! It was so amazing to see a student, who a year prior, could not communicate- label gym. Hooray!!! We continue to work on motivating items, people and places for this learner.

 Ask yourself the following questions: what does my student like to play with? What does my student like to eat? What activities does my student engage in for fun? Who does my student like spending time with? Where does my student like to visit? Choosing initial labeling targets based on student motivation, will allow the student to work on a difficult task with a preferred target. This will allow our students to gain confidence with their ability to label. This is a great way to start work on this skill. As the student is able to label more preferred items, you can also target more functional items. Other targets may include actions. Direct instruction of labeling is important to help our students increase their language skills. Label this and love this!

So my strategy for working on labeling for early learners is to start work on labeling preferred items. I then fade in working on labeling functional items and actions. Labeling can be difficult for students- so following this framework can be helpful! 

I have an awesome freebie all about labeling a variety of nouns that are functional, access it here. 

If you are looking for a super helpful product to work on labeling actions check out the action builder cards here. 

Please stay in touch for more tips on providing systematic language instruction at www.abaspeech.org. 

Musical Chairs and Simon Says- Making Leisure Fun For All

Play is so very important for all children! I have three small children of my own and they love to play. We play games, babies, sports, gymnastics, kitchen, etc… It is never ending. What I have learned in my many years of being both a speech language pathologist and board certified behavior analyst is that students with disabilities may benefit from modifications to enjoy independent and cooperative play activities. This blog post will detail the way that I modify 2 very popular games for younger students- Simon Says and Musical Chairs.

I have many students who benefit from structured small group speech therapy sessions. At the end of each session, I focus on a modified leisure skill. There are so many benefits to working directly on modified leisure skills.

•   If you share with the teacher and/or classroom staff how to play the modified game, they can give the student opportunities to practice within the classroom environment
•       If you share with the parent via a written description or video of how to play the game, they can carry it over into the home environment
• The students will increase their cooperative leisure skill repertoire
•  Direct work on leisure skills allows for practice of a variety of functional life skills to include but not limited to: taking a turn, waiting for a turn, following directions, engaging in a play based task for a duration of time without leaving the activity, communicating with peers during a play based task, requesting during the task. 

It is beneficial if you have a helper or two present for your group lesson, especially if you are teaching a new play based or leisure based skill. This help will make it easier to teach the skill, so that the helpers can prompt the students as needed throughout the activity. It is also helpful for showing other team members how to work on the play skills, so that they can generalize these skills into the classroom environment. I try to introduce and work on a new modified leisure skill for 1-2 months, depending on how fast the students learn the skill and if they enjoy the play activity. I will describe the modifications I use below.

Modified Musical Chairs

·      I set up the chairs in a circle. I use the same amount of chairs, as students that I have playing the game. I tell the students the directions “ When you hear the music walk around the chairs, when the music stops sit down.”The modification is that you never take away a chair.  I use songs my students really enjoy or songs that are current.

·      We play for 5-10 minutes. Helpers prompt students as needed with following the directions.

Simon Says

My students just finished up learning this game and they continue to request it often! I have all of the students stand in a circle by me, so that they can see me throughout the game. I tell them to watch me and do what I do. I then give directions and each time I start with “Simon says.” I include directions that all students can do in the space that we have provided in my office (i.e. jump, march, twist, shout hooray). I also play this game for the same amount of time, about 5-10 minutes. I also let some of the students call out a direction for the group- they love this!!

Working on leisure skills can be fun for student and professional alike. Direction instruction on these skills helps students increase their leisure skill repertoires. Engaging in these activities with the above modifications allows our students to feel successful and happy! If you want to learn more about these games and others, check out my webinar about modified leisure skills and elementary aged students here.

Want to learn more about modified leisure skills, visit me at www.abaspeech.org and sign up for my newsletter, you will receive a free webinar and access to my member only resource area.

Planning for generalization- an introduction

Are you a clinician working with students with autism and/or other complex communication disorders? If so, planning for the generalization of skills is an essential part of the intervention process. Generalization can be defined as

the occurrence of a target behavior in a non-training situation after training. So if we are working with a student on labeling pizza in the therapy room and they label it in the cafeteria during lunch- this is an example of generalization. There are so many skills in which we need to plan for generalization. Today in this post, we will focus on the generalization of labeling skills.

When we discuss this topic, we should plan for the generalization of skills among people, materials and environments. With the point being, if the student can only label their favorite book with the SLP in the therapy room and not with mom when they are at the local library- generalization of skills has not been addressed.

To provide students with autism and other complex communication needs with systematic language instruction, we need to make sure that we are exposing our students to multiple examples of language targets that we are teaching. We want to make sure that we aren’t just showing students one static picture each time we work on a labeling task. If we only present this one picture, chances are the student will not generalize this skill to other pictured examples or to seeing the item or action in a less structured setting.

Let’s say that your child is working on expressively labeling the action of washing. Instead of showing him/her one picture of washing, to teach language more systematically you should present the child with many examples of the word washing. This may include washing hands, washing hair and washing dishes. It is important to point out when we are completing these tasks in the home environment as well.

We also should strive to make our services as collaborative as possible. Every situation has potential barriers to this happening, but I always try my best to make sure that all team members are aware of and working on the same communication skills that I am addressing within therapy sessions. When I set up this system, I know that my student will have more opportunities to practice their skills.

When language instruction is embedded within a learner’s day, it is easier to plan for the generalization of language skills. If the learner works with the SLP on labeling Pete the Cat (when shown 3 different pictures of the book or the book itself) in the therapy room and also works with his teacher and paraprofessional on this skill within the classroom environment- we have planned for generalization among materials, environment and people!

We want our students to be able to generalize the language targets they are working on at school or in therapy into more natural speaking situations. Following this simple tip will be a great first step to helping your student expand their overall language skills.

Have a question or comment about generalization? Send me a message at www.abaspeech.org. 

A fun website all SLPs should know about!

As a school based speech language pathologist, I work with students from grades kindergarten to 10^th grade. With that broad range of ages, abilities and variety of goals, there are so many resources and tools that I need to know about and utilize on a daily basis. One of the tools that I love and that my students love is called Go Noodle (www.gonoodle.com). This website is so amazing and can be used for a wide range of students! Did I mention that it is free?  Hooray for awesome free resources!!!

Go Noodle is a website that is known for online videos that focus on physical activity and interactive learning. It has many different offerings to include but not limited to: Kidz Bop sing and dance along songs, holiday themed dance videos, videos focused on gross and fine motor skills, videos focused on building empathy and videos with more of a curricular focus. Below I will tell you about the ways that I love to utilize this free and amazing resource.

My students have 2 favorite channels on Go Noodle- Kidz Bop and Koo Koo Kangaroo. Both offer great music that is catchy and makes students want to interact and have fun together. I use these skills to target the following goals:

o  Requesting – Students take a turn picking a song

o  Cooperative leisure skills – Students engage in cooperative leisure with their classmates

o  Gross motor imitation – Students imitate the dance moves on the videos that we are watching together

o  Recalling events – Students tell about the videos that we have watched during group

o  Turn taking – Students wait and take their turn to pick a video within a group setting

o  Spontaneously joining a group activity

If I am using this resource within a cooperative group activity, I typically will use it towards the end of the group. The students that I use this with really enjoy listening to music and some even dance along. Listening to music and doing so within a group is a functional life skill that will help students increase their leisure skill repertoire. So what are you waiting for? Check out this website today and let me know how it goes!

I have included a video all about using Go Noodle during therapy sessions. Happy watching and if you have any questions or just want to say hi, please do not hesitate to contact me at www.abaspeech.org.