Lets learn Fruits & Veggies

Learning the names and types of food we eat is something that I often teach kids. In this post I have described a simple language game that I use to teach the concept of fruits and vegetables through picture cards.

STEP 1 - Sort out the mixed Fruits & Veggies

STEP 2 - Arrange them under the respective categories

STEP 3 ( For Ages 4 years +) - Match them to their trees/plants. I use the phrase - Where's Apple's mummy tree? OR Onion wants to hug her mummy plant!Children always love personification of objects :)

STEP 4 - ( For ages 4 years +) - All fruits and veggies are sorted and happy with their mummy trees.

Click on the following for some more exciting Fruity & Veggie games - 

Games 1

Games 2 

Here is a simple video to teach fruits & vegetables    

The world of iPad apps

I bought my iPad a few months back and have started using it extensively as a speech therapy tool.. Every time I use an app with the kiddies, I am left amazed at how technology can do miracles! There are plenty of apps that can be downloaded to target specific areas of speech, language, & communication.Following are some apps that can be used with children on the Autism Spectrum.


1. Kindergarten.com - Flashcards that help in building language. Find :- actions, vehicles, rhyming words, healthy habits, functions, foods, emotions, science, shapes, clothing, pretend play, zoo animals, sports, vegetables,musical instruments, places, problem solving, receptive identification.

2. iTouchiLearn - Word games, matching games, puzzles, sight reading etc. 

3. Tap to Talk - Helps in improving communication.

4. Who am I ? - Animal guessing game. Clues provided.

5. Animal Fun -  Fun way to learn the animal names and what sounds they make.

6. I take turns - Helps in teaching the concept of turn taking.

7. 123dominos - Learn numbers, colours , shapes etc.

8. Learn to talk - Helps in teaching to talk using natural progression.

9.Conversation Builder - Allows children to chose the response. Has a  Recording feature

10. First-then-visual-schedule - Great app to build visual schedules for better learning.

11. Reward Chart - Beautiful way of keeping your child motivated to do better!

These apps are available in iPhone and iPod versions too. Some of them are free. Download them now from itunes  and get started!

Read this article to know how the delicious Apple world of iPad apps changed the life of this Autistic boy..Click here!

Songs and Rhymes to go

ALL kids like music in some form or the other.. Be it mommy's home made lullabies or the conventional nursery rhymes, children dote on the sing song notes and melodious tunes.
Songs are my strongest therapy tools. My sessions are incomplete without a dash of melody and all my kids and parents love it.


Top 10 English Songs that you will find awesomely useful and engaging -- 

• When you are happy and you know it...
• Great song to get your child to follow instructions, learn action words, revise body parts, improve attention span and imitation skills...

• Row Row Row your boat...
• Amazing to give your toddler the 'vestibular' input that she needs before starting a new activity.

• Old Mac Donald had a farm..
• Everyone loves this one..Pull out the animal toys and start singing!

• Wheels of the bus...
• Its a fun song! Can be used while learning transport vehicles.Improves listening skills and imitation.

• Incy Wincy Spider...
• Shape your fingers to make a spider climbing up..Your child will love it!

• 5 little monkeys...
• Jumping monkeys always amuse kids..Nice song to make your child understand the number concept. Helps in building attention span and improves listening skills.

• I love you, you love me...
• Song to bond with your little one

• Here we go around the mulberry bush...
• Great song to revise daily routine activities.

• Twinkle Twinkle Little star...
• Age old rhyme, sure to give a smile on your baby's face

• Roly Poly...
• Revise directions with this cute melody.

Grow Adjectives

I use this simple game to teach the application and usage of adjectives.

101 ways to praise your child!

Praises, rewards and all little words of encouragement showered upon your child go a long long way on the road of progress. So don't be greedy and PRAISE ON !!

Wow

Great

I’m proud of you

Hurray for you

You’re incredible

Good Job

Good for you

Spectacular

Fantastic Job

Phenomenal

Creative job

You are fun

I trust you

I respect you

You’re a joy

A+ Job

Way to go

Fantastic

Bravo

You’re fantastic

That’s incredible

I like you

You’re Darling

Hip, hip, hooray

Super work

Now you’ve got it

What an imagination

You mean a lot to me

You’re unique

You figured it out

Marvelous

That’s correct

Good Going

You’re special

Dynamite

You’re a winner

You’re sensational

You’re exciting

You tried hard

You’re important

You make me laugh

You’re wonderful

That’s the best

Outstanding

I love you

Looking good

 You’re catching on

How nice

You’re beautiful

Remarkable job

Great discovery

What a good listener

Beautiful

You’re a real trooper

Beautiful sharing

Amazing

Super duper

Super job

You care

High five

You discovered the secret

You’ve got a friend

You’re a treasure

You made my day

Super

You’re on your way

Hot dog

Nothing can stop you now

You’re spectacular

You’re growing up

You’re a good friend

You make me happy

I knew you could do it

Awesome

You’re A-OK

You brighten my day

Perfect

Love it

Excellent

Remarkable

Exceptional Performance

You learned it right

How smart

Outstanding

Beautiful work

Yes

You belong

Superstar

You’re on top of it

You’re on target

Well done

Nice work

Now you’re flying

Neat

Bingo

That’s it

You are responsible

You’re precious

Magnificent

The nosy N sound

/n/ speech sound is produced when the air comes out from the mouth as well as the nose. Typically achieved by the age of 3-4 years. Here are some practice words.

Get your /ch/ & /dge/ right

/ch/ & /dge/ sounds are tough ones to master and are typically achieved by your child's 6th-7th birthday.

-- Here are the word lists --

Practice F & V

The speech sound F is mastered by the age of 4 years while V is achieved by 6-7 years.

Here are the relevant word lists that you can print and use with your little one.

The Noisy sounds - /s/ & /sh/

These noisy /s/ and /sh/ speech sounds are misarticulated (mis pronounced) the most by children.

Rule out - 

• Hearing loss
• Tongue thrust
• Linguistic or regional bias

Like other speech sounds, these are also taught in isolation through Imitation and Phonetic placement techniques and later words are practiced. 

Here are some practice pictures and words.

Bilabial Speech sounds - /b/, /p/, /m/

Bilabial sounds ( those produced with both lips) are normally the 1st ones to be mastered by your child. 
( Age of mastery = 3 years).
To give your toddler more practice , you can use the following pictures.

Errors in pronouncing /k/ & /g/ ??

You need to raise an alarm if the /k/ or /g/ speech sounds are not mastered by your child till her 4th/5th birthday.

Articulation (Pronunciation) errors of the /k/ and /g/ speech sounds are quite commonly seen in toddlers. Mostly /k/ sound is misarticulated as /t/. Also /g/ becomes /d/. For example, "This is a cow" becomes "This is a tow"... and " The goat ate green grass" becomes "The doat ate dreen drass".

Like all other sounds, I 1st teach /k/ & /g/ sounds in isolation and then move on to the word level. Feel free to copy and print the pictures below to teach generalization of /k/ & /g/ speech sounds.

"Bag mein kya hai?" (What's in the bag?) - A language game

If you have seen any of my sessions you would be familiar with this game. I employ this simple activity to work upon skills of- instruction following,comprehension, identification, differentiation, naming of different objects, along with language stimulation & expansion and turn takng.


What do I do?
I take a small attractive/colourful bag , fill it with the objects of target words ( e.g transport vehicles or animals or daily objects etc). I swing the bag in front of the child while singing.."bag mein kya hai..." ( you can cook up your own tune) and ask the child to take out any 1 object. Then we talk about the target object/toy in hand..sing related rhymes and keep it away to move on to the next object.I switch turns and reward on each good attempt by the child.This activity works superbly in one on one or group sessions too. 
I also use it as an articulation game sometimes when I place small articulation cards of the sounds Im working on.

Tip - Choose a translucent bag, so that your child cant see its contents right away.Hence the mystery quotient is maintained..


You must give this game a try and I'm sure your little one will love it :)

Writings by People with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Click Here for a list of superbly inspiring books written by people on the ASD. 

  An excerpt from Sally Meyer's Before I go to sleep ( such a beautiful, thought evoking poem)

Before I Go To Sleep…

Mommy, don't you cry now and Daddy don't you weep.

I want to whisper something before I go to sleep.

I know that when I cam here I looked perfect in every way.

And you were so proud, Daddy; when you held me on that day.

And Mommy, when you kissed me and wrapped me up so tight,

I knew that I belonged here and everything was right.

But then I stopped talking and began to slip away,

I saw your worried faces as you knelt by me to pray.

And Daddy, I always notice how you wipe away a tear,

When you watch the other children as they run and laugh and cheer.

I may not be able to tell you how much I love you so,

Or even show you how I feel and what I really know.

But when you hold me, Mommy, at night when all is still,

I feel the love you have for me and I know that all is well...

Can your child not say Rrrrrrrr?

Does your child say woti for roti or wose for rose? If your child is more than 7 years old and your answer is yes then she might be exhibiting an articulation(pronunciation) difficulty.
Typically the /r/ speech sound is achieved by the age of 7 years and its also the toughest sound to master. It requires very fine, quick & repetitive movements of the tongue against the palate, a skill which is learnt gradually.
Ironically, the /r/ sound is the most frequently occurring speech sound in English.
To correct the error , 1st the sound is taught in isolation and then later in words. Here are some common words with /r/ in the initial and final positions.

Consult a Speech Pathologist if your child shows the /r/ errors consistently!

Social Stories

What is it - A social story breaks down a task or a social activity into small simple steps.
What is needed - Accompanying pictures that outline the steps.
Who needs it- First developed for use with ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorders).This approach has also been successful with children, adolescents, and adults with ASD and other social and communication delays and differences as well as individuals developing normally.


I use social stories with children to help them understand socially appropriate manners and concepts in different situations.Here are some examples. (feel free to copy and use these pictures)

Click here to find a treasure of some amazing social stories.

--From the horse's mouth--

The sounds of spoken language

Speech sounds string together to form different words, which can be stringed into sentences and running conversation. Hence the basis of any spoken language is the system of  myriad speech sounds that are produced/articulated in the mouth with the help of different articulators (parts of the mouth) 
As children grow, they learn to execute better oral motor control to articulate different speech sounds. Typically by the age of 6-7 yrs a child can pronounce almost all speech sounds correctly. Some kids who lag behind benefit from speech therapy.
I find the Phonetics Flash animation project (click here to get the link) very useful with those who have articulation errors.
Click here for pictoral descriptions of different speech sounds along with a few videos.

Structures and Routines

Structure, structure and only structure works best for your little one. I have a 4 month old baby and even she has a daily routine, out of which she starts getting cranky and irritable.
Especially for children on the Autism spectrum, a crystal clear structure and routine is a must. You can start with something as basic as a morning routine or a bedtime routine. Here are some sequencing cards that you can use with your child. You could put a piece of velcro on these (laminated) cards and keep an envelope next to them. These cards have been made using clipart and Boardmaker pictures. You can Google images or even click your child's pictures doing these tasks. Rewards and treats work superbly to kick in the initial liking to complete the tasks with pictures.Keep expecting more out of your kids and let them surprise you!

                                                       MORNING ROUTINE

                                                        BEDTIME ROUTINE