End of Summer Speech Therapy
As I have said before, this summer we added a literacy & reading comprehension component to Zane’s therapy schedule. It is a new venture, so we are all learning as we go, but I am quite pleased with how it is working out. Since it is far more motivating for him if he is interested in the subject matter, we are using science as the backbone to build comprehension and vocabulary. He has been creating a picture based vocabulary dictionary through the semester, as he learns new words, that is being used as a reference guide to teach him how to look things up if he doesn’t remember off the top of his head (word recall is difficult for him, even if he understands the concept). That is tied in to a science experiment that demonstrates the concept, requires reading and interpreting directions, plus writing out a brief description of the experiment (question being asked, hypothesis, ect) based on the scientific method. She includes a lot of visual supports, as you can see in this picture.
Zane HATES writing. At home we have to do the majority of scribing for him because he struggles with trying to do the mechanical process/motor planning involved with writing, especially when trying to create meaningful content. I had to seperate the components out to get anything done on the majority of schoolwork, and continue to include Handwriting as a stand alone component to keep hitting the motor skills. We are now trying to begin the process of integrating the two of them together by encouraging him to write himself instead of dictating and having us scribe. To motivate him, he gets a marble if he completes the small writing task himself, and no marble if he asks for help. At the end of the session, he gets to take all of the marbles earned and drop them in a marble run.
Notice I refrained from any comments on the “Zane’s Marbles” jar. What restraint I have.
And, the last minute or two of the hour is spent with the marble run. (most of the pictures of this were blurry because he was excited and flapping like a madman. lol)
