SLP Newsletter CF303

This just in for Summer! Tips for SLPs, therapists and parents from Louise Valente and Annette Crotty at lvalente@epcss.net

Fidgets, resources, and jokes! Read on...and email them to be added to their list.

PRACTICAL FIDGETS FOR OLDER STUDENTS

Speech pathologists are always learning, and summer is a great time to mull over your caseload: what students were toughest, and how can you serve them better next year? Many of the SLPs in our practice are slowly building their knowledge of sensory strategies.

A question was posed on ASHA Special Interest Group 16: School-based Issues about older students. What can you provide to an older student to keep their hands busy while being conscious of social acceptability? Would one of these work for your students?  Could you use your visits to the dollar store to collect some helpful items?  

• Jewelry: Leather bracelet; stretchy tennis sweatband; spinning rings (available on Amazon); dream catcher bracelet; weighted pocket scarf
• Pocket Tools: Square of felt, pipe cleaner, metal binder ring with pony beads, worry beads, thumb coin, stretchy key chains,Bendaroos, paper clips, found objects from nature such as acorns   

Students will be more successful if they understand the difference between a fidget and a distractor, and are prepared to explain how it helps to teachers/students who question them.  

Featured Website: Basic and Advanced AAC!

Looking for an information clearinghouse for anything AAC? One of the brilliant CF candidates we interviewed raved aboutwww.praAACticalaac.org   

Information ranges from a tutorial on how to make a better visual support to specific strategies of the month such as engaging the learner and building longer sentences.

Jokes for Kids 

We know your favorite part of our newsletter is the kid jokes, but did you know that you can get PCSS curated kid jokes on Twitter? Follow us on @PCSSinSoCal for a morning kid joke. Here are three of our recent favorites. 

What goes under your feet and over your head? A jump rope!

Why did the melon jump in the lake? It wanted to be a watermelon!

Why was the baseball game so hot? Because all the fans left!