Week 2

Date: 1-1-12

Arrival Time: 8:30 a.m.

Departure Time: 11:40 a.m.

Total Time This Day: 3.0 hrs

Total Time to Date: 6.0 hrs

Activities/Observations:

• The first session consisted of individual instruction, one child who is four years of age and was working on improving their artic expressive language skills.
• During the first activity in this session, the pathologist used the student’s completed homework papers to verbally address what is on the paper.  On these papers, the student vocalized what was on the paper with the speech pathologist’s guidance.  The goal sound was in working on /sp/ blends.  The student would get to make a paint dot on the paper once she vocalized the blend. 
• The second activity that was done in this session consisted of using a coloring paper that had 6 words, which all started with the same sound, /g/.  The pathologist would point to each individual word and verbalize it and the student would correctly repeat the word.  If they word was repeated incorrectly, the speech pathologist would repeat the word again and encourage the student to try again and say it correctly.  After completing this activity, the student got to color the coloring page as a reward as this is something that the student really enjoys.   
• The third activity that was done consisted of the speech pathologist vocalizing a sound and then the student would put her finger on the speech pathologist’s hand and repeat the sound.  This process continues until the student moves across all of the fingers on her hand.  Several sets of these are done.  The finger aspect of this activity is used to keep the student busy. 
• The second session consisted of group instruction, 2 children who are seven years of age and are working on improving their articulation skills and artic expressive language skills.
• The first activity done in this session was structured conversation using a poster of a community based scene.  The students had to tell about the picture; the goal was to have the student work on verbalizing the appropriate forms or /l and r/.  This activity was targeted at only one of the students.
• The second activity, which was targeted at the second child, used a grid help the student discriminate the good/bad production of /r/.  The activity was held by having the speech pathologist making the bad /r/ sound and then also says the correct sound and the student had to point to the correct sound on a sheet of paper.  The student was able to discriminate between the correct and bad sound quite well.  Next, it becomes the student’s turn.  Each time that the student makes the bad sound, he points it out to the pathologist; accuracy still isn’t very high.  This activity was also only target at one student, which was the student who did not take part in the previous activity. 
• The third session consisted of group instruction, with two children who are five and six years of age and one student was working on improving their artic language skills while the other student was working on solely improving their articulation skills.
• The first activity consisted of working with /g/ in phrases using a poster of a scene.  Using the poster, the pathologist had kids say something that they see in the picture and then the pathologist finds the picture and puts a chip on it.  The pathologist made sure to have the students say words with the correct use of sounds.  After a while, the activity was reversed and the pathologist named something on the poster while the kids pointed to the object, person, or thing; the pathologist would have the kids verbalize what they had found and then put a chip on it. 
• The second activity included spontaneous speech while using Play-Do while targeting s-blends.  Students would play with the Play-Do, but the students had to use their words to say what tools they need and what they are going to do. 
• The third activity consisted of a coloring paper that had different short sentences to work on sounds.  The speech pathologist says a phrase and then the student repeats the phrase.  If the student doesn’t do it correctly, then they try a couple more times.  Next, the student uses different colored chips and practices saying “I’m gonna get this candy” and then says the color of chip that they are putting on the candy (on the worksheet).  Lastly, the student takes a magnetic stick to pick up the chips and as they are doing so, they will verbalize their actions. 
• The fourth session consisted of group instruction, with children who are ten years of age and one was working on improving their articulation skills while the other was working on their oral motor skills.
• The activity done in this session targeted sound in conversation and the students tallied their peer’s sound accuracy when it was not their turn. 

Analysis:

• Activities
• I thought that all of the activities used in the sessions today were good activities. Just as my last observation, the activities were creative, effective, well received, and mostly student-focused. In session two I think that the activities should have been activities that both students could have done at the same time, or to have the para-professional facilitate one of the activities while the speech pathologist facilitated the other. 
• The classroom management used was effective.
• As I was observing the same speech pathologist, all of the classroom management techniques and implementations that were recorded in the first observation still hold true. 
• When students have homework, as a motivator, they receive points for each page of homework that they do and when a certain number of points are obtained, then they get to pick an item out of the treasure chest. 
• Assessments
• There were several forms of assessments used today. The primary form of assessment was 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.
• Reflection
• Again, I learned much from this observation opportunity.  I learned about techniques that can be used to help keep the attention while simultaneously verbalizing a sound.  Also, I learned about body movements in conjunction with the production of a sound.  I learned that an individual’s facial position and the way in which they are using their mouths to produce a sound, can affect the articulation of a sound.  Additionally, I learned about using creative materials to grab students’ interest, which helps to initiate good use of speech and language within a session.  I also learned that sometimes the lesson you have prepared can be thrown out if a student is heavily focused on a particular subject, object, or action; rather, you can focus the lesson upon the thing that the student’s attention has gained.  I also got the opportunity to work more with my ability to differentiate between correct and incorrect articulation of a sound, as well as my ability to record all attempts at a sound verbalization by a student in conversation or through reading. 
   
• 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.