The Circus has come to town!

I was inspired by a student last week who was telling me that he would go to the Circus on Sunday.  I thought this would be a good theme for the week, and hopefully generate a lot of language from several students who may have also gone.  I began the session with this interactive book created by Speech32.  You can purchase from her Teachers pay teachers site.

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Lets-Go-to-the-Circus-Interactive-book-2004363
I also combined some ideas from Pinterest and made this Circus Sensory Bin.

We targeted categories and yes/no questions during our play with the sensory bin.  For students who are non-verbal, you can use simple yes/no switch buttons.

Our craft for the day was centered around yes/no questions as well.  Every time the student answered the yes/no question correctly he was able to add a popcorn to the bag.  We also incorporated the core word on into this activity.  

If you have time the students can make their own elephant hat. 

Finally, we built a bridge for the elephants to cross to get to the circus.  The student was able to make requests, comment, and give directions during this activity using communication book.  And as always, the real fun is in knocking the bridge down at the end and building it again.  

Food play and AAC

I was able to spend some time working with some students the other day during a food play activity.  One of my students is just beginning to use LAMP app on his iPad device. We were able to incorporate new words into the session immediately.  The activity was to expose the students to several different pasta choices.   He was able to ask for the specific pasta that he wanted by the end of the session using his app.

I loved witnessing his language expand on the spot! He was requesting rigatoni, and vermicelli by the end of the session!

Using static boards for students who have motor speech disorders

I have worked with several students lately who are using augmentative communication to support their verbal communication.  These are students who want to speak but are aware that sometimes their communication partner has trouble understanding what they are trying to say due to their motor speech disorder.  Sometimes, the communication partner just needs a few clues to help them figure out what the student is requesting.  Our activity for today was to incorporate Head Banz the quick question game into our therapy.

 During the game, I wore the card on my head.  I asked the student yes/no questions to figure out what category the item was in.  I also allowed the student to use the alphabet static board to give me the first letter in the word.  Here is an example of a similar static board.

The student was very successful with this activity, and it showed him how much power he had in helping me figure out the word he wanted me to guess.  I think this skill would be helpful to have when the student is making a request of the caregiver and the caregiver does not understand the request.  It was a fun way to empower the student and caregiver.