Affinity Speech and Language Services

These four resources will likely “change your lense” on how you work with kids with autism and learning differences in a positive and profound way.

3/26/2017

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1. “Uniquely Human” by Dr. Barry Prizant

Watch a 1-hour video of Dr. Prizant talking about "Uniquely Human" at Google’s Headquarters in Cambridge, MA.

2. Collaborative & Proactive Solutions - Dr. Ross Greene:

Take this video tour to learn more about Dr. Greene’s lense changing philosophy "kids do well if they can."

3. "Engaging Autism" by Dr. Stanley I. Greenspan and Dr. Serena Wieder

"Engaging Autism" has extremely valuable lessons about using the Floortime Approach to help kids with autism "relate, communicate and think."

4. The Learning Tree Model - The Greenspan Floortime Approach

Watch this video of Jake Greenspan explaining The Learning Tree Model.

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Self-Regulation and Sesame Street: A great place to start

1/17/2016

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Helping preschool aged children identify a range of emotions is a great place to start self-regulation training. In the video below, Sesame Street's Bert, helps John John "show" three different emotions: Sadness, Anger and Happiness. After you watch the video, see if your child can show you what "sad", "angry" or "happy" faces look like. Typically, after a child is able to identify a range of emotions, the self-regulation lessons expand to the following topics*:

reading their own body’s signals to decide what emotions they are feeling
understanding that their behavior affects how other people feel and think about them
naming triggers or "stressors" that impact their behaviors
utilizing strategies or tools to help regulate extreme emotions
figuring out how to problem solve tough situations in the moment

*These lesson ideas are from The Zones of Regulation® program.

Parents: For more information about self-regulation see the handout below from the website www.parentingcounts.org

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Transform a $3.00 Little Golden Book into Weeks of Language Intervention

1/7/2016

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Experts agree that weaving a child's natural "affinities" or "enthusiasms" into lesson plans is the best way to keep them engaged and motivated.

Here's a way to take a simple $3.00 Little Golden Book and make an interactive language activity for preschoolers to take home with them until they master the language in the book. Materials needed are a Golden Book, clear packing tape, laminator, scissors, self-adhesive velcro and a good Netflix show for when you are cutting and "velcroing".

The pictures below of the WALL•E and BIG HERO 6 Little Golden books were adapted for a preschooler working on the following goals: answering questions with a visual, increasing utterance length, pronouns, identifying emotions and -ing words.

Step 1: Go through the Golden Book and type out questions and answers that target your child's language goals.

Step 2: Tape the top or bottom of the pages in the book using packing tape to reinforce the areas you will be attaching velcro.

Step 3: Print out the questions and target sentences, then laminate the pages.

Step 4: Cut out each word of the "target sentence" and attach velcro. This way the child literally builds the sentence as he/she puts each word back on the page while saying the word. In addition, the act of putting each word back on the page helps slow down the pace of the child's speech and allows for articulation or fluency practice. Pre-literacy skills are also being reinforced as the child is learning that each printed word conveys meaning.

Step 5: Allow the child to take the book home and to school for additional practice. Each time the child comes back to speech therapy have them bring the book with them so that the speech-language pathologist can take data on progress.

Words of encouragement for when your hands get tired from cutting and velcro adhesive keeps getting stuck on the scissors: It takes a while to make the book, but children become very enthusiastic about the books and spend hours looking at them. They really want to take them everywhere! The payback is tremendous.

Generalization of skills learned is typically quite easy because pictures of their favorite topics are usually in many other places besides the book: toys, movies, t-shirts, shoes, cereal boxes, etc. They see their favorite character and can recall the sentences they learned in the book to use when describing other objects in everyday life.

Sometimes the kids might lose a word, but this is actually a good thing! They become aware that the sentence does not "sound" correct without all of the words on the page. The kids end up coming to speech therapy requesting specific words!

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Language Awakens with Star Wars Post Movie Conversation Tips!

12/18/2015

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Picture this: Your son or daughter sees Star Wars: The Force Awakens and you say: "What was it about?" They say: "It was um about...there was this...it was just really awesome!" That's when you pull out your handy Star Wars visual. It has the power to awaken some exciting Star Wars conversations.

It is easier for people to discuss new material or recall details from past events with a visual. Kids with autism especially benefit from visual support when communicating. Here are some ideas to awaken language in your child:

Play the "You Know Nothing about Star Wars" game:
Kids love to correct you when you are wrong! Plus, it evokes language and motivation to continue the conversation. Here are some examples of what you can say when looking at the visual:

Darth Vader returns!
Princess Leia gets to ride a scooter in this one.
Boba Fry is back in this movie.
I really like those Tie Fighters.
There are lots of Stormtrompers.
R2D2 looks so small and cute.
The Death Star is half it's size now!

Then let your child help teach you about the correct names.

Ask questions specific to the visual:

What is happening here?
Where are they going?
What happens next?
How is he/she/it feeling here?
What was scariest scene?
What was the most exciting scene?
Who is your favorite character in this picture?

Extend the conversation further:

Discuss intriguing Star Wars facts not many people know:
J.J. Abrams explained the background of the names in the movie in Entertainment Weekly.

Visit the Star Wars: The Force Awakens IMDB trivia page:
It's a great way to continue the conversation.

Encourage your child to share some of the cool Star Wars trivia they learned with friends:
It's helpful to brainstorm a phrase or question to say before sharing trivia with peers to act as a "spoiler alert". For example, they could say, "Do you want to hear some Star Wars trivia?" Discuss why "spoiling" a movie makes people feel frustrated. This is a lesson in perspective taking and thinking about the other person when they are talking.

Enjoy your Star Wars: The Force Awakens conversations and May the Force be with you!

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Five Ways to Improve Conversations with your Child

12/6/2015

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Does this conversation sound familiar?

PARENT: How was your day?
CHILD: Fine.
PARENT: What did you do?
CHILD: Nothing.

Here are the top five ways to improve conversations with your child:

1. The High and Low
I start many of my therapy sessions asking my clients about their "high and low" moments of the weekend or the day. Asking someone about their "high and low" allows you to learn about detailed events or occurrences that might never have been discussed.

Ask the "high and low" at the same time everyday to make it a more permanent routine:

Here’s what you ask:

What was the high of your day? The absolute best moment of your day when you felt really happy or content.
What was the low of your day? The moment when you felt sad, nervous or upset.

Hint: Encourage your child to say “How about you?” so you get to share your highs and lows too!

2. Comment on the Cool Topics
Do a little research on your child’s favorite interest. For example, you might say: “I saw that a new Star Wars trailer came out today.” or “Five nights at Freddy's fan videos are hilarious.” If your child is a Pokemon fan you might say: “I saw on Bulbapedia that a new Pokémon Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire gift pack will be available in Japan.”

Not only will your child gasp in astonishment that you know something so COOL, but he or she will gladly and eagerly converse with you.

Hint: Sitting down with your child and having them direct the conversation by teaching you or showing you something they are very interested in for a few minutes everyday can enhance language skills, strengthen your relationship and even increase fluent speech.

3. Question in the Morning, Answer in the Afternoon
When your child says "goodbye" before going to school, tell them you are going to ask them a specific question when you see them later that day. For example, you might say: “Today I’m going to ask you what made you laugh the hardest." Here are some other examples of topics to ask your child:

The oddest thing you heard.
One new thing you learned about _______. (insert relevant subject matter)
The most boring moment where you caught yourself daydreaming.
A compliment you gave someone.

Hint: Set a reminder on your phone to prompt you to ask the questions in the morning or afternoon.

4. Conversation Cards
Enhance meal time conversations or car rides with one or two rounds of conversation cards. These cards can strike up some hilarious conversation. I use these often in therapy to break the ice and practice conversation. Encouraging your family members to ask, “How about you?” after someone answers is a good way to practice reciprocal conversation.

Here are some card packs I like to use:

Hint: If someone doesn't like their first question card, I suggest everyone can choose up to 3 cards on their turn. This avoids kids going through 10-15 cards before they choose a question.

5. Listen with Empathy
Kids (and all humans) are much more likely to share information if they feel you will listen without judgment or critical words. Conversational partners who practice empathetic listening tend to have more in depth and frequent conversations.

For example, if your child says: “My low was getting 50% on my spelling test.” Instead of answering with this critical response: “Maybe you should have studied longer.” Try this more empathic response: “It sounds like that spelling test was hard for you today. That would be a low for me too.” Empathetic responses often involve restating what you just heard or asking clarifying questions.

Hint: Empathetic listening is strongest when the listener gives their undivided attention and resists the urge to interrupt.

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These four resources will likely “change your lense” on how you work with kids with autism and learning differences in a positive and profound way.

Self-Regulation and Sesame Street: A great place to start

Transform a $3.00 Little Golden Book into Weeks of Language Intervention

Language Awakens with Star Wars Post Movie Conversation Tips!

Five Ways to Improve﻿ Conversations with your Child

Five Ways to Improve Conversations with your Child