Distance learning….day 7!
Here in New Jersey, school-based SLPs are not permitted to do teletherapy (yet). There’s a bill on the governor’s desk requesting this to be changed, in light of the current situation. There are some pretty incredible webinars out there giving us all a crash course on how to use teletherapy with our caseloads. I have been busy taking in as much information from these generous webinars and resources (like SpeechTherapyPd.com , SLP Telecon , and The Speech Express so that when we get the green light, I can incorporate teletherapy to effectively interact with some of my students. The Speech Bubble created a free parent letter to help inform parents of the best way to prepare for a teletherapy session with you.
While I wait, my students have enough material in the e-packets and hard copies I put together to keep them busy. My focus is on maintaining their skills, as well as possible, without frustrating or overloading them!
So what materials are they working on?
👉Links to videos like Simon’s Cat and Pixar short films. They are engaging and light-hearted. We need that now! I have my students send back a summary using a Somebody…Wanted…But…So…Then…organizer.
👉Comic stories with speech and thought bubbles to fill in. Great for inferencing and social skills! ( you can find some free ones on TpT or Google)
👉My new favorite podcast @kid_nuz. The segments are short and contain several kid-appropriate news stories. I ask my students to bullet point a few important takeaways from each segment and email it back to me.
👉Worksheets from www.edhelper.com and www.education.com. These are great resources with a lot of free materials. I send specific directions in the email to help them work on a variety of language goals.
👉Passages from Newsela, Readworks, Time for Kids, Dogonews, Tweentribune. Many of these resources are now free! I have been assigning articles with vocabulary and comprehension questions.
👉Graphic organizers. For all the above activities I included a graphic organizer (you can find a ton of free ones on TpT) to help them complete their work. I use the ones they are already most comfortable and familiar with. Presto Plans has a free Venn Diagram for comparing and contrasting,
these free Frayer/four square and vocabulary diagrams are useful for addressing vocabulary,
I like this one for summarizing from SpeechTimeFun ,
and this top-down organizer is free from Haley the Speechie. It is useful when reading a passage and breaking down the details as well as when you are asking students to brainstorm on a given topic and add important information.
👉I’ve given them lots and lots of reminders for organizing their materials, time, and workspace. I’ve noticed an increase in purchases of my Student Home Organizer on TpT. as well as my FREE shoebox organizer and checklist. I think there are a lot of SLPs and parents out there looking for resources to help our students with their executive functioning! EF skills are definitely being challenged at a time like this!!
👉 I’ve also been sharing some mindfulness strategies like this to help them cope, relax and stay focused.
👉 I included some simple recipes in the packets that my students can make with their families if they would like, using basic ingredients that they already have at home. Cooking is such a fantastic way to address direction following, sequencing, social skills, executive functioning…the list goes on. There is no obligation of course, but it is a fun way to pass some time that they may have on their hands while working on good communication skills. I’ve sent recipes for one-pot pasta, overnight french toast and some basics like grilled cheese and making a smoothie. Right now this resource is free from America’s Test Kitchen geared toward kids.
I hope some of these ideas are helpful. These therapy suggestions can be used with teletherapy lessons as well, as many platforms allow you to screen share websites, worksheets, files, and YouTube videos.
How are you providing services right now? I’d love to hear from you.
Remember we are all trying our best to figure this out as we go. Some of us have technology at our disposal and some are limited to what our student population can access and schools can provide. Regardless, remember we are all in this together—and also, just stay home, it’s up to all of us to stop the spread of COVID -19!
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