November 2024

A Month of Gratitude

A newsletter brought to you by the Speech Department at Children’s Academy

In this newsletter:

November 2024

A Month of Gratitude

Talking turkey

So much to be thankful for!

This month, our students read lots of Thanksgiving stories, wrote notes of gratitude to teachers and friends, and practiced some holiday-related skills like setting the table, hosting dinner guests, and making a meal for friends!

Lunch with a side of social skills

We’ve got game(s)

Another day, another donut

Group hug

Practice dinner party!

Thankful for friends

A Friendsgiving to remember

Getting all the essentials

The smile heard around the world

The art of the Thanksgiving Plate

SLP Spotlight: Copelyn Kelly

Copelyn Kelly, CCC-SLP

Copelyn Kelly has been an SLP at CA since 2023. She currently works primarily with second and third graders, but last year worked with primarily fourth and fifth graders. Copelyn's areas of interest and expertise are Childhood Apraxia of Speech, Gestalt Language Processing, and reading comprehension. She is especially passionate about building individual relationships with each of her students, and supporting the social language development to foster student relationships with their peers. Her favorite part about working at Children's Academy is working alongside a team of incredibly passionate and hardworking SLPs. When she's not at work, Copelyn likes to try new restaurants, go the movies and Broadway shows, and yoga.

Topics in Speech-Language Pathology: Levels of Support

Have you ever seen your child’s goal sheet and wondered what this looks like in practice? When we write our speech and language goals, we know the focus is often on the target itself, but the cue, or level of support is equally – if not more – important! 

While independence is often the goal, we know that this can take time. In order to get there in a systematic way, our evaluation process includes dynamic assessment, an interactive process that helps us identify exactly how much support is needed for the child to master a specific skill. Then, we usually write the goal with a bit less support than currently needed, so the student is being challenged while working toward growth.

A quick word on terminology: the words “prompt” and “cue” are sometimes used interchangeably, but they are different. A prompt is a direct instruction that leads to the desired response (e.g., “say hello!”) while a cue is more indirect, and guides students toward the desired response (e.g. “it’s time to greet our friends!”). You may see the word “prompt” on a goal sheet if the goal is new and requires explicit instruction. However, we tend to use more cueing in speech-language therapy in general.

Below are descriptions of levels of support (from least supportive to most supportive), including specific phrases (bolded) you might see written in your child’s goals. This will hopefully help illustrate exactly what your child needs, and how you can help carry over skills at home.

Independent (No Support)

  • Description: The student completes the task without any assistance, demonstrating full independence. 

  • How it works: This is often (but not always!) the goal of therapy. It shows that the student can perform the skill without any adult support. If the word “independently” is written in your child’s goal, it means they’re near mastery. At home, give them opportunities to practice this skill independently.

While independence is often the goal, we know that this can take time.

Indirect Cues

  • Description: The SLP offers subtle reminders, hints, or wait time. This could involve rephrasing a question, using declarative language or think-aloud models, using a conversational or melodic tone, or providing a (sometimes exaggerated) pause to give the student time to process the information and ensure they are aware of an expectation to respond.

  • How it works: This encourages students to perform as independently as possible. 

Gestural Cues

  • Description: Nonverbal cues like pointing, nodding, or using hand gestures to guide the student toward a correct response. The SLP might point to a visual aid or use a hand gesture to encourage a student to continue speaking, use specific strategies, or be reminded of clues or where to find them.

  • How it works: Often paired with verbal prompting and visual cues, this encourages independence by reducing verbal support. This can sometimes be more supportive than a verbal cue, as it removes some of the cognitive load required to process information.

When giving students verbal cues, we are guiding them to the answer.

Verbal Cues

  • Description: The SLP gives verbal hints or cues without providing the full answer. They might give a semantic cue, which is a hint related to the target’s meaning, like “I’m thinking of a word that is the opposite of cold.” They could add on to that with a sentence starter like, “If it’s not cold it’s…” If the child is still not able to provide the answer, the SLP might provide a phonemic cue, which is the initial sound of the target word  (e.g., “h-”).

  • How it works: When giving students verbal cues, we are guiding them to the answer. Semantic cues activate a students’ semantic networks in their brain (how concepts are organized according to meaning) in order to help them retrieve the information. Phonemic cues are often used in therapy targeting speech sound production, and it is especially helpful for those with motor planning difficulties, as establishing the first sound may facilitate the child’s production of the entire word. Like semantic cueing, it can also assist in word retrieval.

Visual Cues

  • Description: Includes pictures, written words, gestures, or AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) symbols that help students understand or produce speech. Visual schedules or charts also fall into this category.

  • How it works: Many of our students really benefit from multimodal support, and visuals are often in the form of reinforcement or reminders, in addition to a verbal cue. They could also be used without verbal cues, such as using pictures to sequence or tell a story or using a diagram to show the correct articulatory placements.

Models

  • Description: The SLP demonstrates the target behavior, word, or phrase for the student to imitate. It can be a direct model, often used when targeting speech sound production, which the student knows to imitate right away. It can also be a delayed model, which is especially helpful for our AAC users and gestalt language processors, as we might not prompt or expect an immediate response but rather provide numerous examples over a given time frame, so students are able to use the word or phrase when it is meaningful to them.

  • How it works: Commonly used across all therapy stages, especially effective for language (including AAC), articulation, and fluency goals.

Tactile Cues

  • Description: The SLP uses a hands-on approach to facilitate correct production of a sound. This is most often used in therapy for Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS), where the SLP uses a gentle touch or pressure to support their articulatory placement and motor movement. 

  • How it works: You may be familiar with the PROMPT method or Dynamic Temporal and Tactile Cueing (DTTC), both of which are used to treat CAS.

If you step into a CA classroom or therapy session, you are bound to hear and see all levels of support, all day long! Please take note of which supports your child’s goal sheet indicates they require and carry over that support at home. Cue the progress!

Overheard at CA

SLP: Be careful!

Alexander: Careful? Careful is my middle name!

Alexander is a seven-year-old verbal communicator and gestalt language processor.

Do it at home: Talk About The School Day

The number one question I have heard from parents is, “How can I ask my child about their school day when they don’t respond?”

This, of course, is going to look differently for all of our students, and it is not an easy skill!

As we know, narrative skills can be tricky and require a lot of moving parts! We also know that GLPs might not respond well to direct questions, but rather, declarative language comments.

With that said, we know how frustrating it might be to hear the same (or no) details from one day to the next. Here are some more tips to engage your child about their school day:

Use your child’s schedule: You should all have a copy of your child’s daily academic schedule. Looking at it with your child might jog some memories. You can start making comments (e.g. “I see you had speech today”) and wait for them to join in.

Avoid vague, open-ended questions like “how was your day?” Instead, if your child consistently responds to questions, ask something very concrete, like “what did you play during social group?” or “what friend did you talk to today?”

Use sentence starters, from your child’s perspective: “My day at school was….”

Make declarative language comments: “I wonder who you sat next to during lunch!”

Mention specific classes or group names: “Social Group sounds fun!” or “During social group, my friends and I…”

Be consistent! You may not get the answers you’re looking for at first but stick with it! We know many of our students find comfort in a routine, and knowing you are consistently curious and supportive of their language processing style, they may be able to share more than you think!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are grateful for our CA Community! Wishing all of our families a restful and enjoyable holiday.