SLP Chat
This will be a place where therapists can share ideas, problem solve and express concerns. Lets work together to make our jobs easier!
Teresa
The Glory of Multiple Meaning Words…….Run or Run or Run
Understanding multiple meaning words is one of the first higher order language tasks that most children acquire naturally through reading and basic instruction. Younger children will also pick up dual meanings through kid type songs, jokes and phrases. For those students who demonstrate even slight language delays or impairments, understanding multiple meanings can be challenging. Without awareness and understanding of multiple meaning words, students may experience decreased comprehension, misunderstandings and the biggest problem of all ….they have difficulty understanding humor and slang. Basically these kids won’t “get it.”
So how do you teach the concept of multiple meanings? First the students have to learn that multiple meanings exist. The best way to start is with simple words. My all time favorite word is “run.” According to dictionary.com there are over 150 meanings for the word run and that doesn’t include its’s use in slang and idioms.
Starting with 10-15 meanings for the word run is a good place to begin. The initial “run activity” has to be dramatic and high energy. Let the kids generate as many meanings as they can on their own. After that gives hint and cues before giving the meanings. Use run in a sentences with specific meaning and act the meaning out if possible. Fill up that white board or paper (yes in this day and age SLP’s may not always have access to even a white board and a functioning marker). Act as if you never knew there were that many meanings for one word. Every little detail should be explained to make sure the kids can connect the different definitions to make them meaningful. This is a fun activity and kids always leave with a smile on their face.
In the following sessions the concept of multiple meaning words is reinforced by presenting other dual meaning words and using them in sentences. By teaching the concept of multiple meaning words the kids are being encouraged to use critical thinking skills rather than just drawing from a word bank. Using critical thinking to figure out meaning is one of the main keys to developing and use of higher order language. I do tell the kids that words with two meanings and the same spelling are homophones but just as side knowledge. I’m focusing on the skill not the ability to label.
There are several resources I’ve used over the years but I have two favorites “Say One Thing Mean Another” by . This workbook has examples that I use to reinforce the concept of dual meaning words. The examples start out a little easier and get more difficult. I may use all of the examples or just some of the easy ones depending on the students age and ability. “Say One Thing Mean Another” also focuses on other higher order language concepts such as dual meaning sentences, dual meanings based on stress (sarcasm) and idioms. My favorite when working with younger kids is the vintage workbook “Language Remediation and Expansion” by Catherine S. Bush. This is a book of 100 skill-building reference lists. Some of the examples are dated but easily modified or omitted. I’ve actually had my older students use this book as a reference when designing their own multiple meaning game. I do keep current and have a homophone apps on my iphone. I find the examples on the apps either too easy or too difficult. With multiple meaning activities on apps the kids usually have a 50/50 chance to get them correct. I also can’t modify the apps to encourage critical thinking.
****See comments below
How many meanings can you think of for the word “run”? How about “run” in idioms and slang phrases? It is hard to generate them off the top of your head but is amazing how many meanings we use on an almost daily basis.
How do you teach the concept of multiple meaning words?
Sir Ken Robinson calls for a revolution in education
This article, taken from a Costco Connections magazine was sent to me by a friend and avid reader. I think she was more amazed at where she found it. For those of you who don’t know Costco is a warehouse shopping club in the mid-west. The fact that education was covered by a shopping magazine points out that everyone is talking about the problems in education. Granted part of the purpose of this article was to promote Sir Ken Robinson’s newest book, The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything, however he makes many statements about education that make so much sense I could help but pass them on. His ideas are nothing radical.
Please take the time to read the whole article I think you’ll be impressed.
You can read the whole article at Teach Your Children Well
Added 8/3/2012
A reader sent me this link to an animated short on one of Ken Robinson’s talks. I think you will find it very interesting. Ken Robinson Shakes up the Standards Paradigm
Could you make a change
A few weeks back and elderly friend of mine had a stroke. I guess if you have to have a stroke it’s the was the kind you might want to have. I don’t remember the exact name of the type of stroke but she had no paralysis or unilateral weakness. She clearly had some (short term) memory loss and word retrieval. She can have a conversation, remember things from the past and can care for her personal needs. However, sadly her sharp tongue is gone.
After listening to her daughters explanation of her language skills and needs I gathered up some of my materials and stopped in for a visit. While I felt bad for my friend, I found her language and personality changes fascinating. I left some of my books so they could practice some language exercises such as word retrieval, recognizing idioms and problem solving. Her son who was visiting at the time asked me, “How do you know this stuff?”
I’ve always been hesitant to work in other settings because I didn’t feel I had the knowledge and the experience. But guess what it’s like riding a bike. Language therapy is language therapy. I’m actually thinking of picking up some extra time at the local rehab center/nursing home. After all we were trained to work with the rehab and older populations. Yes I would need some guidance but I realize it’s knowledge I have.
Most therapists I know go from rehab into schools. Have you ever considered working with the older populations? Is this something you do now to supplement your income. How about out patient therapy with older folks? I would love to know how that works for you.
Unloading those therapy materials:)
Occasionally I peruse ASHA forums to get ideas. The first one I came across today was a therapist who wanted to get rid of some of her materials. If you have the equivalent of more than 6, 7 or even 8 bins of speech materials this post might be for you. It’s been my personal experience that few therapists ever let go of their materials. Even my retired colleagues were hesitant to let go of materials until they were comfortably into retirement or when tests became outdated, whichever came first. I myself finally purged two years ago. I got rid of anything I hadn’t used in 20 years, anything that I knew never worked in the first place and anything I knew I could easily find on line. In true speech therapist fashion it wasn’t more than a couple grocery bags full of recycling. However, I felt organized.
Why is it so hard for us to give up our materials? The reason is we never know what our caseloads are going to look like from year to year. After 15 years of treating fairly typical learning disabled middle school students, I ended up with 2 significantly delayed children on my caseload. Well, thank goodness I never got rid of my story cards and other materials designed for younger children. I saved the school hundreds and made my job a little easier.
For therapists who are looking to pass on their treasured (or not so treasured) materials a couple of web sites have set up “swaps.”
Speaking of Speech has set up “The Speech Swap Meet” Take a look at the full site while you’re there it looks interesting.
ASHA has also set up a Professional Materials Exchange
Both look like good resources to unload your unwanted materials. Some materials are free and some therapists are trying sell their therapy materials. On both sites it looks like there are more people asking for materials/tests than giving up materials/tests. Then of course there is going to be a shipping fee. I’ve also seen many used books and materials available on Amazon.
Just like anything else people own, we always think our stuff is worth more than it really is. My materials work for me but I have a feeling other therapists would not see the same value I do. There are a lot of programs and books out there that honestly are not worth the paper they’re printed on.
I wonder if school districts that are financially strapped or suffered some type of tragedy might benefit more from a donation. That might be a better use for relevant materials and it’s a tax break.
Does anyone have a resource for donating relevant or current therapy materials to poorer communities or other schools in need?
Visualizing and Verbalizing
Several years back I attended a Lindamoodbell Visualizing and Verbalizing training course. I absolutely loved the program and felt it fit in well with many of my students needs. I mildly advocated for the program to become part of the curriculum. Not necessarily the more organized reading part but at least the initial steps. Clearly someone had thought of this before me because the grade level work books were stored in an upstairs office. I’ve never been given the opportunity to use the program with any vigor because of the lack of time an other needs. I have created many of my own materials (photographs) to work with students at different levels (age and developmental). I would love to hear from anyone who has had the opportunity to use the program consistently or who works in a school system that has adopted V and V as part of their curriculum. I often see teachers using visualizing techniques within the classroom. However, instruction is usually random and not sequential. That’s what I like most about the program is that it is sequential. Below is a reflection paper I wrote after the training. Please share your experience with the program, successes and failures and buy in from administration and teachers. While I believe V and V is a good program for every child, children who have difficulty seeing the whole or gestalt are often misunderstood and misidentified by both teachers and administrators.
July 2008
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.
Gaming in Education
Knowing that I am interested in modifying games to fit a child’s needs, A friend sent me this link.
Game-Based Learning to Teach and Assess 21st Century Skills
?Core Curriculum and the SLP?
I am so confused, I almost don’t know where to begin. I never thought of myself as a therapist who followed or worked from the curriculum. I have always thought of myself as someone who supports development of the underlying skills needed to access the curriculum independently.
Working with 3-8 grades at a time it would be nearly impossible to know the exact curriculum in each grade. Not to mention seeing kids only 1-2 times a week it is hard to keep up, even with curriculum vocabulary. Often our small groups are designed to work on a specific skill and are made up of students of different ages or in different classes. Occasionally I’ve incorporated long term projects such as books or concepts especially if I knew my students were struggling. Going into the classroom 1-2 times a week the curriculum also flies by and unless there is ample consult time with the teacher, the speech language pathologist functions as a glorified aid, often with little opportunity for student contact.
I’ve read a little on Core Curriculum and frankly don’t understand how we are all of a sudden suppose to align our goals and objectives to the curriculum. I’m also shocked at how many speech language pathologists are falling into step with this. None of our formalized testing looks at anything to do with curriculum. We’ve been taught to report the standardized scores not grade levels or age levels (even if available). Our standardized test scores measure underlying learning and language skills not curriculum.
In the past 25 years my speech and language goals and objectives have focused on areas such as auditory awareness, word retrieval, pragmatic skill development, comprehension, articulation, oral motor development, development of higher order language, using complete grammatical sentences, memory, shall I go on. How do you align memory goals with the curriculum? Seriously, we all know that if a skill like memory is not addressed in a systemic developmentally appropriate way, significant splinter skills develop. With word retrieval you want the student to learn and employ various strategies to aid word retrieval, really how does that align with curriculum.
Now one thing speech language pathologists are good at is creative writing. Of course we could craft some lofty goals that makes everyone happy. But really what does that measure, how are we going to report on those goals and honestly how valid will that data be? Again I ask the question, how does our formalized and standardized testing align with the core curriculum? A better question is how will our students receive the direct and specialized therapy to address their specific needs if our goals are curriculum based?
I wish someone would explain it to me. I’m not thrilled with the concept of core curriculum to begin with so aligning my work to core curriculum will be difficult from a moral standpoint. However, if I have to do it in order to work then I will have to do it. I feel like powers that be are forcing our hand. Most school administrators and teachers don’t even know what we do and how important the skills we address are to independently accessing the curriculum. Perhaps that is our fault. Where is ASHA (American Speech Hearing Language Association) in all this? I believe that if we are not careful and don’t remain very specialized there will be no need for us in public schools. Not only will we, as a professional group, lose out but the students will too.
Someone explain to me how this will work? Lets have a discussion.
Can schools be proactive rather than reactive?
Over my years of working as a Speech Language Pathologist, I’ve worked in many schools. Every school has it’s own set pluses and minuses. Wouldn’t it be great to create a school with only pluses. For that to happen, schools would have to get into the mind set of being proactive rather than reactive.
Here is my list of the positive and proactive ideas I’ve seen implemented in school systems that seem to work well. Some of these are simple, some take some effort and some are no longer possible in the public schools because of the changes taking place in education. What’s on your list?
A consistent leveled discipline plan, one that is followed by the whole school. Walking into any classroom and knowing what the expectations are makes it easy for professionals other than the teacher to employ discipline on an even plane. Better yet, the students learn expectations and consequences. It’s amazing the problems that don’t come up when this type of program is in place.
A strong and consistent teacher developed curriculum. Years before state wide testing or common core I worked in a school system that used teacher curriculum committees to develop curriculum. That school had the best curriculum hands down. The superintendent was committed to keeping curriculum committee and did for years. The curriculum was tweaked on a regular basis as needed, books were updated and supplemented when necessary. Parents could learn and follow the curriculum from child to child. Parents and children knew what special trips and areas of study to look forward to in every grade. Another school had one person developing curriculum and the differences were tragic.
Teachers working together by grade or subject, following the curriculum and teaching from the same materials. If a school has a lose curriculum and no time for teachers to meet one first grade teacher may teach a strong phonics program and the other first teacher likes a whole language approach, imagine the different skill sets those first graders have when entering second grade and who knows what the second grade teachers likes to teach.
Schools that give a lot of attention to phonics and rote type activities, such as memorizing times tables and poems. These schools have students that are more flexible with their language and math skills. They not only read better they answer quicker.
A consistent schedule not only daily but year after year.
A schedule that provided ample time for children with special needs to be seen that didn’t single them out. In one school system the middle school schedule include an hour daily that functioned like a study hall. Students could do almost anything during that hour except homework. Some activities the children participated in included scheduling time for special education services, asking teachers or assistants for help, working on group and individual projects, research, finishing up class work, extra gym, art, music, and free reading.
School’s that valued teacher’s knowledge, expertise and experience was considered when solving educational problems. These schools usually save money and solve problems quicker. Some school systems will introduce some trendy new approach because they think it will fix a problem. Trendy new approaches are usually chosen by one person, often cost a lot of money to implement and almost always fail or fizzle out. If schools need a new approach to say reading or math. Do some hard research and find out what is working in other places.
Want to save money? Ask the teachers. Tax payers would never vote for overrides if they realized the waste that goes on in a school. Teachers are in the trenches, they see it all and can usually come up with very creative solutions.
Schools that keep inventory seem to look cleaner and the materials last longer.
Schools that allowed long recesses and lunch times do seem to have kids that focus better and are more energetic. In most schools, kids get 15 minutes to shove in their food, are consistently yelled at to get going and then get to run around on the playground for 15 minutes. Kind need to run around. Schools also need to provide basic equipment on the playground. It’s amazing what kids can do with a ball or a jump rope.
Schools that valued art, music and foreign language. These are the first items on the chopping block come budget time. I’ve worked in schools that work hard to save these programs and the children are clearly better for the experiences. Schools that maintain some fun and different activities have a different overall vibe in the school. Not to mention art, music and foreign language all make the brain work in different and creative ways.
Schools that are smaller are just more successful. Not small like 12 kids in a class but small like only 500 kids or less in a school. This just makes sense, easier to manage. In mega schools kids get lost
Schools where children were encouraged to do things for others and their community. One school I worked in actually went overboard with this but that school was much better off than the school who encouraged nothing.
Schools where teachers and other professionals were encouraged to learn from each other. Time is given to share new ideas, express concerns and obtain support.
Schools that don’t feel they need to reinvent the wheel just to show how great they are. Do some research, see how it’s done successfully in other schools, tweak it if necessary and adopt it as your own.
Hopefully as I continue my career working in schools I can continue to add to my positive list of ideas. Unfortunately, a lot of negative ideas also seem to work their way in. Imagine if principals, superintendents, other administrators and school boards could share their ideas on a regular basis, what works and what doesn’t in the management of schools. Consultants would be out of business and there would be no market for poorly constructed materials.
No one is going to be able to build or operate the perfect school. We are not perfect people or perfect educators. Wouldn’t it be fantastic though if schools and school administration could implement pro-active ideas for improving their school rather than having to be reactive all the time?
Share:
What are some of the great ideas or procedures you’ve seen implemented in schools?
Play Skills Are More Important Than You Think!
This article was originally posted in Your Middle Schooler: A Unique Age April 2008. I met with someone this week who runs corporate events, basically arranges for adults to “play” and was reminded of this article. I’ve always had strong feelings about play and development of play skills. I am seeing the trickle down effect with the older kids who don’t know how to “play”, get along with others, see others perspective or work in groups.
This morning I read an article in Smithsonian Magazine by Monica Watrous call “Playing for Keepsies”. It was a small article about a gentleman named Bruce Breslow and his Moon Marble Company in Bonner Springs, Kansas. The Moon Marble Company produces both expensive hand crafted marbles and inexpensive machine made marbles. Breslow is a woodworker who became interested in marbles after buying marbles for the wooden board games he made.
This article caught my eye because I loved playing marbles, trading marbles and looking at marbles when I was a kid. But, what was most interesting to me was Breslow’s quote at the end of the article. When asked about the future of marbles he stated, “I am not concerned for the future of marbles I am concerned for the future of play”. Breslow’s quote reminded me of something I have believed for years and that is that kids no longer have as many opportunities to “learn” how to play with others.
When I talk about play, I am referring to free play with other children, not adult organized or adult supervised. Now you might say that daycare or preschool is play but think about it, it is really play with adult rules. Only two kids might be able to play with the blocks, no more than five can be painting, please don’t take the play dough to the coloring station, clean up everything right away and if there is a disagreement there is an adult to step right in and solve the problem. These rules are not bad or outrageous and most are needed in a school type setting. But if a child does not learn to initiate interactions on their own, negotiate with other children or create their own fun, they clearly demonstrate a certain lack of social development and definitely a lack of creativity. I would also venture to say they also demonstrate a lack of work ethic. These kids do not learn how to put effort into playing, which is a kid’s job.
So what is the difference? Adults who grew up in the 60ies or 70ies were probably the last generation to really enjoy playing. We were home more, few kids were in daycare and kindergarten was half day. We had the run of the neighborhoods we went from backyard to backyard, played in the parks and the alleys. We had a different comfort level of safety. We were able to go to the park, the library, the bowling alley, shopping, the dairy queen and the movies alone and on our own. We did not have video games and for some of us television was still in its infancy. When it was nice out, our parents kicked us outdoors. When we wanted to play with someone, we went and stood outside their house and shouted their name is a sing song voice. When we did play dough or played Barbies there was no adult around to tell us what we should do. Our parents allowed us to be creative on our own. Now I know our parents must have had an eye or an ear on us most of the time but I never had a sense of them hovering. Board games were a staple (along with marbles, pick up sticks, checkers and cards) and actually required you to initiate and interact with others. We also made up a lot of our games or learned made up games from older kids.
In the 80ies and 90ies, the world changed. More couples were working which meant kids went to daycare and after school programs. Parents had to become more aware and concerned with their child’s safety. You could no longer always count on someone being home down the street. Kids started taking lessons after school and organized sports for younger children developed. Time for free play was becoming non-existent. A child’s circle of friends expanded beyond the neighborhood, which meant play dates had to be arranged and rides provided. Kids don’t know all the other kids on their block anymore. It seems that parents also began to compete for who is the best parent. Meaning the more I am involved, the more money I spend and the more accomplished my kids are, became a reflection of good parenting.
Today a kid’s idea of playing might be going over to someone’s house and watching them play a video game. It is so sad and pathetic to watch. Suggest a board game to them and they think you are lame. Make them go outside and that might last a half hour or so at best. Kids will also give a running account of what they are doing. Not just the big stuff like “we are going to the park” but little stuff like we are going to play wiffle ball, we are going to play a video game or we are getting a snack”. It is almost like they are looking for adult approval for their play choices. So now, I wonder what have we done to the kids to condition them like that? In the process, have we taken away their independence, their ability to make choices and their ability to interact with peers? Many adults think they can teach children how to play but they really can’t. Kids need to teach kids how to play.
If you think kids are getting an opportunity to play at school, think again. Recess and lunch recess is 15 minutes at best these days. Hardly enough time to organize and play anything. Once kids get to middle school, there may be no recess or lunch recess.
If you have younger children try and provide them with lots of opportunities to play with other kids. If play dates are a must, then remain scarce while they are together and let them make decisions and work things out. Leave a lot of toys and games accessible even if it means a mess. That will provide them with ideas and choices. Encourage kids to go outside and create their own games. If you live a safe area, encourage bike rides around the block or trips to the playground. This can instill a real sense of independence.
Older kids should be encouraged to get involved with after school activities. They may need help and guidance to find the right activities. Most communities offer a lot of choices and your school should be able to help you with this. Use common sense; find something they like to do not something you want them to do. It is also your responsibility to know where they are, what they are doing and who they are with. Hanging out outside a convenience score or playing video games 24/7 will not develop any marketable skills that I am aware of.
Social skills and the ability to get along with others is key to success in any relationship, be it a relationship with a boss or co-workers or more intimate relationships with friends, spouses or family. I believe the seeds to good social skills are planted early and developed through experiences and guidance. You may have the brightest child in the world but if they have not had good social exposure, developed good play skills or can’t negotiate with peers, life is going to be really hard and possibly lonely.
Play is important so encourage your child to do it often. However, it is more difficult for some kids to initiate this on their own. For those kids provide opportunities for them to play and socialize with peers. Just remember, instead of being part of the play group, let them figure out what to do, what to talk about, decisions and who will be the leader. If a disagreement occurs don’t step in right away, see if they can resolve it on their own. The same rules apply to your own children. Take a step back, watch and listen to the kids interacting. I know you will enjoy the show.
The Dropsies
I just wanted to share a funny story about a student I proctored during some testing we do. This student basically has the dropsies. The first time we worked together they must have dropped their pencil over 20 times. And every time they dropped their pencil they stopped what they were doing and dove under the table for it. As far as I know there is no accommodation for this this type of problem.
After observing the student the first 15 or so times, I realized they only dropped their pencil when they were concentrating and organizing their response. Diving under the table broke that concentration.
With that unstandardized data under my belt I began to brainstorm….”What could I do about this?” Since I am a bright gal with lots of experience and three boys of my own I was able to come up with an extremely sophisticated solution. Keep in mind I did this without a meeting, consultation with the school psychologist, no chart and not one tally mark.
The next time we worked together I sharpened 10 pencils and kept them within my reach. Every time a their pencil hit the floor, I quickly handed them another one. Of course I trained the student on this procedure before hand. We actually made a joke about it and practiced the pencil hand off.
Again using unstandardized data, no chart and no tally marks, I concluded that it worked like a charm. They were able to keep their focus and concentration a little better, if they didn’t have to dive under the table every other minute.
I can’t even imagine how often this student must drop their pencil in the course of the day.
This time of year we all need a little humor…..this is my lame attempt. Speech therapy humor is usually only funny to speech therapists who actually have a sense of humor:)
