Santino was happy throughout the session. He was yawning but did not appear too tired otherwise. He was belching throughout both sessions with a strong smell to them. I know he ate prior to coming to school. We continued to target many of his current goals that have not yet been mastered. We worked on answering simple questions with object function given a visual field of 5 options. This has been a receptive goal however we are now working on it expressively (understanding the skill before using it verbally). Santino did demonstrate increased difficulty with this requiring more verbal prompting. This also helps target decreased echolalia in his speech (repeating what other people are saying). We worked on comprehension and answering questions based on what is read aloud with visual prompting. We targeted naming new verbs in a structured and unstructured task (outside on playground). We continue to target greeting, requesting, commenting and increasing overall utterance length with verbal output.
Richard was greeted in his classroom as he was explaining that they were making space for a new fish. We targeted /th/ in the initial, medial and final position at the sentence level. Medial position tends to be the most difficult., requiring more frequent cues. In addition, we targeted auxiliary verbs and past tense verbs. We were going to look at his new fish however he was asked to quickly rehearse for the talent show tomorrow. Richard enjoyed this as it was with two other friends and teachers. Richard did a great job listening to his teachers and following directions. It appeared that he was intelligibile to his peers and teachers as well. People were not having difficulties understanding him. Overall, it was a good session.
Chris arrived early once again and was eager to begin the session. He was however, extremely tired.
Attentional shifting was strong this morning and scaffolding supports were provided. Conversational expansion was facilitated by use of predominantly question driven stimuli, as comment-comment exchanges were characterized by simple affirmation and subsequent topic change. Chris was eager to discuss to the upcoming talent show, however, he shared that he was uncertain as to what he was going to do to participate. Internal distraction was noted this session and familiar Brain Gym movement pattern sequences were re- visited to support attention and shared engagement. Review of /s/ phoneme production was also a focus of today's session.
Chris arrived early this morning and was eager to begin the session. He initiated conversation by excitedly stating "I have a lot to tell you today." Supports for speaker-speaker overlap were highlighted quickly, as familiar reflective listening and "self awareness " cues were provided. Chris was eager to share a great deal of information specific to the highly motivating topics of his choice. Expansion to related topics, which supported expanded reciprocity were facilitated with the use of familiar scaffolding strategies. Rapid topic shifting was noted this session. Familiar cues and prompts facilitated increased use of cohesive ties as well as use of novel sentence structure. Review of /s/ phoneme production tasks was highlighted today as well.
Richard was greeted in his classroom as he finished with Ms. Debbie. He was happy and transitioned well. We discussed his new color coded schedule that makes it easier for him to transition between teachers. He was excited for his afternoon with some of his favorite subjects. We recalled actives and events from the week using past tense. Richard continues to require verbal cuing to produce age appropriate and accurate past tense verbs. In addition, we spent time targeting auxiliary verbs as Richard continues to omit or substitute them. We covered the date, month, day of the week & year. Richard is starting to understand the concepts of each. In addition, we targeted speech sounds /th/ in the initial and medial position at the sentence level. This skill is starting to generalize to conversation!! :) He requested to go outside for the last few minutes of the session and it was a great opportunity for him to target social interactions with peers which has been improving as well.
Spencer was excited to tackle another experiment in the kitchen. We planned for it last session and had all the required ingredients and materials. The first experiment made a big mess because of rushing and not following directions. We discussed what went wrong and why it is important to plan out and organize before we jump into a big activity like that. The 2nd secret formula of popsicles went a lot smoother and Spencer took his time. There was a lot of great /r/ words and vocabulary from the ingredients and directions. He was proud of his liquid results and couldn't wait to taste them in the solid form.
Tristan was tired after a long Monday at school. He asked to go outside. He demonstrated calm, respectful communication and asked to not practice all the words today because it has been a frustrating day. He was praised for his mature communication and we discussed how when we communicate that way, it is easier for friends, adults, and teachers to be more flexible in situations. His mood quickly improved when he saw that I was there to help him and work with him.
Christopher was in a great mood after the weekend. He had a frustrating episode with his sister so we reviewed what happened and discussed how he could handle it differently in the future. He said that he was too angry to use his calm strategies. Chris asked to review them so next time he gets mad, he'll be ready and remember what to do. Chris has made great growth in this area. During lunch and recess, he does not get as triggered and has learned to ignore and not "sweat the small stuff."
Richard was a little sleepy since it was Monday morning. We started outside to get a little movement in to wake up our body and mind. Richard was then ready to practice our speech sounds and do our work. We then designed our own game board in the form of Chutes and Ladders. Richard picked the vocabulary and language that focussed on having a positive attitude, not giving up, learning new vocabulary and some of the tricky multi syllable words. Richard was very proud of his work and realized that he accomplished a lot while having fun.
Santino was greeted in his classroom. His teacher reported him being tired during her session. He requested to go outside when he saw me with "go play outside play ground". We went to the playground to wake him up a bit and prepare for our therapy sessions. He has been really enjoying new areas of the playground. Social interaction was decreased today however I continue to parallel play with him with auditory bombardment of what we're doing on the playground. Sometimes, he would repeat me, appropriate to context. Following that task, we completed an auditory comprehension task with a book. We completed a following direction task with object function in a field of 4. For example, "give the girl something you can sleep on" and the options would be a book, cow, bed, pencil. After that, we did naming new verbs in a structured task. This was a bit more advanced but Santino had mastered the other verbs we did in structured task and we're targeting carrying over the skill to other environments and generalizing. We continue to work on increasing utterance length. and requesting appropriately.
