Richard was greeted on time in his classroom. He had his glasses on! Richard was quite communicative and talkative this session which is always great to target appropriate rate of speech, /s/ in conversation, and social skills. He required moderate verbal/visual cues to reduce rate of speech. It appeared to be most when he was excited about a topic. /s/ in conversation was at ~85% accuracy, which is consistent with the last few weeks. His speech intelligibility is better with a mask versus full face covering as it is not so tight against his mouth. Richard also required some assistance with social turn taking and appropriate topic maintenance. Following the conversation task, we targeted possessives ('s) in unstructured tasks. We did a book aloud for auditory comprehension and vocabulary enrichment. Richard did very well with this task. We also completed the orientation/date/day of week activity and Richard was excited about "the new month", demonstrating increased understanding. Overall, it was a great session for Richard today!
Marcel was studying for a language arts exam and suggested reading excerpts from the book to study. It was a good opportunity to extract /r/ sounds and practice them. Marcel has improved his self awareness and is a good self-judge. He listens closely and is able to identify and self correct a sound that is not at its best. He is hard on himself and determined to master the word before moving on. Pace of speech is everything. He recognizes that slowing down and really get his tongue and mouth in the correct position improves his accuracy every time.
Santino happily entered the office once again. He responded to social greet, shared a brief reference and quickly requested desired item within his visual field that was just out of reach. He was presenting with a higher state of arousal, and appeared to be seeking movement activities supporting vestibular patterns. Session plan was modified to allow for the embedding of RMT and Brain Gym activities at greater frequency this session. Santino responded well, and was noted to request repeated action sequences presented. He continues encode "where is ... ? "question forms to locate an item not within his visual field. Requests for assistance continue to be noted as well with use of increased sentence form "help me+ action (phrase) ." 432 hz music continues to be utilized.
Noted "eye squeeze " postures were discussed with Ingrid, as these movements have been noted at home as well. Comments and redirection were successful.
Chris arrived needing to reorganize himself, as he had shoes on the incorrect feet, and materials in his backpack were in a bit of a disarray. He was eager to scan the "artwork' hanging on the wall as he often admires the "art"of other students that is displayed. He has shared items to be hung up as well. He was eager to also discuss a multitude of topics that were clearly on his mind. Strong support was provided this session to enhance cohesion between the thoughts that he was expressing. Presupposition aspects and "thinking together" dynamics were revisited as supports to enhance communication effectiveness. Chris' affect ranged greatly once again this session and attention rapidly shifted from focused context to tangential topics and back again. Conversational expansion with focus on contingent commenting was supported through additional familiar cues. Rapid abandonment of tasks within the session was noted, most notably as demand or complexity increased. Supports were provided.
Richard was greeted in his classroom on time. He was in a good mood. He had two pair of glasses with him, which was GREAT! We started the session with our typical orientation task. Richard did well with this. He is becoming more familiar with months/days of week.This activity was followed by identifying s blends in words with pictures. This was also a writing task, in which he did not become frustrated and was quite compliant. He accurately identified the /s/ blend with 70% accuracy. We read a book aloud, targeting heavily on vocabulary enrichment. At the conclusion of the session, we worked on social situations with other students at the school. We targeted appropriate social interactions with peers and adults. He continues to require verbal prompting with this.
Santino happily entered the office today, responded to social greet as he was eagerly seeking a preferred item not within his visual field. He inquired "where is color rainbow?"
Additional use of "where" question forms to locate a preferred item not within his visual field continues to increase in frequency throughout each session. Music preference within the 432hz options that are utilized within sessions is noted, as he repeated the request for " music" although the music had begun. Social referencing has been noted to increase over the recent sessions within song play, and within expansion of strategies to join and shape periods of echolalia to allow for increased joint engagement.
Richard was greeted in his classroom at 8:40. He stated he woke up late and ate breakfast in his car. He was happy throughout the session. We started with going over days of week/date/month. He continues to demonstrate growth in this area. He started dancing when he notified the SLP it was "almost the weekend". This activity not only targets learning days of week/month, it also targets writing, numbers, and fine motor skills. We completed an /s/ blend activity today on which Richard was able to identify the correct blend according to the picture shown in a field of 2 with 80% accuracy and verbal cues. Tomorrow, we will target that goal in a field of 3 to increase difficulty. He did quite well with this task. Following that task, we did a book "It's My Turn, Smudge" that targeted /s/ blends and the importance of turn taking/sharing. Richard's speech intelligibility was improved with cues to over articulate however he is demonstrating difficulty carrying over that independently. He will slow down/over articulate in that immediate moment however does not carry it over into the next thought/sentence. We will continue to monitor and target that.
Chris was eager to share his plan for "making a movie" today with Sebastian at school later this afternoon. His enthusiasm was wonderful, and he was inspired to create a "movie poster" during our time together. Topic expansion focused upon aspects of plot, story line sequence and characters. Scaffolding supports were successful. It was noted however, that Chris' affect was highly variable this session as attention was observed to shift rapidly from focused context to tangential and or seemingly unrelated topics and then returning to context at hand. Conversational expansion with focus on contingent commenting was supported with familiar cues and supports successfully. Re- introduction of strategies to support refining of articulation (/s/) was noted. Supports were provided.
Richard was motivated to work on our story telling with a new story. He liked the pictures in the book which motivated him to give more elaborate details describing the characters and scenery. We then used the pictures to practice our speech /s/ blends and multisyllabic words by doing a scavenger hunt looking for target sounds in the pictures. He was proud of his detective skills and boasted that "Pokemon Go is helping him be a better detective." We laughed that he was trying to convince me to play Pokemon go. We finished our work in time to join the crew at recess. They were changing the rules of the game which was upsetting Richard. So with a little coaching he was able to advocate for himself and ask for clarification on the rules. The recess crew was responsive and Richard was proud of himself for speaking up.
Marcel was motivated using a fun book with quotes and small lessons about Positive Thinking for Teens. He mentioned in the previous sessions that he gets himself stressed out easily. Using positive quotes with lots of target /r/ sounds served as a nice way to develop some healthy strategies for managing stress. He particularly liked the one about the "uplifters" and surrounding yourself with people who make you feel good and motivate you to be the best that you can be. Practice was encouraged at home even if just for a few minutes each day.
