Aug

20

Hurray for VT Grad School!

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Big answer to prayer for the day:

VT is going to give me in-state tuition rates! My school bill well be about half as much as before–still plenty for only one class.

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!!