Happy Monday everyone. I hope you all had a relaxing day off... if you had one. I was in a Common Core training all morning! I wanted to write this post today because it is something we all can relate to. This year I had a wake up call when talking with a parent about her child and her child's progress in speech over the year. Let's call her, "Miranda." Miranda had been in speech for about a year. We were working on the same sounds for the entire year and she had made very little progress during this time. I knew she had made little progress, but when you hear those words come out of a parent's mouth, it stings a little. Miranda had goals for the "sh" "ch" and "dz" sounds. In all honesty, I had given up on the "dz" sound for the time being because I could barely get Miranda to even imitate the sound. That was until speaking with Miranda's mother! When speaking with the parent, I learned that Miranda's family included: Jay, Javarian, Janiya, RJ, and Jackie. Oh boy! I had no idea how important working on those "dz" sounds were. No wonder her mother saw no progress when she is hearing these names produced wrong all day, everyday!
So this very inspiring conversation with mom had me realize that I need to get away from the traditional "wish, wash, ship, shake" drill words with some students. If these words have no real meaning to the student, they have no motivation for correcting their speech. This motivated me to create a student interest survey (to be filled out by the parent or student depending on age or ability.) Use this survey at the beginning of the year or when you get a new student anytime during the school year. Knowing this information can shape your therapy sessions. Below is a copy of my student interest survey:
Now during my Table Talking Center, I work on "dz" words with her, making sure I include her family members' names in my drill list! I am happy to share that "Miranda" is now correctly producing her "dz" sounds correctly!
