Week 4

Date: 2-22-12

Arrival Time: 8:30 a.m.

Departure Time: 11:30 a.m.

Total Time This Day: 3.0 hrs

Total Time to Date: 12.0 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.
• At this session, the child worked on marking final position consonants, syllables, and words; /s/ and /z/ in syllables and pronunciation of two syllable words.  The speech pathologist began by taking stickers (which included a variety of pictures) and pointed to that sticker to have the student utilize target sounds (i.e. leaf).  Next, the student verbally picks a sticker and verbally tells what the sticker is and where the student is going to place it (the student was to put the sticker on a body part of another person in the room).  I noticed that the student was able to identify when she said a sound correctly that has been a target sound for them.  In conjunction with this activity, the speech pathologist brought out a stuffed animal in order to target sounds and create conversation with the student.  Next, the student went around the room to each person and asked, “You want it off?” and then the student proceeded to remove the stickers from the people and the stuffed animal.  The next activity that the student participated in consisted of drawing lines on a dry erase board.  The student would make a sound while erasing; /sh/ was the target sound.  Colored lines were used in this activity to create conversation and focus on /sh/ and /sp/ sounds.  I noticed that the child can easily correct sounds produced when the student is able to slow down.  However, when the student gets to talking quickly, her words are not enunciated well and the sounds seem to blur together. 
• The second session consisted of individual instruction, one child who is six years of age and has been diagnosed with speech language. 
• At this session, the child worked on completing the SPELT-3 Test, which standards for Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test, and the Goldman Fristoe 2, which is known as the test of articulation.  The Goldman Fristoe test starts out with the speech pathologist showing the student a picture and then the student has to say what the picture is (i.e. This is a house).  The speech pathologist looks for correct articulation of specific indicated sounds.  The student did well and only made 9 errors.  Next, the student worked on the SPELT-3.  The speech pathologist began by showing the student a picture and asked the student questions (i.e. “What is this?” or “Where is the girl?”).  The student also did well with this and only made three errors. 

Analysis:

• Activities
• I thought that the speech path handled the activities well with the student who was unintelligible in conversation; in just that session I could already see her production of words becoming more clear and recognizable when she slowed her speech down.  Also, when the student was not interacting well with an activity, then the speech pathologist did a good job of changing it so that she could receive more effort from the child; I thought this was both very creative and effective, particularly due to the child’s age.  I also thought that all of the testing was handled well.
• 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 previous observations still hold true. 
• Assessments
• There were a couple forms of assessment used today. One of these forms of assessment was testing. As the student tested using non-verbal and verbal communication, the speech pathologist recorded the results on a form. 
• Another form of assessment used today was observation for the child in the first session; as she did her activities, the speech pathologist observed and at the end of the session, the pathologist recorded her findings and other notes into a log in the student’s file. 
• Reflection
• What I love about observing this speech pathologist is that I always seem to learn something new or experience something exciting whether the activities are similar or different from my previous observations.  This visit I learned about different techniques and strategies that can be used to keep the younger children engaged in activities (such as switching up the materials or lesson to fit the child’s current interests).  Also, I learned how important slowing a child’s speech down can be in the treatment process; this makes sense, but to understand this and to see it in action are two different experiences.  Furthermore, I was given a couple more examples of materials that can be used for activities in speech and language pathology, which is always helpful, as I know teachers “steal” ideas from one another often. 
   

NOTE:  As previously mentioned in other posts, there are no official state issued standards that are used in the schools for speech pathology curricula.