Jul

19

New look

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See the new page link at the top.

Also, I have changed the RSS feed for the site. Please resubscribe if necessary.

Jul

19

It’s over!

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Well, I have survived my first semester of clinic. The six weeks went by quickly. I enjoyed it, but I’m ready for a break from school.

My client began making some progress. Of course he has a long ways to go and will probably be in therapy for several more years. His mom said that she’s noticed his speech improving as well. That’s great news!

I want to explain what I did during the second hour of therapy (my last post about therapy talked about the first hour). During the second hour my partner Jenn brings her client over and we do group therapy. We focus on pre-literacy skills because research shows that children with a phonological disorder are at risk for later literacy problems. The boys are about the same age. It was funny at first because they didn’t interact with each other much at all. They grew more comfortable with each other, but I wouldn’t say they had become friends by the end of clinic. They eat a snack while we read them a book. They take a LONG time to eat.

We also do this silly little thing that goes “Bippity Bippity Bumble Bee, tell me what your name should be.” Then we say someone’s name and clap out the syllables. Jenn’s client can be a pill and he never clapped. My client would clap sometimes. We would clap out all of our names.

Our theme for the summer was Crazy Creatures Camp. Each week we focused on a different animal theme. We did Insects, In flight, Zoo animals, Farm animals, Seuss creatures, and Underwater. Having a theme helped us plan the activities.

Crazy Creature Camp

Crazy Creature Camp

Then we introduce a word of the day followed by the letter of the day. Our goals were to teach the boys several new letters in both identification and sound. Then we would have activities where we would have them build something. Before they could put a piece up they would either have to look at a word and find the letters we were learning, listen to a sound and identify what letter it goes with, or listen to a word and identify what sound the word starts with by matching it to the letter. We did things like put spots on the giraffe, put bees in a hive, and build a caterpillar’s body.

Caterpillar Game

Caterpillar Game

The boys loved the caterpillar activity. Our supervisor thought it was hilarious that the boys were practically pushing each other out of the way to take their turn. Jenn is artistic, so she drew a lot of these things.

By the end of the summer both boys met their goals of learning new letters. We were very pleased.

All I have left of summer school is a meeting with my supervisor to tie up loose ends of clinic. Then I get 5 ½ weeks of summer vacation!!

Jul

15

Visit from family

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This past weekend we had a wonderful visit with my mom and grandparents. They stopped in on their way from Michigan to Greenville. The original plan was for them to leave Michigan Saturday morning, but Friday morning they decided to leave that afternoon. They didn’t get in until 2am! The house was full with grandma and grandpa in my bedroom, mom on an air mattress in the extra bedroom, and Andrew and I on an air mattress in the living room.

After a short night of sleep we left mid-morning to go blueberry picking. My aunt Tricia wanted some blueberries, and my mom wanted “a lot.” Unlike last week when we picked, this time the sun was out and it was pretty warm. In about two hours we picked 32 pounds of blueberries! It was about lunch time when we finished, so we had a picnic lunch at the historic bridge nearby. On the way back home we took side trips to drive around Virginia Tech and point out my building at Radford. We were all pretty worn out when we got back, so we took showers and several people took naps.

The evening was a little more relaxing with a short walk, a demonstration of how I do therapy, and conversation. At one point in the conversation, I was accused of not having fruit in the house. I quickly pointed out that there were 32 pounds of blueberries in the fridge.

My mom wanted to leave for Greenville early Sunday afternoon, so after another late start of the day we had church at home and then ate lunch. During lunch we got a rainstorm, so the family didn’t leave until closer to 2pm. Even though the visit was short and it was the hottest few days we’ve had in awhile (which isn’t fun with lots of people in the house without air conditioning) we had a great time.

We enjoy company, so come visit if you get a chance!

Grandpa picking blueberries
Blueberries
Mel, Grandma, and Mom Boone

The blueberry pickers
At the historic bridge
View at the berry patch


Jul

5

Fourth of July weekend

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It’s been nice having an extra day off.

For the 4th, Radford has a day-long celebration at Bisset Park. We walked down and looked around a bit, but it wasn’t all that exciting, and it was starting to rain. There were a lot of fun-looking things for kids, and the demographics of people there tended toward families with young kids. The annual fireworks show started at 9:30. By 9, there were a lot of people around our apartment. We had suspected that our back porch might be a good place to watch from. It was. (See pictures below.)

Saturday morning we got up relatively early and went blueberry picking. It rained for quite a bit of the time, but the picking was excellent. We got 2 gallons in about an hour. Note the measurement mark on the side of the bowl below.

Radford Fireworks
More Radford Fireworks
Still more

A bridge from 1913 in Newport
A cooler full of blueberries
A bowl of berries