Your Middle Schooler: A Unique Age

Your Middle Schooler: A Unique Age is Moving!

2012-01-25T20:26:00.000-05:00

Hello Everyone!

Your Middle Schooler: A Unique Age is not only moving but expanding. The new site is called
The School Speech Therapist. Your Middle Schooler: A Unique Age will have its own page on the site.
I am very excited about the prospect of expanding my site. There have been many topics in the field of Speech Language Pathology that I have been interested in writing about that don't quite fit in Your MIddle Schooler.
Please take a look but keep in mind the site is still under construction. I welcome comments and questions. I really want this site to become interactive for parents, therapists, teachers and administrators.

Sincerely,
Teresa Sadowski MA/SLP-ccc

http://www.theschoolspeechtherapist.com/
http://www.theschoolspeechtherapist.com/?page_id=7

For SLP's Only.........Goal and Objective Writing

2011-12-13T20:27:00.001-05:00

I would love to find out how other speech therapists across the country are writing goals and objectives. I want to collect actual goal samples in all areas but especially in the areas of pragmatics and higher level language development. I'm interested in how detailed you get and how you measure those goals (observation vs. hard data). Please include what area of the country you are from, how big your caseload is, what type of school/clinic you work at and if you do your own testing.
After over 25 years of working maybe I need to freshen up my skills a little. I also want to know it there is such a think as a "right" way to write goals and objectives.
I would also be interested in speech and language materials that would be leveled for specific ages and grades. Any suggestions are welcomed Please send samples to my e-mail tsmotherof3@verizon.net or post on this site. I may compile the sample goals for an article.

Thanks

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Teresa Sadowski
Ipswich MA

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Being Proactive is Key

2011-11-07T12:55:00.001-05:00

I happen to come across this article called "Special Ed Strategies: Be Clear, Be Proactive, Be Inventive" http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3756442 I was actually quite impressed. I have to say I am lucky enough to work in a school that follows most if not all of the proactive steps outlined. In the past 25 years, I know systems that work better are the ones that are flexible enough to be proactive, see it from the parents perspective and have the administration support.
If I knew that an extra half hour of speech and language services was going to help a parent feel empowered and more comfortable with the service delivery, I offered it. Once I worked with a very skilled program manager who had no problem holding marathon IEP meetings. This made the parent feel like the team cared about their child, was listening to their concerns and taking those concerns seriously. Rushing meetings or squeezing them into a half hour or hour just feels wrong.
There are a few other things that would bother me as a parent that I've seen happen in meetings that are not proactive. I don't see classroom teachers taking notes when specialists are presenting their opinion or findings. Team members often play musical chairs during meetings. They leave and don't come back or send someone in their place. So they only get half the information. Advice..... be proactive and hire a sub. I saw one administrator pull out their blackberry during a meeting, hope someone let this new administrator know it wasn't a typical board meeting.
Being proactive is also a good rule for regular education too. A good behavioral plan that is consistent can solve a lot of problems. Creating and initiating universal supports will only strengthen your curriculum and hopefully save time. Schools need to preach high expectations and follow through.
I've worked in schools that take proactive measures and schools that didn't. The schools that didn't are always trying out new programs and new systems as a knee jerk reaction. Schools like this rarely accomplish anything. With some proactive measures in place it will be amazing how well your school can run.

This is a 3rd Grade Spelling List????

2011-04-09T17:57:00.002-04:00

   This isn't a middle school issue but I have to share. Last week a colleague showed me her child's 3rd grade spelling list. I am all for challenging students but this is a little bit much. This child is one of the brightest in the class but keep in mind this is only 3rd grade. My colleague asked her daughter if she knew the definitions or if she could use them in a sentence. The daughter’s response was “All I have to do is spell them”. A note to the teacher questioning the list, yielded no response. A friend showed her the list from the other third grade class and the words were much more appropriate. Guess those teachers aren’t collaborating. When teachers do something like this on their own it’s no wonder kids are on unequal levels within their own school system. I am almost positive that the kids who had this list learned nothing, maybe could memorize it for the test, frustrated because the spelling was above their developmental level and lost it right after the test since there was probably no previous knowledge to tie it to.
   Here is your challenge.....Can you spell these words without looking? Can you even pronounce these words? Can you use them in a sentence? Not the root word the whole word. Post your sentences below.
   I have to tell you I’d be in the principals office or the curriculum director office letting them know this is happing. Apparently this wasn’t a one time thing. Does anyone recognize this list for any program? Imagine the words our middle schoolers would be learning by middle school if this was an actual 3rd grade list. Why they would really be smarter than us.....not just think so.

Perspicacious
Reciprocity
Perspicacity
Paradigmatic
Obsolescent
Notoriety
Rhapsodic
Senatorial
Condemnation
Cosmetician
Prohibition
Reclamation
Presumption
Palestinian
Solemnity
Precocious

Follow up to /r/ and /s/ Remediation Conference

2011-03-11T07:50:00.002-05:00

Ok, so what did I learn. I learned that /r/ is a really difficult sound to remediate. (as the kids say "duh") When all was said and done, the therapy techniques Ms. Boshart talked about is what I’ve been doing. What made her conference difference is that she spoke about tongue stabilization and achieving a good resting position as being key to remediation, which made sense to me.

How is that done you ask? She presented some oral motor tasks to strengthen or stabilize the tongue and jaw in the correct resting position. Some were simple but some were invasive tasks involving entering into a child’s mouth with things like tongue depressors and toothetts. I understand the science behind it but I was gagging just watching her.

One thing she was very unclear on during her lecture (I say lecture because she clearly did not like questions, but maybe that was just to get through the material) was how to diagnosis a distorted /r/. I found that part very confusing. However, it didn’t seem to matter what type of /r/ the kid has, remediation was the same. When asked what to do about students who could say /r/ in the initial position but still produced distortion of r-controlled vowels she glossed over the answer. In the public schools, r-controlled vowels are very important in reading and phonics.

I have to wonder what population Ms. Boshart has worked with in her practice. Over the years my artic students have usually been been students with average cognition, a little older and appropriate motor skills, except for their mouth. Most would never feel comfortable with the invasive techniques Ms. Boshart recommends. When I posed that question, again all she talked about was desensitizing the student little by little. She either missed the point of my question or again hid the fact that she had no answer. Eventually she included some outside (the oral structure) cueing techniques but these were not emphasized.

Now I’m not saying Ms. Boshart techniques don’t work. I think she is right about good position being key. I just don’t feel comfortable going inside a student's mouth. I believe your typical public school kid will and should feel uncomfortable with some of the techniques presented in this conference. There has to be another way to achieve this. Maybe not. Lucky I live in New England where /r/ is produced in a variety of ways depending on your area, town or neighborhood. An /r/ that needs to be worked on in the mid-west doesn’t always have to be worked on here.
Below is one of Ms. Boshart's links to her products. Oh yes there was a gift shop at the end of our tour. Just like at Disneyland.

Oral-Motor Analysis and Remediation Techniques

Remediation of /r/ and /s/

2011-03-09T13:01:00.003-05:00

We are talking the trickiest of the tricky when we talk about working on remediating the

/s/ and /r/ sounds. As middle school therapists this is usually all we see in terms of articulation needs and what we dread most.

With the initiation of RTI in one of the last schools I worked with also came the directive that we wouldn’t see any kids in the middle school for articulation unless they were basically unintelligible. First I jumped for joy, no more /r/’s or /s/’s. Well that was fine until I got into their classrooms and heard how some of the kids sounded. Knowing that I might make a difference in their lives, I felt bad that I wasn’t able to work with them.

With a new job and new direction, I find myself in need of brushing up on my articulation skills. Specifically with those pesky hard to remediate sounds of /s/ and /r/. I’ve just spent three hours in a conference lead by Char Boshart (we have another 2 1/2 hours to go). So far I like the information I’m getting. Really nothing new but broken down into managable order and steps to follow. You need refreshers every once in awhile.

I guess as I am writing this I realize that Ms. Boshart hasn’t gone out and created the “program of the month.” She has taken what we’ve all be taught in terms of anatomy and articulation, researched all of it and applied her techniques. That seems to be the case anyway.

Her procedure and logic for /s/ sounds appropriate. On to /r/ this afternoon. Hope I can pick up some tips. I have a couple of significant cases. If Ms. Boshart techniques work and my students improve....... I would look like super therapist.

I'll let you know about how my afternoon works out......

Waiting for Superman-Movie Review

2011-02-27T12:01:00.002-05:00

I finally got around to watching the movie “Waiting For Superman.” The movie was basically about the state of education in the public schools and how it is failing many of our children. Highlighted in this movie are several outstanding educators that may want to change the system, but they know that’s impossible. However, they seem to be doing a very good job showing people that the system can be changed.

How did the schools, especially in urban areas get this way? The system is broken there’s no doubt about that. However, the movie puts the majority of the blame on the teachers unions and the fact that tenure teachers stay no matter what, good, bad, really bad or indifferent. Personally, I feel that is a problem but not the biggest problem schools face. Money issues, which were mentioned in the movie are a contributing factor. Also mentioned in the movie was that every president in recent history has apparently made education a priority and most have failed at it. Grand ideas no follow through. I’ve always wonder who is advising the presidents. Do they actually have hands on school experience or are they just some researcher with a myopic idea? Not mentioned in the movie was anything about curriculum, that we’re now teaching to tests, introducing concepts and skills before children are developmentally ready, lack of phonics education, lack of expectations from both parents and educators, lack of investment (not money) in children’s education from everyone, parents, teachers, community and politicians. This movie was also only able to look at the kids situation from a “positive parent factor”, parents who wanted better for their kids. I have a feeling there would be a different story if we could look at and profile the parents who didn’t give a damn. There are many them out there.

Some of the stats mentioned in the movie were staggering. That some schools have been “drop out factories” for 20 years, the worse schools are in our nations capitol, that so many kids are not prepared for high school reading only at the first or second grade level, that 600 teachers reside in New York City’s “rubber room” because they are not fit to teach kids but their contract keeps them a job (I’m sorry but if you’ve harmed a child in any way, no union contract should protect you. Not all are there for that reason and I understand that) and in Pennsylvania 68% of inmates are high school drop outs. I have a feeling the good stats do not out weigh the bad stats.

A good part of the movie focused on Michelle Rhee and her efforts to change and improve the DC public schools. While she wasn’t able to break the union offering merit pay in lieu of tenure, the movie did mention that overall scores were up in DC.

The movie raised a lot more questions around public education. People should look at how money is doled out to their school, how their teachers are evaluated, what is put in place when teachers are not able to rise to the challenge and why so many students need remediation as college freshman, just to name a few.

The movie introduces the concept of charter and magnet schools. I’m sure many people are not even familiar with these alternative solutions. The movie highlighted some very successful charter schools that are doing some wonderful things. Their stats show that they are preparing the students for college, better than the public schools do. However, I doubt that stat is true for all charter schools in the country. The movie also looked at what the selected charter schools are doing to be successful. The charter schools are small with a limited number of student slots. That alone might make them easier to manage.

Throughout the movie, a few students are followed through the process of applying to charter schools. Students are chosen through a lottery. Still I have to wonder if the kids applying to charter schools, especially charter high schools, are the top students with parental support. That would clearly aid the charter school success rate. As a private school parent, If things were different for us I would jump at the opportunity to apply to a charter school. Watching the lottery process was painful and I hope it was done for dramatic effect for the movie. Why would parents or the school want children there, especially the small children? Most private schools will send a letter saying if a student got in or not. The tears and disappointment that followed was hard to watch. Perhaps a good learning experience but this was a little different than not making the soccer team.

I enjoyed the movie. “Waiting for Superman” brought a lot of questions and concerns to mind. I have to wonder if public school administrators and above got the message and what will be done about it. Looking back at the past 25 years working in the public schools I know instead of looking at what is wrong and fixing it, someone will just come up with a new idea and the powers that be will embrace it without even knowing what they are doing.

Please view the movie and let me know what you think.

Book Review: a smart girls's guide to starting middle school

2011-02-23T08:05:00.000-05:00

   I recently came across this book while looking for a gift for my niece. I think it would be a great gift for any 4th or 5th grader moving on to middle school. There is so much practical information, hypothetical situations (with good solutions) and suggestions on all kinds of kid relevant middle school topics. I couldn't think of a topic that wasn't covered.
   The book itself is written in a style that makes it easy to read. Information is provided in short bursts making it a quick and easy to understand read. It's published by American Girl. I know American Girl dolls, accessories magazine and crafts are still very hot with the younger girls. I also assume older girls still love their dolls/memorabilia as memories and collectibles. Knowing that this book is part of that tradition might provided a nice bridge for them.
   Every little girl in my life will get a copy of this book before they make the big and sometimes scary transition to middle school. I would also suggest that parents take a glance at the book. I believe that would help to foster some good conversation about what to expect in middle school, help alleviate worries and let your daughter know she can always talk to you about Middle School concerns.

Now what do we do about the boys out there. Has anyone seen a similar book written for them? I'll have to research a little more.

Improve that Vocabulary!

2011-01-05T10:39:00.000-05:00

   A friend of mine showed me a couple of books she thought I might be interested it. The 100 Most Beautiful Words in English and The 100 Funniest Words in English. Both book are written by Robert Beard. After glancing through the words I think this would make the perfect gift for any student in middle school, high school and college. I find vocabulary development lacking in even some of the brightest students, especially with the higher level descriptive vocabulary words.
   I'll guarantee you'll learn some new vocabulary too. I knew about 1/2 the words on the most beautiful word list and about 3/4 on the funniest word list. I really liked the funniest word list because not only were the words silly but a lot of them were well accepted slang words. Any student could use these books to spice up their writing and oral language. (At the very least, get the books and throw them in the bathroom.)
   Check out alphadictionary for a complete review of both books.
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/100_funniest_words.html
http://www.alphadictionary.com/articles/100_most_beautiful_words.html

Social Skill Development Programs in Teens

2011-01-02T08:51:00.005-05:00

I don't usually get inspiration for this blog while at the hairdresser or from people magazine. However, a few weeks ago People Magazine highlighted a unique program developed at UCLA to help teens gain awareness, understanding and improved use of social pragmatic skills. Given my extensive work with middle school and high school students, I know exactly they type of student the program is designed for. The People article

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20441654,00.html

talks about a 17 year old boy and his lack of understanding on how to act and interact with peers. It briefly describes the program he went through.

The program is called PEERS, Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relationship Skills. PEERS is a manualized, social skills training intervention for adolescents and young adults.

http://www.semel.ucla.edu/peers

This is a program that addresses a critical skill that is rarely addressed within the public school setting. It's difficult to understand that social skills do not develop in some people because social skills are usually acquired in such a natural fashion. I've never seen a developmental chart guideline for the development of social skills. Social skills are not concrete skills like acquiring good grammatical skills. We can measure and assess grammatical usage with ease. With social skills, professionals can tell something is wrong and we can describe it. Very few pragmatic language tests are out there and I've never reviewed one that was able to really identify a pragmatic issue without detailed observation and analysis from a professional. As a matter of fact most older students will test within the average range on formal pragmatic assessments. This leaves kids similar to Joey basically in limbo.

I was excited to read about this program. I'm glad someone has identified this as a significant need. The recent law suit in Massachusetts, (see previous post) highlights that more needs to be done in the area of social skill development for adolescents and young adults. Frankly in my opinion it should start a lot earlier.

Social Skills for Teenagers with Developmental and Autism Spectrum Disorders: The PEERS Treatment Manual

Visualizing and Verbalizing in the Classroom

2010-12-13T22:58:00.002-05:00

I'm presenting an overview of the visualizing and verbalizing program to my special education staff tomorrow. I love this program and think the concept behind it is key to success for all kids. I'd love to know how this works in other schools as part of the curriculum. Anyone out there using it in the classroom on a regular basis?

2010-11-27T15:40:00.001-05:00

Did You Know October is "Month of the Young Adolescent?"

2010-10-04T11:19:00.000-04:00

New England League of Middle Schoolers sent this to me. I found it interesting with good ideas and information on Middle School life. The National Middle School Association puts this together. Principals and teachers might find this particularly interesting.

http://www.nmsa.org/moya/

1 in 5 teens suffering significant hearing loss - White Coat Notes - Boston.com

2010-08-17T21:08:00.001-04:00

Something to think about and to be aware of. If this is true it and your child is the 1 in 5, school performance may be effected, especially if your child has weak auditory perceptual skills. It would be interesting to note if the 1 teen in 5 also had a history of significant hearing loss early on due perhaps to ear infections or fluid.

1 in 5 teens suffering significant hearing loss - White Coat Notes - Boston.com

Editorial From ASHA Services in Schools Magazine

2010-08-10T08:43:00.004-04:00

From the Editor...

It's NOT Too Late to Help Adolescents Succeed in School

Marilyn A. Nippold, PhD, Editor

http://lshss.asha.org/cgi/reprint/41/2/137

Hit manual download after the page appears

Therapist to Therapist: Why Am I Hearing More Older Student With Articulation Errors?

2010-08-08T17:15:00.002-04:00

I’ve recently received several advertisements for a new Articulation Test put out by LinguiSystems referred to as the LAT (Linguisystem Articulation Test). I haven’t reviewed the test but one of their advertising selling points is updated norms, “why use 10 year old norms.” Initially I had to chuckle at that one because it’s only and articulation test and how much could norms for an articulation test actually change over 10 years or even 50 years. Despite theories of some researchers, I don’t think child development has changed that much but experiences and exposure has.

Then I started thinking about recent observations I’ve made at the middle school level. Going into the classrooms more often, I’m hearing more and more older children with significant articulation issues. The errors noted are usually distortions (not substitutions) of later developing sounds /s/, /l/, /r/, /w/, open vowel sounds and even some difficulty coordinating oral motor movements (making their speech look and sound awkward).

The older students demonstrating these articulation errors are not children with a history of special needs or developmental disability. These are not students who might be considered uncoordinated. Most of these kids are average to above average students, coordinated, relatively mature and social.

Now my observations were very unscientific but I starting asking myself why are there more older kids with articulation errors. Of course I’ve developed some theories on this

I feel the biggest reason for increased articulation difficulties in older children is because there is a lack of phonics instruction and drill during the early years. Most of the children I observed were exposed to a whole language approach to reading without consistent phonics supplement across all classrooms. Without a strong phonics background the ability to identify and discriminate between similar sounds may be lacking. Phonics helps to develop auditory awareness which is key to many language skills.
Schools often do not allow or encourage the necessary intensive therapy needed to remediate articulation issues. Some school systems are insisting that all therapy (articulation and language) take place in a classroom setting. That works for some kids, not all. Sometimes iii a budget issue disguised as a “new articulation therapy approach.” These schools might have very large group articulation therapy. The “new therapy approaches” are usually not designed by Speech Language Pathologists either. Some schools have made mandates not to work on articulation in the older grades at all. It’s my opinion that articulation therapy is very individual and private matter, especially with older students.
These kids are not already on the special education rolls so most of the time we are not going to pick them up for an articulation errors unless they are clearly dyspraxic or have parents who are insistent. For some schools it is the whole thing about articulation being a medical issue rather than an educational issue.
As therapists we often hesitate to pick up kid with later developing sound errors either through an IEP or 504. Later developing sounds are more difficult to remediate. By the time students are developmentally ready to work on and remediate later developing sounds they don’t want to, parents don’t push it, schools don’t push it and it takes a lot of practice. However, the process is always made easier if the kids have a good background in auditory perception and discrimination. Again this is what develops when students are exposed to a strong phonics approach.
School schedules at the middle and high school level often cannot accommodate individual or pull out therapy for either articulation or language. To rule out pull out therapies for all kids based on the idea of total inclusion, takes the “individual” out of the individual educational plan. Some therapy issues are just so private or need to be addressed so intensively that it just can’t happen in a classroom setting. School schedules must offer flexibility for students in need (addressing language, articulation issues or other learning needs). One therapy model that is working well for some therapists is intensive sessions for a shorter duration. For some older kids it isn’t appropriate to address articulation at school and an outside therapist would be a better choice.

Should we be addressing articulation with older students in school? Should schools be advocating for this? I guess that depends on the what you want for students. Do we just want kids just to be able to get by and pass state mandated testing or do we also want kids to grow up to be articulate adults who can express themselves? Do we want kids to be able to present themselves as confident well spoken adults? If we do, articulation therapy is very important.

Most older students with articulation distortions have little or no awareness of how they pronounce their sounds. Even if their speech is accepted by peers, teachers and parents for now, someday they will have to go on a job interview, interact with clients, interact with customers and make important phone calls.

I am very interested in comparing the norms from the old moldy Goldman Fristoe. Which in all honesty I would be more than happy to replace since the pictures are so dated, the stories are babyish and I never found it easy to track when giving it. I would love to see where students stand in terms of articulation development (even though it is only normed from ages 3-8). I curious to see if there are any changes in articulation development in younger children.

Do Speech Language Pathologists really even need to use an articulation test? Yes, of course if we want to prove to administrators that articulation needs to be address. However, most experienced speech language pathologists know articulation development guidelines and can differentiate between a developmental delay, out of range distortions and apraxia just by looking, listening and observing.

I think it is really sad that so many “typical” older kids are affected by articulation difficulties. What have we done wrong? Most people in this country think our primary job is working on articulation errors in children. Historically we’re known for fixing “speech” as opposed to working on “language.” This is an issue which needs further investigation.

Let me know what you think.

Fifty Great Things About Middle Schoolers

2010-07-07T07:12:00.001-04:00

My principal sent this home in the last newsletter. I though it was kinda cute. He got it from site called Education World too many years ago. Anyway Education World turned out to be a site with lots of good information. http://www.educationworld.com/ Check it out

I invite every one to add their ideas on why Middle Schoolers are great.

FIFTY GREAT THINGS ABOUT MIDDLE SCHOOLERS!

1. They are eager to learn.

2. They are willing to be directed.

3. They are diverse and interesting.

4. They leave after three years!

5. They're just plain fun to be around.

6. They have lots of energy.

7. Most of them love school.

8. They are like clay -- still impressionable.

9. They can be influenced...positively.

10. Ninety-two of them are great singers (says the director of the 93-member middle school chorus).
11. They keep me young.
12. They want to fit in, but they also want to do well in school.
13. They have great personalities.
14. Every day is different.
15. They are potty-trained -- hopefully!
16. They are a study in contrasts.
17. They love new ideas.
18. They have good manners...generally.
19. They will contribute to my social security fund!
20. They respond well to adults.
21. They are enthusiastic -- times two!
22. They are caring (usually *not* just about themselves!).
23. They are fun to teach -- and to learn from.
24. They're electric!
25. They are easy to please.
26. They grow out of it!
27. They're becoming so aware of everything around them.
28. They make me laugh all the time.
29. They are cool!
30. They come up with the most interesting ideas.
31. They like to try new things.
32. They aren't shy about sharing their thoughts.
33. They are so in-your-face honest!
34. They are independent, but they still like their teachers.
35. They love to use my mirror!
36. Hugs are still popular (as long as the other students don't see them giving you one!).
37. They still have hopes and dreams, and they love to share them.
38. They are fashion critics, sure to tell you if you're dressed to meet "the standard"!
39. Everything is funny to them.
40. They're unpredictable.
41. They have great conversation skills.
42. They enjoy my corny stories and jokes.
43. They're unorganized, but manageable.
44. There's no need for aerobics because teachers get plenty of exercise trying to keep up with them!
45. They are helpful.
46. They can be molded in spite of the "supposed" I-hate-all-grown-ups attitude.
47. The light in their eyes still shines.
48. You never know what will come out of their mouths next.
49. There's never a dull moment!
50. And the fiftieth thing teachers think is great about teaching middle schoolers..............June, July & August

One Place for Special Needs: Are you a honey parent or vinegar parent?

2010-07-07T06:51:00.001-04:00

I found this article which poses a very interesting question. Believe me, over the course of my career, I've met my share of both "honey" and "vinegar" parents. However, I feel the author is a little off on her suggestions. While it is great to get little additions to the classroom or have parents volunteer, those suggestions are at the bottom of my criteria list for a "honey" parent. In my opinion, "honey" parents are those that truly care about their child's education and do everything they can to help make their child successful. These are parents that work with their child and provided them all opportunities possible. These are parents who try their best to accept their child's limitations and disabilities. These are parents who have educated themselves the best they can around their child's disability. These are parents who have realistic expectations for their child's success. These are parents who try to at least see a little humor in their situation. These are parents who speak up when necessary (it is a shame so many school systems make them fight and feel they have to be aggressive. I never have problems supporting parent's realistic demands). These are parents who say "Thank You" once in awhile and these are parents who genuinely like their children.

Just something for parents to think about. Please post any other criteria suggestions for a "honey" parent.

One Place for Special Needs: Are you a honey parent or vinegar parent?

Have you ever heard of the Marshmallow test?

2010-04-24T16:09:00.000-04:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0oPuAO3M8c&feature=player_embedded#!

This is very interesting and I think even middle school and high school parents can learn from this.

Remember parents it's ok to say NO! We should all say it more often.

Teresa:)

Misinterpreting Social Context

2010-04-24T16:04:00.000-04:00

When kids are taught about “context” most classroom teachers are usually referring to the context of a story. Middle schoolers, especially the ones who have Non Verbal Learning Disabilities, Aspergers or even just lack of social experience may often not understand the “context” of social situations. Not understanding the context of a situation may cause misinterpretations. This is where difficulties may arise. Students may not understand when they are being teases or even bullied. They may also not be able to interpret teasing and bullying from playing around.

With the new models in education suggesting less pull out (something I support when appropriate) these are the kids that are falling through the cracks. These students are usually bright enough to pass standardized tests, they are usually doing well enough in the classroom to get by. However, classroom teachers do not often recognize how many social cues these kids miss. It’s important to look at manner of performance and observations in both structured and unstructured situations. Administrators tend to say just put them in class where they can practice their social skills. Unless you really understand children who have difficulty within the pragmatic realm you may believe they can do this on their own. But the reality is if it was that easy and automatic we would have no kids with social skill problems because they have been in class all these years practicing their social skills. The reality is that these kids need some therapy or if people are more comfortable with the word “coaching”. Just like reading and math, awareness, learning and carryover of pragmatic skills is not going to happen without instruction.

Over the years I have tried to get my kids to learn about social context, how to analyze it and how to read it. You have to keep in mind this is probably going to be a weakness for these kids throughout their lives. However, it’s important to give them the best tools possible. Sometimes I will do this as a lesson and sometimes just interject as situations come up.

To figure out social context I work with the students to become more aware in the following areas:

Relationship......Look at the relationship of the person or persons involved. Is it a family member, a close friend, a stranger, a teacher or other respected adult. We go ever several examples of how we might approach or react to different people.
Tone.....What is the tone of the interaction. What tone of voice are they using. Is it a happy tone, mad tone, sad tone. We also go over several examples of this. Most children can tell what tone their parents are using so I often role play their parents.
Sarcasm..........Are the people using sarcasm? How do you tell? Is someone joking around or are they serious. This takes a lot of practice. Even during role playing sometimes the kids aren’t sure if I am being serious or not. To see the confused look on their faces tell it all.
Facials Expressions....It’s important to know how to read those. You actually have to be aware and know what to look for. This come easy for most of us but for people who have difficulty with this or have difficulty making eye contact it’s hard. You miss a lot of nonverbal cues thus contributing to misinterpretations.
Gestures...same as facial expressions you have to look for them and interpret them correctly to help understand intent.
Mood....What is the mood of the situation. Did something just happen to make the person angry? In that case you will approach the situation differently. This again could invite a variety of emotions and all have to be figured out.

Even people who don’t have a specific diagnosis that impacts the pragmatic realm may misunderstand or misinterpret situations within social situations. These steps are just a glance and what it takes to understand social situations. Children who experience pragmatic difficulty in social situations have to be walked through almost every situation for meaning and intent until they can start to do it on their own.

Explain, explain and explain some more. If you have a child who frequently misinterprets social interactions talk to them about it all the time. Let teachers and other adults they come in contact with know about the struggles your child has. Talk about how to handle situations and how to react to situations. You are your child’s best teacher and advocate.

An Interesting Article on the Fate of Education

2010-03-16T23:23:00.000-04:00

A friend sent me this article. It's a perspective that many are missing because of the push for testing and as result most states are "teaching to the test". Let me know what you think. It's not really on middle school but an interesting comment on education in general.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-ravitch14-2010mar14,0,2024751.story

Restitution for Bullying

2010-03-07T07:54:00.003-05:00

A friend sent me this article and I wanted to share it with you. A court in Michigan has finally said a school system did not do enough to either prevent bullying or to keep a student safe (which ever way you like to like to look at it).

I would still like to see a bigger parent role in this. Perhaps parents should be fined in civil court if their child continues to bully, especially when it is the same child for years and years and most definitely when it becomes physical. What ever the situation parents need to be brought into the situation earlier and much more often.

As a teacher in the public schools I know a lot of bullying takes place out of our sight but since there was a problem why weren't teachers on alert especially in middle school?

http://www.freep.com/article/20100306/NEWS06/3060306/1001/news

Please check out my other bullying article from September/October 08

Teaching Etiquette in Schools

2010-02-21T11:25:00.002-05:00

A friend recently sent me this link. It goes along with some thoughts I've been having around expectations and behavior both in schools and at school functions. At my son's high school they always send out a list of dos and don'ts before each formal event. At the very least it saves a lot of questions for the parents. Some of the items on this list include general expecations for behavior, how to introduce your date (yes they have a receiving line), appropriate dress tux vs suit vs sport coat/long dress vs short dress and if flowers are appropriate. Guidelines like this should also be instituted for middle school events. Couldn't hurt anyway.

One thing that is often missing with the boys is the hat off inside and handshake when meeting new people. How many of you teach or expect your boys to do this?

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/arizona-teacher-adds-etiquette-to-lessons/19355240?icid=mainhtmlws-main-wdl1link3http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aolnews.com%2Fnation%2Farticle%2Farizona-teacher-adds-etiquette-to-lessons%2F19355240

Let me know what you think about the article. All of this ties in with appropriate use of language and how to read and respond in new situations. Not to mention it makes the kids look good.

Extended Time

2009-09-28T20:36:00.004-04:00

I have to admit I am not a fan of extended day or extended year at the middle school level or at any level for that matter. What I would like to see is the hypothetical money used to enhance and create after school programs, provide enrichment for kids who need it and provide training/support for parents who have significant difficulty with their kids.

As a parent, I loved spending time with my kids even when they were hormonal pre-teenagers. I always felt that I needed to get to know them at this stage of their life if we were to ever have a good relationship as adults, don't know why just a feeling. I loved supporting their after school/evening activities and still tried to volunteer at school when I could. In one fell swoop, the government could take that away by decreasing the time you spend with your child.

This is one time when I am very glad my children are in a "traditional private school" without new "initiative" presented every year. What do you think?

Visualizing and Verbalizing: A Reflection Paper

2009-09-01T22:43:00.004-04:00

In June I participated in a Lindamoodbell Visualizing and Verbalizing workshop. As part of the credit requirement I chose to write a reflection paper. After learning more about this program I think it can be very beneficial at the middle school level. I'm looking forward to trying Visualizing and Verbalizing with students this fall.
Teresa

Visualizing and Verbalizing
A Reflection Paper

Teresa Sadowski MA/SLP-ccc

Whenever I take a class or a workshop, I always think about my current caseload and how components of the program presented might work with a particular student. Visualizing and Verbalizing sent my head spinning, not just about how certain students might benefit but how I address remediation of Higher Order Thinking in general.

I work with older students, mostly middle school. Visualizing and Verbalizing has been out for years but I never got the impression it targeted older students. In fact, I believed it only targeted younger students with reading issues. At my old school, a Visualizing and Verbalizing kit sat on my shelf for years gathering dust. Now, after learning more about the program, I now know Visualizing and Verbalizing can work for middle school students.

My initial reasons for taking the workshop were selfish. I needed continuing education hours and it was close to home. It was also about time I learned what Visualizing and Verbalizing was all about. What I learned was that the Visualizing and Verbalizing program focuses on developing the underlying skills necessary for comprehension and higher order thinking.

Most of my therapy with the typical language disable middle school student, focuses on developing higher level language tasks or higher order thinking (HOT) as referred to in the Visualizing and Verbalizing program. Higher order thinking includes such skills as understanding humor, perspective taking or problem solving (there are many higher level language areas, those are just examples). There have been moments where I’ve often wondered if my students even have the underlying skills to understand the subtleties of humor, the whole perspective of another, can plan different scenarios for solving a problem or can even see the steps to solving a problem.

The interesting thing about Visualizing and Verbalizing is that it clearly addresses skills that we as speech language pathologists are aware of but may not ever identified the specific missing piece creating the language disability. I know and understand all the concepts behind Visualizing and Verbalizing I just never put a systematic program behind it or understood the implications when a piece of the “problem” was missing. I feel my statements are rather ironic since the student’s ability to see the gestalt or the "whole" of something is the basis of the Visualizing and Verbalizing Program. Everyone needs to be able to “see the whole” in order to comprehend correctly. One might think that comprehension only involves reading, but comprehension is required throughout our day in order for us to be competent with language. Brainstorming at the workshop, we concurred that:
“Comprehension is the understanding of verbal, visual and pragmatic (non-verbal) messages conveyed.”
If a student only comprehends certain parts of a problem, situation, idea or context rather than whole problem, situation, idea or context, difficulties or misunderstandings will arise. As mentioned above, comprehension difficulties are not limited to reading but can also affect understanding in math, academic content and social/pragmatic situations. Basically, if a student misses information or can not “connect the dots” they will have difficulty understanding the gestalt or the “whole”.

As far as the middle school population goes, other than typical language disabled students, I thought of 5 specific groups of kids that would benefit from some (if not all) of the Visualizing and Verbalizing program. See descriptions below:

1. Children who have decoding problems spend so much time decoding they miss content. If a middle school student cannot decode we are worried. Instruction will obviously focus heavily on decoding. While decoding instruction is desperately needed at the middle school level, comprehension demands also grow by leaps and bounds. We usually see a wider gap developing between decoding and comprehension in middle school creating significant academic issues. I believe the Visualizing and Verbalizing program was originally designed for these students to help them gain awareness of comprehension demands.

2. Children with attention issues may be reading or listening to words but not concentrating enough to take it in. Thus, comprehension is lost. Have you ever had to read a page over again because you were distracted? Well that happens to ADD kids all the time, even kids on medication. They haven’t learned to pay attention or listen.

3. Children who haven’t learned to listen due to intermittent hearing loss. Over the years, I have worked with children who experienced some type of significant hearing loss at a young age. Many of these children struggle in school. In any given school year, I would estimate that at least 50% of my caseload had a significant history of ear infections or another malady effecting hearing for a significant period of time when they were younger. I document and explain my theory further in a paper I wrote a couple of years ago after taking the Lindamoodbell LIPS program. http://yourmiddleschooler.blogspot.com/search/label/otitis%20media%20and%20reading
These children may also fall into the two categories mentioned above. When you work with students who have a history of intermittent loss, especially at the younger levels, you can usually tell something is wrong but can’t quite put your finger on it. Several components of the Visualizing and Verbalizing program combined with a strong phonics program could be extremely beneficial for these students.

4. Children diagnosed with a nonverbal learning disability. Talk about students who cannot see the “whole”. These students tend to have a weak sense of humor, difficulty with abstract comprehension/thinking and difficulty organizing higher level language in terms of being able to make a point with supporting details. Visualizing and Verbalizing could not only help develop higher order thinking, it could hopefully help them identify or at least increase awareness of “the missing piece or pieces”.

5. Children with very low cognitive skills, maybe even my autistic students where the main goal is to expand language, add descriptors, improve grammatical usage and increase vocabulary. If it also helps them increase comprehension and see the gestalt those would be an added bonus.

I can actually visualize and understand how the Visualizing and Verbalizing program could be used for all these purposes and at many different levels. As speech language pathologists, we are skilled at being flexible with instruction and able to modify lessons as needed. Visualizing and Verbalizing is an adaptable program, the student’s response and progress directs their movement through the program. I actually feel that as a speech language pathologist with many years of experience, I have an advantage and advanced skills when it comes to modifying to specific needs and levels of development. I am a little concerned that many of my middle school students will feel this program is a little babyish for them. However, I plan to address this by using pictures that are more mature, expecting a little more from them at each level in terms of content and written product and increase role playing. I am sure once I try this program with older students I will have a better idea of what modifications I need to make.

Since this is a reflection paper, I feel I have to get on my soap box at least once. With the introduction of the “whole language approach” to reading in the early to mid-eighties, we’ve lost strong phonics instruction at the early grades. The people making decisions in the field of education seem to focus too much on content, too early. Content is important, however, the content is often too high from a developmental perspective. So not only have students lost what I feel is necessary phonics immersion, they are also presented content that they may not be able to grasp, have the necessary background/experiences to understand or just plain don’t understand the vocabulary even in context. With a lack of phonics and a lack of comprehension, there is a higher chance that some students will not develop appropriate decoding skills and/or misunderstand content. Both of those factors could lead to significant reading disabilities in some students. In my experience and observation of school based reading programs, reading programs heavily laden with phonics and phonics drill during the early years, appear to be more successful in developing overall reading skills.

At the middle school level, we raise the bar for students in terms of classroom performance. Teachers have expectations for development of higher order thinking and use of higher level language (especially written). It’s just a given that all students are developing higher level language skills. For our disabled students, students without enriching environments or students without academic expectations (parent and school) this may not happen. Teachers without the understanding of how higher order thinking develops are often mystified as to why a student struggles. I write a standard goal for most of my students who have not been able to expand their verbal and written language on their own. The common goal that reads something like this:

Jack will generate ideas and formulate complex sentences, (grammar, word order, logic and increased detail) about pictures of situations, interactions or events both spontaneously and when incorporating selected vocabulary.

My theory has always been that the kids have to be able to do it verbally before they can write it down. Now Visualizing and Verbalizing has given me a systematic method to help them expand language, increase comprehension of higher level language and perhaps speed the process along. Speeding the process along is important at the middle school level because writing demands increase significantly, higher order thinking is expected, students are preparing for high school and the three years tend to fly by very quickly.

I am fortunate that in my school I have both a reading specialists and a special needs teacher to address reading and writing issues. However, I now see even more clearly that their work cannot make the expected progress if the student does not have the necessary underlying language comprehension skills, skills that the Visualizing and Verbalizing program can help develop.

I look forward to incorporating Visualizing and Verbalizing into my therapy next year. However, with an integrative therapy model pushed at the administrative level, I may not be able to work as intensely with students to make the expected progress or to move the program along quickly enough to keep the student interested Lack of individualized intensive services is my concern with all aspects of therapy under this model. However, I can try to encourage teachers to include aspects of the Visualizing and Verbalizing program in their presentation. I believe this will be difficult at the classroom level for two reasons. The students who can significantly benefit from the program won’t get the tailoring or intensive practice needed to make a significant difference and the rest of the students will find it too easy or more of a fun activity. It might be easy to get teachers to buy into the theories behind the Visualizing and Verbalizing program but getting them to use it, well; I don’t feel that will happen. As we know, teachers have a lot on their plate already.

If I am able to work with students on an intensive level, I hope to see immediate progress within all the subgroups mentioned above. Looking at my standard goal, there is really no way to measure it other than formal testing one to three years down the road. With Visualizing and Verbalizing, I will be able to measure progress obviously as the child moves through the program. What I expect to see outside therapy will differ based on the students individual disability. I want my low cognitive kids to expand language, I want my NLD kids to see the “whole”, I want my ADD kids, kids with decoding issues and kids with a history of hearing loss kids to learn to listen and to take the time to enjoy content, I want all my kids to improve their comprehension of higher level language and hopefully their writing skills. I guess I have high expectations, maybe too high. We’ll see.

I look forward adding Visualizing and Verbalizing to my therapy repertoire. I wish I picked up this old but exciting program a little sooner.