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"How many more?", "Is it recess", "Can I get water?" and "What are we doing next?" are common questions I hear when conducting a standardized test, but not anymore!

I  attended a seminar last year on assessing students with Autism. I learned a great trick that I now use with students with and without Autism! I find it especially helpful for students with AD/HD or who are generally antsy to be done.

Materials: whiteboard, dry erase marker and eraser.

Instructions: 

• attempt to determine how long the student can attend. I usually start with 5 questions. 
• I draw (or have students draw) 5 circles, lines or in the case above Angry Birds to represent # of questions before a small break. If 5 seems to short, add more and more each time. (Today I got to draw 20 lines on the board!)
• After each question the student erases one of the drawings. This gives them a visual. They should no longer have to ask, "Are we done yet!?"
• When all are erased I give the student a very small break (water, 2 mins of iPad time, play Angry Birds once). 
• During the break I ask other questions or play. That way I can gather some informal language samples. 

Other ways to use this technique: use a small container with  a set number of tokens (chipper chat chips, marbles, small toys) on the table. Then have the student put a token in the container each time they answer a question.  I have also seen this using big plastic tubs with 3 or 4 categories on them, put out vocabulary cards (5-10) and when they are done with each question they can categorize a picture (then you can see how their vocabulary and their categorizing is!)

I also try to let students stand, or wiggle around if they want. Sometimes kids just work better when they are not sitting for a long time! It helps with AD/HD students to have something in their hands or a goal when conducting long, boring tests like the TOPS-3. 96 questions with a 6 year old!? That's long even for me!

One more helpful hint: some of my students are hesitant to say, "I don't know", or don't even guess! We end up sitting for 10-30 seconds or more in silence. A presenter suggested making a "skip it" card that students can point to! Love this!

What do you do to help your students and yourself get through long standardized tests? 

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Facts:

1. I have always adored Colin Firth, he is my ultimate older man crush! One of my favorite movies is Bridget Jones's Diary! Perfection.


2. Colin was cast in King The King's Speech as King George VI.  Which is the perfect excuse to have his picture hanging in my office! A movie that brought to light what SLPs are all about! Now if only people would understand we do more than treat fluency disorders!

3.  I have also always enjoyed My Fair Lady. I still have the My Fair Lady ballgown Barbie in my closet in her original box. Some of you may or may not know that famous linguistic professor Peter Ladefoged was  in the movie! Check out your old textbooks, I bet you have his, "A Course in Phonetics".

4. Clive Davis is thinking of casting Colin Firth and Anne Hathaway in My Fair Lady on Broadway. This would only make me adore Colin more! Another speech related venture for him! Hooray! Now if only they would remake the movie (I do not say that often). Read the oh-so classy Perez Hilton Article:http://perezhilton.com/2013-02-20-clive-davis-wants-anne-hathaway-colin-firth-my-fair-lady-broadway

Opinion: There is no better actor to fill this role on Broadway and frankly I might have to go out to New York City just to see him if and when he is cast! It would make a great first trip to NYC.

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  My objective binder was so popular, I decided to make a companion! On sale tonight for 64 cents!

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I am currently on a bean bag kick! Here are the bean bags I made! Students practiced their skill and then took turns throwing the bags. I want to make more heart targets with words instead of numbers. Fun!! What are you doing today to celebrate?

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Pages 1-2 Title/Info
Pages 15-16 Terms/Credits

Visit my store here: Queen's Speech TpT
PREP: laminate and cut out all cards
Instructions:
Discuss with students the difference between what we see, hear and say (page 3).
Practice learning the difference between quiet versus loud sounds (page 4).
Go over the exceptions with the “t” and “d” sounds (page 5) .
Discuss how we see and spell each verb ending on paper (spelling) (page 5-6).
Verb Sound Slap Card Game (page 7)-print multiples of these! Instruct students practice slapping down the sound they hear at the end as fast as they can! See who can get the most correct. Then reverse, have students say the verbs.
Verb Cards -48 verb cards to use with the Sound Slap Game (page 8-12)

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I am busy working away on a new regular past tense packet for my TpT store, it will be up soon. Meanwhile my fiance left the tv on Comedy Central...

The episode "Elementary School Musical" shows Scott Malkinson a student with a lisp. Anyone who says a lisp does not affect a child vocational, academic or social skills should watch this! The quote, "No one is going to let him do a musical," because of his lisp is probably said to our students more than we know!

I wonder how many people have been turned away from things they wanted to do as a result of a speech and/or language impairment.

At least lil' Scott Malkinson tries to stand up for himself, (I couldn't embed) watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYpigQVzvOA

Not to mention the Asperger's Episode! Oh my! Not even going to link to that awful episode!!!

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Here is a sneak peak of all the goodies available in this pack! For more information visit my Teachers Pay Teachers Store.

Included: Targets: semantics: classifying Irish vocabulary words into 3 categories (nouns, verbs, adjectives), comparing & contrasting words, synonyms & antonyms, and multiple meaning words.

Ages: 5+

Pages: 35 (not all pages shown on the thumbnail it wouldn't fit!)

Game Play Includes:
Title Page and Information (Pages 1-2)
Irish Vocabulary Sort (Pages 3-12)= 1 sorting page, 54 word cards (mostly Irish themed). Students sort the word cards into categories: adjective, noun, verb.
Rainbow Compare/Contrast (Pages 13-17)= 30 pairs of words. Provide one similarity and one difference for the two words on each card.
Shamrock Synonyms & Antonyms (Pages 18-29)=24 vocabulary word shamrock cards, 48 synonym leaves, 24 antonym leaves. Leaf pages have answers, print out two (one to cut and one for answers). Find 2 synonyms and 1 antonym to complete each shamrock.
Multiple Meaning Rainbows (Pages 30-32)= 36 multiple meaning words rainbow cards. Provide 2 meanings for each word.
Generic St. Patrick’s Day game board (Page 33) Help the leprechaun get to the rainbow!
Terms of Use and Credits (Page 34-35)

Please ask all questions prior to purchasing.

All graphics property of http://www.jessicaweible.com

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Lately I have been receiving IEPs from other SLPs that appear to have difficulty understanding what a "baseline" is for a goal.  I too was a guilty party, until I did some research in my first year as an SLP.  Now we may have differing opinions on the matter, but this is how I understand it: 

• The dictionary definition which is simple states, "A minimum or starting point used for comparisons." Sounds easy right?

• Then ASHA states, "The Baseline Data are used to determine the quantitative level for the indicators of success and indicates how much change will occur if the desire outcome is achieved."(here)

• Let's talk about that word quantitative for a minute, defined as, "of, relating to, or involving the measurement of quantity or amount".  Further explained as, "type of information that can be counted or expressed numerically." (examples: an exact count, or number).

Okay, to summarize a baseline is a: starting point, current quantitative level/number, indicator of how much change to expect.

Lately IEPs I have been receiving have baselines stated as such, "below age level in English and Spanish,"  or this one, "low intelligibility due to multiple misarticulations". 

Here lies the problem! With goals we want to know to what extent is the student below age level? What percentage of intelligibility? What kind of misarticulations?  Without this quantitative information SLPS cannot know or state to what level of accuracy a student can actually achieve right now, how much we can expect them to improve within a time period, and what level of mastery to expect. 

How do we find this quantitative information? It's all about the way we evaluate and gather data and usually it's right in front of us, we just have to find it and write it the right way!

Example: low in English and Spanish

1. Look at your assessment results, yes the student is low in both languages, but what specific areas or subtests. 
2. Once you have a specific area (i.e. morphology/syntax) you can break it down a step further.
3. What specific area within morphology? (i.e. plurals)
4. Now gather baseline, attempt some trials with the student (or count how many correct/incorrect on the test). Determine what level they can achieve right now, without any help or with help (just remember to note that in your baseline)
5. What did they number or % did they achieve?  (i.e. 2/10 trials or 20% accuracy,  with regular plurals in isolation, with picture cue) That's your baseline!

If there is no starting number or percentage, how on earth will you determine how far they have grown!?

TIP: I always try to write my baselines and goals by specific number of trials, across a number of set sessions (e.g. 8/10 trials across 3 speech sessions).  Keeps it simple and with percentages, we don't really know how many times, unless we discuss it at the meeting with parent (e.g. Oh, Sally got 80% accuracy with WH questions. Oh well how many? 4/5? That's not very many. Across how many sessions? Was it one day? That's not very consistent.) . If the number of trials is already in the goal you have something concrete to shoot for.  

I try to remember to think of baselines as: the student's current level of strength in their weakest area (does that makes sense?)

How do you write your baselines and goals? I would love to hear from you!

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I whipped up some simple Valentine cards. Decided to give them away since they didn't take long to make.

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I decided to invest a few dollars into some graphics! I am working out my "terms of use" page and will be posting this within the next day or two!

graphics: http://www.jessicaweible.com/

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My objective binder was quite a hit! I decided to make it more appealing and update it.

UPDATE: The objective binder is now available on Teachers Pay Teachers for only $1.50
Here is a preview of a few pages....
Includes objectives for:  articulation, fluency, voice, social skills, asking/answering questions, retelling stories, pronouns, plurals, verb tenses, vocabulary and progress reports.
Have something specific you want? My e-mail is located on the last page. I will add 3 objectives to the document and send it back free!

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This would be great to show students who are working on prepositions!


Sesame Street is all kinds of current nowadays! 

My current guilty pleasure while typing reports from home is watching Downton Abbey. I was able to get Season 3 on DVD through Amazon before it airs in the U.S. Hard to keep my mouth shut about what happens with with friends who haven't yet seen it! I promised no spoilers, my lips are sealed!

Happy Friday!  

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