This week we focused on communication and motor skills related with brushing teeth. Please see our google slides and enjoy the songs with your child. One way to integrate communication skills while tooth brushing is to provide your child with choices.

Tips for providing choices

“It’s time to brush your teeth!”

• Present 2 objects that are both needed for the task: “Do you want your toothbrush or toothpaste?”
• Present 2 of the same object with different colors: “Do you want your red toothbrush or your blue toothbrush?”
• Present 2 objects that are not similar: “Should we use a sock or a toothbrush?”
• Present 2 objects that are similar: “Should we use a toothbrush or hairbrush?”

Group Therapy

Welcome back families! It has been great seeing some of you during our online group therapy sessions this week! We are providing online group sessions this week and next week before learning labs begin on September 21st. We look forward to seeing all of you next week!

Our theme this week and next is ‘Getting ready in the morning’. This week we focused on ways to incorporate communication and motor skills into the everyday experience of getting dressed. Please see our slide presentation with links for dressing songs, tips for dressing and adaptive clothing lines.

Morning Routine Visual Schedule

Transitioning from summer to a new school year can be challenging for many students. Given our current situation, the 2020 school year presents an extra layer of difficulty for students and parents! One of the strategies we can use to help ease the transition is to establish a predecible morning routine and reinforce it by using a visual schedule.

• Talk with your child about each step of the process and show the pictures as you move through each task.
• Help your child to understand the sequence of events by using “first- then” to describe the tasks in relation to one another. For example, “First we get dressed, then we eat breakfast.”

Clothing choice board

A way to incorporate communication skills during your morning routine is to provide opportunities for your child to choose his or her clothing.

• Present 1 or 2 clothing options at a time.
• Ask different types of questions:
  • Yes/no questions such as “Do you want to wear this sweater?”
  • Multiple choice questions using different types of clothing such as “Do you want to wear pants or shorts?”
  • Multiple choice questions using the same type of clothing adding descriptive words such as “Do you want to wear the blue shirt or the red shirt?
  • ‘Wh-‘ questions such as “What do you want to wear?”
• Allow for different types of responses:
  • Nod or shake head
  • Look at, point to, or touch the clothing
  • Point to picture symbols on a choice board
  • Produce sounds or words
• Provide a verbal model to reinforce your child’s choice such as “Shirt”, “Blue shirt” or “I want blue shirt”.
• Show your child how to point to the words on the communication board as you say them.

As always, please feel free to contact me with questions at huntd@dearbornschools.org or 313-827-8335.

We are talking about things we like to do with our friends for our last week of summer school. We encourage everyone to do something for or with your friends (or siblings). You could go to a playground, make a card with homemade paint, or make fruit smoothies. Be sure to check out our ancillary slides with videos and songs as well as our recorded therapy session. Have a great week!

We continue to appreciate interacting with those who are able to join us during our live sessions! Please share our recorded session or our slides with your child and enjoy the videos and songs together! In our session we demonstrate how to make sensory bottles and bags at home with your child.

Therapy tips:

1. Start by putting SOME of the ingredients in the bottle or the bag and ask your child is she wants “more”. You may need to provide a verbal model by saying “more” or “I want more” as well a visual model by making the sign with your hands. You could also verbally model “yes” with a head nod and “no” with a head shake.
2. Have your child help you look for objects around the house to put in the bottle/bag or provide options for him to make a choice between 2 objects. Hold up 2 objects and have him use his preferred mode of communication to choose such as eye gaze, pointing, reaching and taking hold of the object, or verbalizing.
3. Extend the activity by giving many choices of color, size, shape, and quantity. Please see examples below.
4. When you see a decrease in your child’s attention ask her if she is done. You may need to provide a verbal model by saying “done” or “I’m all done” as well a visual model by making the sign with your hands. You could also verbally model “yes” with a head nod and “no” with a head shake.
5. Enjoy! Contact me if you have any questions at huntd@dearbornschools.org. 🙂

• Color choice: “Do you want blue glitter or red glitter?”
• Size choice: “Do you want a small paper clip or a large paper clip?”.
• Shape choice: “Do you want a square foam sticker or a circle foam sticker?”
• Quantity choice: “Do you want 5 beads or 10 beads?”

Words of the Week = MORE, DONE

We really enjoy seeing everyone during our live sessions! Please share our recorded session and/or our slides with your child if you were not able to attend or as a review if your child attended!

iPad app for MORE practice = Feed Maxi

Helpful tip: Use GUIDED ACCESS on iPads to lock a single app so your child cannot click out of the app.

We have really enjoyed seeing students during our video calls! If you were unable to join us for our group therapy sessions this week please share our slides and/or our recorded session with your child. Let us know if you are unable to attend your child’s scheduled group time and we can schedule an individual session with your child.

I LIKE bike riding!

Please enjoy these bike videos with your child! After listening to each song you could ask your child if he liked the song and/or if he likes to bike ride and allow him time to respond by nodding his head “Yes I LIKEd it” or shaking his head “NO I didn’t like it”.

I LIKE swimming!

Please enjoy these swimming videos with your child! After listening to each song you could ask your child if she liked the song and/or if she likes swimming and allow her time to respond by nodding her head “Yes I LIKEd it” or shaking his head “NO I didn’t like it”.

If you weren’t able to join us for our sessions this week please check out a recording of our OT/PT/Speech group session. We hope you LIKE it!

Words of the Week = LIKE, NO

Welcome back friends! We are starting our group therapy Google Hangouts this week! You should receive links to join the video meetings from your classroom teachers.

I have attached our Google Slide presentation for you to share with your child with a couple of bonus songs!  You could read it to your child and enjoy listening to the songs together.  

Practice the movements of the songs and show your child how to respond to the questions by using his or her primary mode of communication.  Modes of communication include eye gaze (look at ‘like’ or ‘no’ symbols), body movements (nod head ‘yes’ or shake head ‘no’), gestures (point to ‘like’ or ‘no’ picture symbols, put thumbs up or down), or vocalizations (“like”, “yes”, “no”). Our core vocabulary words for this week and next week are ‘Like’ and ‘No’.  

We hope to see you all soon! Please let us know if you have any questions!

Your therapy team,

Letrisha Stallard (PT), Emily Dandron (OT) and Dawn Hunt (SLP

I LIKE homemade playdough!

Point to NO on your core vocabulary communication board every time you hear NO in these songs and books. Try to watch and listen to at least 1 NO song and 1 NO book everyday this week! Enjoy!

NO songs & video

• NO Core Vocabulary Song by Speech and Language Songs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1t5jEwc-yE
• “NO NO” Play Safe Song by Cocomelon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAP3yilxmdY
• Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by The Kiboomers https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkGrKW7D29c
• NO, David! AAC song book by Swingsetmamas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEt1SiaXeVo
• Seasame Street – The Count gets Oscar to say “NO” 17 times https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76f19BfPrfM

NO books

• NO David by David Shannon https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XTb_Vi2VFU
• My NO, NO, NO Day! by Rebecca Patterson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaYko8CS6jE
• Stop, Go, Yes, NO! by Mike Twohy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jOsFsZdaTM
• Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed by Eileen Christelow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DyUk5OFUJ0
• NO Place Like Home by Ronojoy Ghosh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOmAa__y_Ak