Speech and Language Therapy Services

Receptive and Expressive Language:

We work on expressive language which includes areas such as vocabulary knowledge and use, using grammatically complete sentences with correct parts of speech (noun, verb, adjective, etc.), antonyms/synonyms, multiple meanings of words, idioms/figurative language (e.g., it’s raining cats and dogs), and word retrieval.

Tips to improve language skills:

• Read to your child and let your child read to you everyday (e.g., newspaper).

• Have your child listen to a sentence or paragraph and have them retell you what they have just heard and read.

• Play board games with your children (e.g., Outburst, Scrabble, Scattergories, Guess Who?). These also are great gift ideas!

• Label objects in a variety of places (e.g., Target, grocery stores, etc.) and discuss features of each object, such as color, shape, function, texture, and parts of the object.

• Follow recipes or step by step directions around the house.

Auditory Comprehension/Processing/Reasoning:

This area helps build the student’s ability to understand what he or she hears in the classroom and during conversation. Deficits in this area interfere with the student’s ability to follow multi-step directions as well as answer questions. Reading and spelling skills may also be weak. We introduce and practice strategies to help them to interpret the meaning of the message. The child may also have problems with music and/or singing.

Tips/Strategies to help the student with these skills:

· Underlining/highlighting key words in a direction, sentence or paragraph.

· Check for clarification/understanding. Make your child retell in their own words what they understand.

· Provide visual models and cues.

· When talking with your child or doing homework together, shut off the radio, TV, dishwasher or vacuum. Keeping things quiet and reducing the background noises will help them to focus.

· Avoid conversations in noisy places. Move to a more quiet spot to communicate and stand close to the child.

· Use simple language when talking with your child. Short ideas are best as well as short sentences. Use concrete language instead of abstract, vague language, such as sarcasm.

· Get the child’s undivided attention. Don’t try to carry on a conversation when you are both in separate rooms.

· Speak clearly and pronounce your words carefully.

· Make sure the child has good eye contact with you.

Articulation:

We work on speech sound production and rate of speaking during the school day. We encourage the students to use clear speech with good speech sounds and to listen to their own productions.

There are steps for working towards producing the correct sound production. To begin, we start with the isolation step, which is producing the sound by itself. Next is the syllable step which incorporates producing the sound at the beginning, end and middle of syllables. Following is the word step which is producing the sound at the beginning, middle and end of the words. The phrase step involves producing the sound within a short phrase. Finally the sentence step and carryover step works on producing the sound within sentences and during conversational speech.

Voice:

We need our voice to speak and communicate effectively. Vocal hygiene is very important.

***Here are a couple of ideas to help you keep your voice safe and healthy.

· Drink plenty of water

· Do not scream or raise your voice when talking .Talk at a comfortable level

· Avoid any smoke or polluted areas

· Use good posture when speaking

· Use a soft, relaxed voice when talking

· Try not to repeatedly clear your throat or cough because it may bring irritation to your throat

· Limit the amount of caffeine you take (soda, coffee) because it will dehydrate your throat

· Use nice, easy breathing to avoid any tension in your body or throat

· Avoid overusing or straining your voice

· Exercise regularly to keep healthy

Fluency:

This target area focuses on using a slow rate of speech, starting out our words in an easy manner (letting the words out gently and not forced), taking a nice, deep breath before we begin speaking, and using our thinking time. You need to talk slowly so you have nice control over your lips, tongue, jaw and cheeks. Breathing is a big part of speech. It is important to take a deep breath for the best control over your speech. This will help you to relax and you will have enough air to last your whole sentence. These are some of the topics we discuss when working with our students.

Tips to improve fluent speech:

• Maintain eye contact with your child while they are speaking

• Remain calm during stuttering moments and let them finish what they want to say

• Help them to recognize dysfluent vs. fluent speech in their own speech and in others

• Use a slow rate of speech (turtle speech)

• Take a nice full breath

• Keep the stress low in your home. A less chaotic home environment will help with relaxation and tension.

Swallowing:

Many people do not realize that speech-language pathologists work with individuals with swallowing difficulties. We use a lot of muscles and nerves to swallow. Coughing and choking is the body’s way of getting rid of food or drink that is in danger of going into your airway. If you are rushing to eat you will push the food back too fast and you won’t trigger that swallow. Then the flap won’t fold over and food can slip into your windpipe. Here are some strategies to help you swallow easier…. You can cut up your food into small pieces, take little bites in at a time and alternate your liquids and solids to help the food go down if it’s stuck in your throat. Also, sit up straight, eat slowly and pay attention to your swallowing when you’re in the cafeteria chatting with your friends. Oh, and everyone should learn the Heimlich maneuver, too. Think of how great you would feel if YOU saved somebody’s life because you knew the Heimlich maneuver.

Oral motor:

Oral motor is a term that is used to help the structures in your mouth to become stronger. For example, your lips

Your tongue is one of the strongest muscles in your body!

1. Open and close your mouth slowly (Stretch out your cheeks)

2. Pucker/Smile-Bring your lips forward and back

3. Stick out your tongue-hold it out without touching your teeth and lips

4. Move your tongue side to side-Touch the corners of your mouth

5. Tongue Push-Ups-Bring your tongue up and down

6. Tongue Clicks

7. Tongue Retraction-Bring your tongue back into your mouth

8. Puff up your cheeks (Do not let any air out)

9. Suck in your cheeks like a fish

** Practice these 5 times each set for 2x/day

** Using a mirror may help (visual model)

** This will help to increase awareness and appropriate placement for the lips, jaw, tongue, cheeks, etc.

** Practice your speech sounds, turtle speech, pause time, nice full breath

Pragmatic Language:

Developing social skills is extremely important here at the Junior High School Social Skills target various strategies that helps students to interact effectively with their peers. We focus on learning new skills and meeting new people. Some of the skills we address are:

. Making new friends

· Conflict resolution

· Expressing your feelings

· Dealing with anger and anxiety

· Using self-control

· Problem solving

AAC:

We have students that use an Alternative Augmentative Devices to help them communicate effectively in school and within their community. There are a variety of low and hi tech devices that are used within the school setting.

Mrs. Raymond’s hometown is Cicero, NY. I Graduated from CNS High School!

Undergraduate School: University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA

Graduate School: The College Of Saint Rose, Albany, NY

Years of Teaching: 19

Years in the District: 19th year

Remember to celebrate Better Speech and Hearing Month during the month of May! We will be displaying some of the students' work on one of the bulletin boards at the District Office this May.

Thank you for looking at my web page! Information, updates, etc. will be added throughout each school year! If you have any questions, please contact me at 315-218-3625 (North Syracuse Junior High School) or you can reach me by my email: nraymond@nscsd.org.

Mrs. Raymond, MS, CCC-SLP

Speech-Language Pathologist