Play, It’s more important than you think

Play, It’s more important than you think...

May 15, 2015 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

I ran across this fun article floating around Facebook. 33 Activities for Kids That Cost Under $10 Dollars. Some of these activities looked like a lot of fun. While the examples they show look a little too “neat” to be done by kids, with some of the activities you can hand them the materials they need and step back. As a matter of fact it might be a good idea to let them develop their own style of play with their friends. The amount of learning, experimentation and problem solving the kids can do on their own is amazing if you let them try before swooping in to help. Take a look at the tin foil and hose experiment, what is the worse that could happen. First they could actually learn how to rip foil...

How SLPs can deal with Middle School rudeness...

Jan 19, 2015 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

I received a question from a middle school therapist asking if I had any suggestions on how to deal with rude disrespectful students. No other information than that in terms of community, severity of students, size of groups or gender. From my 15 plus years of experience at the middle school level I think I relate to the situation she might be in. I’m going to assume her students are mainly boys and basically language/learning disabled students. Three things to consider. First, Speech Language Pathologists do not also have to be experts in behavior. We have enough on our plate. Second, the rules have changed just in the past few years and we are not always allowed to use our professional judgement on who will continue to benefit from therapy and who will not....

Have a good chuckle but think while you’re laughing...

Nov 29, 2014 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

A few weeks ago I saw this “Buzz Word Bingo Card” floating around Facebook. So much of this buzz word bingo had to do with measuring what students have learned rather than how/what students are being taught. I assumed that that was why it made it on some of the funny education and anti-common core pages. Does any buzz word here actually tell you anything about what the students are learning? I’ll let you generate your own opinion on that. Now compare this buzz word bingo card to the one below. Here is the Buzz Word Bingo that teachers might have shared in the late 1960’s. Granted someone would have had to recreate it and run it off on on mimeograph machine (which were still used until the early 80ies). It is important to note that using the...

Thanksgiving Humor

Nov 28, 2014 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

I found these Thanksgiving themed jokes floating around Facebook this week. Even though it’s after Thanksgiving I am going to use these (or some of these) in therapy this week. I believe they’re still relevant because the students just experienced Thanksgiving and with any luck remembered some of the details. I am big on teaching how to recognize and understand humor. Understanding humor is a huge part of social pragmatics. I often have an objective focusing on humor written into my student’s ed plans. If students can’t “get it” they are often left behind both within the social realm and as curriculum/materials becomes more challenging. Subtleties in language are all around us, from tv to textbooks. Some kids “get it” easily and naturally and some do not. Most of our language disabled kids...

Shopping on Amazon this Season

Nov 28, 2014 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

With Cyber Monday beginning for some probably today, if you order from Amazon remember to order through your favorite blog (such as mine) Look for the Amazon link on the site and order from there. Or sign up for Amazon smile and send a few pennies to your favorite charity. It truly is only pennies but every little bit adds up. Since I can’t order through my own blog, I support the Trustees of...

Osmo-I do like this new product!...

Sep 19, 2014 by Teresa Sadowski MA CCC-SLP

Over the summer I was inundated with ads from a new educational product called Osmo. It’s basically a very unique app that works with your iPad and incorporates manipulative. After seeing the demo video I was hooked and I had to have one. Mine arrived this week. The special edition pack came with 2 sets of game manipulatives, Tanagram and Words. A third game called Newton was available for download (using the manipulatives of a paper and pencil or any solid object, including your hands). What puts a different spin on the Tanagram game is that the child has to shift their eye gaze from table to iPad to complete the tasks rather than lay an tanagram on top of a copy. It’s a fairly simple task but for young children or those with...