Week 1

Date:  1-26-12

Arrival Time:  8:30 a.m.

Departure Time:  11:30 a.m.

Total Time This Day:  3.0 hrs

Total Time to Date:  3.0 hrs

Activities/Observations: 

• The first session consisted of group instruction, two children who are seven years of age and were both working on improving their articulation and expressive language skills. 
• During the first activity in this session, the students worked on their ability to change a statement into a question, as well as being able to turn a question into a statement using cards that were also used to target the correct syntax use in addition to noun and verb agreement.   At the start of the activity, the speech pathologist worked with the each of the students to help them understand what makes a sentence a question and what makes a sentence a statement.  The students were able to identify as well as demonstrate that it was the way you said a sentence that made it a question or a statement.  After a few examples and practices with the cards for each of the students, the speech pathologist turned the activity into a game to allow for additional practice with identifying a sentence as a statement or a question.  If one of the students couldn't identify the card correctly, then the other student got a chance to identify it and gain the points. 
• The second activity that was done in this session consisted of using a worksheet to target concepts of ordinal numbers (first, second, and third) with auditory memory tasks using shapes and locations.  This activity was conducted by the teacher reading a set of instructions and the students doing their best to act upon those instructions using the worksheet that they'd been given.  This activity is supposed to help children understand which picture is first, second, and third from the original picture displayed or the one indicated by the instructions. 
• The second session consisted of individual instruction, 1 child who is six years of age and is working on improving their articulation and language skills.
• This session consisted of the speech pathologist giving the student an assessment known as the SPELT-3, Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test.  This test has the participant look at pictures and verbally tell what they see.  The student answers questions that the teacher asks by looking at the picture and verbally responding. 
• The third session consisted of group instruction, with two children who are nine years of age and were both working on improving their articulation skills. 
•  The activity focused on articulation with sounds by reading a book of the students' choice.  The first student worked on the /s, z/ sounds while the second student worked on /r/ sounds.  While the student would read, the teacher would record all of the words that the student read that had the sound that the child was working on and then she would circle the sounds that the student had said incorrectly. 
• The fourth session consisted of individual instruction, with a child who is ten years of age and was working on improving their pragmatic language skills.
• The activity done in this session focused on talking with the child about their tendency to argue with their teachers, family, and peers and how that affected the child.  The speech pathologist discussed with the student why it is important to keep track of the number of times that they argued with others throughout the day.  This "activity" was being done by the student, the student's primary teacher, and the student's mother so that the speech pathologist could compare the student's comprehension of arguing throughout a day with his mother's and teacher's knowledge. 
• Moving forward from the discussion about arguing with others, the speech pathologist asked the student some questions about the argumentative issue.  The questions that she asked included:  1) Why do I argue?; 2) How can I stop?; and 3) What things can I think about to help?  The student answered these questions to the best of their ability and the speech pathologist offered guidance when needed. 
• The last activity that was done in this session consisted of the speech pathologist giving the student a scenario between two people.  The student was told to identify which person in the scenario was arguing. 

Analysis: 

• Activities
• I thought that all of the activities used in the sessions today were great.  They were creative, effective, well recieved, and student-focused.  There wasn't anything that I thought could be improved in terms of the activities. 
• The classroom management used was good and creative. 
• There is a system to encourage participation and hard work among students.  This system involves giving each student a small piece of candy, such as a skittle, at the end of the session as long as they participate and try their best.  What is so great about this reward system is that it creates another opportunity to work on correct articulation of sounds.  Students do not get skittle if they do not follow the teacher's directions, such as not being able to stay in their chair.   
• Hands are to stay in the students' lap in order to help keep them engaged.  Also, there is velcro under the table so that if a student needs something to do with their hands, then they have an outlet. 
• Another classroom management technique used is set up to keep the students in an interactive experience as well as to involve them in their own progress. There is a chart for each of the students and when they do an activity that works on sound articulation (focussing on one sound at a time), the student will record their performance on the articulation of a sound.  The student will record one of the following:  + for perfect, - for miss, and - with a circle around it for a miss and then corrected.   
• When two students are in the speech room at once and articulation is being worked on, the speech pathologist has the student that is not working on articulation at the time, work on keeping track of the number of times the student uses a sound correctly on a sheet of paper using tallies. 
• If a student is struggling to do their homework or to try during the session, then the teacher will talk to the student and have them come up with a way to help.  I like this because the speech pathologist is encouraging the child to see what the problem is and then ask their opinion on what they think would help them do what they are supposed to be doing; allows the child to take ownership. 
• Assessments
• There were many different forms of assessments used during my observation on this day.  The primary form of assessment was through observation.  The worksheets used and then kept in the student's file was also another form of an assessment used.  Another popular assessment used throughout the sessions observed today was that the speech pathologist would record notes of the results of progress through activities of each individual student.  Another assessment used was the "taking a sample" sheet; this sheet consisted of the progress of a child's individual sound articulation by date.  One of the sessions was devoted to an assessment known as the Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test (SPELT); the speech pathologist would record the student's verbal answers on a test sheet. 
• Reflection
• I gained/learned so much from my observation time with the speech and language pathologist.  I was able to gain insight on the skills most needed, such as listening skills and the ability to do two things at once to keep session flowing smoothly for the student.  I learned how to listen for correct sounds as well as how to correctly phonetically write them.  I learned how to identify a student's exact age to the day, as I was notified that this is an important task to be able to do as a speech pathologist.  I also witnessed several good examples of how to apply treatment/therapy to individuals with speech/language delays or difficulties.  Additionally I learned how to fill out a clinical form.  I was suprised that speech pathologists work with students two at a time rather than doing everything one-on-one.  I do see how it can work and be beneficial to have two students in at a time, as they can interact with each other and encourage one another as the grow in their language and speech abilities. 
• NOTE:  I am unaware of the standards at this point.  I will talk with the speech pathologist this week and update my post with the necessary information once I have the information on the standards.