Thank you Maureen for allowing me to write a guest post on your fabulous blog! Today I would like to share about an exciting new opportunity that has been awarded to the campus where I work. I hope that by sharing this journey, other SLPs will be encouraged to become more involved with not only their student body as a whole, but also the community their students’ come from.
As a SLP in an Early Childhood Center, I have had the amazing opportunity to work with supportive administrators and leadership team members. Two years ago, our principal decided that we needed to focus more heavily
on detailed, functional vocabulary instruction as an entire campus. Our campus has a high rate of free/reduced lunch which means many students come from homes that have been affected by poverty. We also are a minority-majority district with a large number of Hispanic students who at the age we get them, speak very little if any English. With the earliest years of development being the ones where language is developed, setting a tone for future academic success, we felt it to be an urgent priority.
reinforcement in the form of a Skittle was added, the eye contact and conversation quickly improved. This sparked an idea in the principal’s head that lead to an entire shift in our brief morning interactions.
learn the word “Quilt”.
and labeled them for an interactive bulletin board near the bathroom line for teachers to ask WH questions about the actions and objects in the photos.
homes of our students and teach the parents how to encourage good language skills through everyday experiences with their child.As part of my winter take home activities, I purchased Jenna Rayburn at Speech Room News’ Learning Through Play packets to send home with some hot chocolate for my speech therapy students. Jenna’s little handouts inspired me to do what happened next! I wanted to provide the tools to push language rich activities into EVERY child in my school’s home.
vocabulary such as plurals, categories, temporal terms “first, then, last.” Items needed were to be named and spread out to examine and describe. Action words were to be used such as “baking, mixing, pouring, measuring.” Descriptive words were to be used such as “hot, wet, and soft.” Parents were instructed to ask their child’s opinion during the activity and allow them time to communicate verbally by asking questions and making comments.
a passion burning in my heart that could not be extinguished! Three long months later we found out we were approved and were presented with our $8,964.00 check! Our students will be able to experience language with their parents in a more meaningful and specific manner throughout this upcoming year.
about their activity using action words like “feeding, dressing, sleeping.” The categories targeted will be “kitchen utensils, clothing, furniture, and rooms in the house.” The parents will help their child describe, pretend, compare and observe which are all terms used in the Texas Kindergarten Standards and Preschool Guidelines.
Our campus leadership team is really excited about this grant and hope you will follow along as I intend to write about each monthly activity.
Thank you so much for your time today. If you would like to know more about our grant application, the schedule of activities or how we plan to get the parents involved, please feel free to email me at MsGardeniasSpeechRoom@gmail.com. I would love to discuss it further!
Leave a Reply