Tag Archives: language development

Pick of the Week: Speaker’s Box – Expand expressive vocabulary & language

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Ideal for auditory and visual learners, Speaker’s Box helps strengthen oral language skills in whole-class or small-group settings, as well as in one-on-one instruction. This week only, take 15% off* your order of Speaker’s Box by using promo code SPEAKER at checkout.

With Speaker’s Box, students reach into the box, choose a color-coded prompt card, and then start chatting. There are four color-coded categories included:

  • What’s Happening Here?/What Comes Next? has the students talk about what is going on in the picture or what might happen next.
  • Step by Step has students look at the picture and correlating question on the back to give detailed directions on how to do something.
  • Would You Rather? presents questions that students answer with a personal statement based on the first thing that comes to mind.
  • Things You Like Best also asks students questions about their preferences and to explain why.

This is a great teaching tool that fosters receptive and expressive language, peer interaction, perspective-taking, and more. The set includes eighty-six 2.5-inch square write & wipe-cards (14 are blank for customization) in a nifty storage box. This game is recommended for children ages 6 and up.

Don’t forget to use our promo code SPEAKER this week to save 15%* on your set of Speaker’s Box.

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EST on November 11th, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

Pick of the Week: Social Skills Games to Teach What’s “Just Right”

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People communicate using not only words, but also tone of voice and body language. Many children, however, fail to notice these relatively subtle social cues in self-expression and personal space. This week, we’re featuring two of our newest social skills games, Too Much, Too Little, Just Right and Too Close, Too Far, Just Right to help you teach your learners what is “just right” in social situations. Use our promo code JUSTRIGHT to save 15%* on your sets!

Too Much, Too Little, Just Right teaches children to pay attention to tone of voice, observe body language, and note how these cues affect the message. Children assume two roles during game play: Messenger and Listener. They learn by observing others and by getting immediate feedback about their own expressive abilities. They learn to adjust volume, expression, gestures, and other physical cues in order to communicate effectively and achieve greater self-control, thus developing more appropriate and satisfying social relationships.

Ideal for 2 to 8 players, this game can be easily used with larger groups or classrooms as well. Because it focuses on social interaction rather than on a game board, the game can be played virtually anywhere. Clearly focused and easy-to-use, Too Much, Too Little, Just Right is an outstanding tool for those working with children who have autism spectrum disorders. The game includes: 45 Too Much/Too Little/Just Right Cards, 90 Message Cards, 64 Action Cards, 50 Response Cards, 100 Reward Chips, and 1 Feedback Express-O-Meter. Recommended for children ages 5-12 years.

Too Close, Too Far, Just Right teaches what’s “too close,” “too far,” or “just right” in social situations. Children take turns performing social scenarios described on the Role Play Cards, and then the instructor or group of students decides whether their proximity to each other is appropriate for the particular situation. The objective is to understand the concept the personal space. Focused and engaging, this game is a gentle way to help students with autism and ADHD grasp the idea of appropriate proximity and physical boundaries and thereby improve their relationships. The game includes 65 Role Play Cards, 24 color-coded Feedback Cards, 3 “Where do I stand?” Cards, 1 Footprint Mat, and 1 booklet with instructions, game preparations and play, and variations on game play with a large group or class. Recommended for children ages 5 and up.

Don’t forget to save 15%* on your order of Too Much, Too Little, Just Right or Too Close, Too Far, Just Right this week by using promo code JUSTRIGHT when you check out online or over the phone with us!

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on November 4th, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

Registration Open for Bridge Kids of NY’s Specialized Social Groups – Winter Session

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If you’re in NYC, you must check out these Specialized Social Groups offered by the wonderful folks at Bridge Kids of NY. With a team of professionals who strive to improve the quality of everyday living for children and families, BKNY presents several fun and interactive social groups to support children in their social, communication, and behavioral growth. Below are two groups in which you can now enroll your child for the upcoming winter session:

Bridge Kids Social Circle
This fun and interactive group meets on Tuesdays or Thursdays, and is a 50-minute social skills group for children ages 2–5 years who experience difficulty in socializing with peers. Through play and group activities a qualified therapeutic team will focus on key social behaviors such as:

  • Eye-Contact
  • Taking Turns/Sharing
  • Understanding Personal Boundaries
  • Utilizing Appropriate Social Language
  • Initiating and Maintaining Social Interactions

Bridge Kids Happy Eaters Group
This group meets on Tuesdays or Thursdays, and is designed for our little ones who are “picky eaters”. If your child often refuses new foods, presents with a limited range of accepted foods, and/or engages in problematic behavior surrounding mealtimes, these skilled therapists can help! This group focuses on:

  • Creating Positive Mealtime
  • Experiences
  • Introducing New and Nutritious Foods
  • Healthy Exploration of Food
  • Simple Food Preparation
  • Supporting a Healthy Mind and Tummy

Register your child now in these specialized social groups for the upcoming winter session. Both groups meet for 10 sessions each at 4:00 PM on Tuesdays or Thursdays.

Pick of the Week: Inference Card Decks – Learn to infer meanings through critical thinking and auditory comprehension

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Oftentimes, people do not communicate a complete message; they assume their listeners are also interpreting important visual information. Help students learn how to determine the “true” meanings of messages and improve their critical thinking, auditory comprehension, and inferencing skills with our newly added inferencing card decks: Look, Listen & Infer and the Inferencing Big Deck. And this week only, take 15% off* your order of either or both of these inferencing decks, by using promo code INFER14 at check-out!

Look, Listen & Infer is a 56-card illustrated set that will teach students to infer the meaning of a message by both listening to a statement or question, and also looking at the picture for important visual cues. One side of each card shows a colorful illustration of the scene. The other side presents the scene and asks, “What should you do next?” followed by three possible answer choices, one of which is correct.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Inferencing Big Deck features 100 large 5″ x 7″ photo cards that contain a short story along with with six follow-up questions to help children improve their ability to correctly inference. The color-coded topic areas include: Associations (These items belong to…); Identify the Setting (Where is this?); Part to Whole (What is it?); Predicting (What happens next?); and What Happened?

Don’t forget – you can save 15%* this week on your order of Look, Listen & Infer and/or the Inferencing Big Deck by using code INFER14 at check-out online or over the phone!

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on October 21st, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

New Product Alert! Scrubba Dub, Carlos and Freda Says Please – More Titles in the “I See I Learn” Series

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From the wonderful “I See, I Learn” series by Stuart J. Murphy, we’re thrilled to add Scrubba Dub, Carlos and Freda Says Please. These new titles will teach your student health and safety skills along with ways to be polite and courteous towards others. Utilizing kid-friendly language, cute and informative illustrations, and inset diagrams for each strategy touched upon, these storybooks teach young learners important social-emotional issues. Each book also includes activities and questions at the end to support educators and caregivers in further exploration of each topic.

 

It’s fun to draw with chalk and build with clay but the washing hands part, not so much. In Scrubba Dub, Carlos, Carlos’ friends help him learn the right way to wash and have fun doing it. 

 

Saying “please,” “thank you,” and “you’re welcome” shows respect for your others and helps children interact in a positive way. In Freda Says Please, it’s Freda’s friends that show her the importance of being polite.

 

Pick of the Week: Clue Cards – 5 Fun Games to Improve Social Communication

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Clue Cards aims to help students who are struggling with interpreting social situations, reading facial expressions, noticing body language, and understanding idioms and other metaphorical forms of speech. This week, you can save 15%* on your set of Clue Cards by entering or mentioning promo code CLUE15 at check out!

Therapists, teachers and parents can uses the cards and games included in this set to help students perceive and understand the details of social presentation. Because the cards are flexible and adaptable, they can be used with both younger and older children, with mild or sever socio-emotional difficulties. There are instructions for 5 different games along with 100 reward chips, targeted for players ages 6-16.

Below are the 5 different games included in Clue Cards:

  • Get a Clue: Players find “clues” in social situations and make inferences based on those clues (using the 15 Social Situation Cards).
  • Faces and Feelings: Link expressions with associated emotions (using the 20 red Feeling Cards, 20 blue Faces Cards).
  • Body Language: Matching photos and captions, children explore body language for clues about thoughts and feelings (using the 24 turquoise Photo Cards, 24 pink Caption Cards).
  • The 5 W’s: Analyze 10 social scenes by asking “who-what-where-when-why” questions (using the 10 Social Scene Cards, 1 Spinner).
  • In Other Words: Learn the idioms and proverbs that often pop up in social conversation (using the 30 green Idiom Cards, 30 light green Idiom Definition Cards, 26 purple Proverb Cards, 26 light purple Proverb Definition Cards).

Don’t forget to redeem your 15% savings* on Clue Cards this week by using promo code CLUE15 when you check out online or over the phone with us!

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on October 14th, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

Pick of the Week: Prepositions StoryCards—Learn basic prepositions & sequencing through storytelling!

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Learn and practice using basic prepositions with creative storytelling with story cards and finger-puppets! You can also save 15%* this week on Prepositions StoryCards by using our promo code PREPOS2 at checkout. This set of 48 beautifully illustrated cards is designed to develop children’s understanding of basic prepositions such as in, on, under, above, below, and around.

With only illustrations and no words, Prepositions StoryCards promotes expressive language in storytelling form, and each story is flexible to your student’s standards. An accompanying booklet includes suggested stories for each of the 4 sets of story cards, as well as approaches for building and reinforcing preliminary concepts, developing verbal comprehension, improving attention and listening skills, expanding expressive language and vocabulary, and sequencing.

Four felt finger-puppets depicting the main character in each story are also included as an interactive and playful tool for reinforcing preliminary concepts.

Don’t forget to take 15%* off your set of Prepositions StoryCards when you order it online or by phone with promo code PREPOS2 at checkout!

 

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on August 26th, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!

Modified Instructions for Parachute Play

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We’re excited to bring you the sixth installment of our series of Modified Instructions, created by Sam Blanco, BCBA. In this installment, we’re introducing Sam’s Modified Instructions for Parachute Play. Our bright and colorful parachutes are perfect for motivating young learners during the summer holidays.

   6ft-Parachute 12ft-Parachute

Continue reading →

Tip of the Week: Teaching Language—Focus on the Stage, Not the Age

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Teaching language skills is one of the most frequent needs for children with autism, but also one of the most misunderstood skillsets amongst both parents and practitioners. The desire to hear your learner speak in full sentences can be overwhelming, making it especially difficult to take a step back and consider what it means to communicate and how communication skills develop in neurotypical children. Many times we get hung up on what a child should be capable of communicating at a certain age, rather than focusing on what they are capable of communicating at this stage of development.

Many practitioners and curricula utilize Brown’s Stages of Language Development.* Brown described the first five stages of language development in terms of the child’s “mean length of utterance” (or MLU) as well as the structure of their utterances.


From aacinstitute.org

Sometimes it is necessary to compare a child to his or her same-age peers in order to receive services or measure progress, but it can be detrimental to focus on what a child should be doing at a specific age instead of supporting them and reinforcing them for progress within their current stage.

Research has suggested that teaching beyond the child’s current stage results in errors, lack of comprehension, and difficulty with retention. Here are some common errors you may have witnessed:

  • The child learns the phrase “I want _____ please.” This phrase is fine for “I want juice, please” or “I want Brobee, please,” but it loses meaning when overgeneralized to “I want jump, please” or “I want play, please.” It’s better to allow your learner to acquire hundreds of 1-2 word mands (or requests) before expecting them to speak in simple noun+verb mands.
  • The child learns to imitate only when the word “say” is used. Then the child makes statements such as “say how are you today,” as a greeting or “say I’m sorry,” when they bump into someone accidentally. Here, the child clearly has some understanding of when the phrases should be used without understanding the meanings of the individual words within each phrase.
  • The child learns easily overgeneralized words such as “more.” This is useful at times, but the child can start using it for everything. Instead of saying “cookie” he’ll say “more.” Instead of saying “train,” he’ll say “more.” And he may say “more” when the desired item is not present, leaving the caregiver frustrated as he/she tries to guess what the child is requesting. Moreover, as language begins to develop, he may misuse it by saying things such as “more up, please.”
  • The child learns to say “Hello, how are you today?” upon seeing a person entering a room. A child comes into the classroom and the learner looks up, says “Hello, how are you today?” The child responds, “Great! Look at the cool sticker I got!” Your learner then doesn’t respond at all, or may say “fine,” as he has practiced conversations of greeting.

These are only a few of the common language errors you may see. While you may want your learner to speak in longer sentences, your goal should be to have them communicate effectively. With this goal in mind, it becomes essential to support them at their current stage, which means it’s essential to assess them and understand how to help them make progress.

This is why I always use the VB-MAPP to assess each child and make decisions about language instruction. I need to have a full understanding of how the learner is using language, and then move them through each stage in a clear progression. I may want the child to say “Hello, how are you today?” But when I teach them that, do they understand those individual words? Do they comprehend what today means as opposed to yesterday or tomorrow? Do they generalize the use of “how” to other questions?

As you make treatment decisions for your learner, think about their current stage and talk about how to support your child with both a Speech Language Pathologist and an ABA therapist.

*Brown, R. (1973). A first language: The early stages. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd.

WRITTEN BY SAM BLANCO, MSEd, BCBA

Sam is an ABA provider for students ages 3-12 in NYC. Working in education for ten years with students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental delays, Sam has developed strategies for achieving a multitude of academic, behavior, and social goals.

Pick of the Week: Parachute Play—Reinforce a Variety of Skills with Summer Fun & Games

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Parachute-6footThe end of the school year means more sunshine and fun outdoors. Start the summer holidays with our bright and colorful parachute, and save 15%* when you order it this week with promo code PCHUTE2! The parachute comes in two different sizes—our 6-foot parachute fits up to 6 (pictured left) and our 12-foot parachute (pictured at the bottom) fits up to 8 children for play.

Parachute Play has something for every child. You can teach colors, peer play, and basic prepositions of “over” and “under”. Children love sweeping the parachute up in the air and watching it flutter down. Best of all, it’s just plain fun for all of us!

And if you’re feeling like you should be focusing on school readiness and not play, the Parachute can help there too! You can download a copy of our Modified Instructions for Parachute Play written by our BCBA Sam Blanco for a variety of games modified for learners of different levels. Below are also some of Sam’s tips on various skills that can be reinforced with the simple yet wondrous parachute:

  • Manding (Requesting) – I frequently use a parachute to have my early learners mand for actions. For example, I’ll have the learner lie down on the parachute, then they have to mand for me to “pick up the handle,” “swing,” “ready, set, go,” or “stop.” I also use the parachute (or a blanket) to teach early learners with autism how to request a parent’s attention. I will have the parent hide behind the parachute, and when the child says “Mommy” or “Daddy” the parent will drop the parachute so he/she is immediately visible and give the child lots of attention in the form of tickles, kisses, verbal praise, etc.
  • Comparisons/Adjectives – To help students understand the concept of big and little, I will have the children stand around the sides of the parachute holding onto it with their hands. I will place an object on the parachute, and we will bounce the parachute up and down to try to get the object to fall into the hole in the center of the parachute. Some objects will fall, but some will be too big to fall into the hole. I will ask the students why the object fell or did not fall.
  • Sorting – I will place several colorful objects on the parachute. We will then bounce the parachute up and down playfully. After a 30 seconds to a minute, we will put the parachute back on the floor, and the student will have to move each object onto a panel of the parachute that matches in color.
  • Identifying Body Parts – Because the parachute has a hole in the middle, I will sometimes use it for identifying body parts. The learner can lie down on the floor. Then I will put the parachute on top of them. I’ll pretend I’m looking for them (for example, “Where is Charlie?”) Then I’ll position the parachute so that one part (such as their hand or their nose) is clearly visible. I’ll lightly touch it and say “What is that?” and have the student label nose or hand or elbow, etc. Once the learner has an idea of the game, I may let them initiate it, or have them say “Find my nose” and I’ll place the parachute so their nose is visible.
  • Song Fill-ins – I like to sing songs while shaking or spinning the parachute. For students with autism or other language delays who struggle with this skill, the parachute can be a great motivator to help with song fill-ins and other intraverbal skills. I will sing the song while shaking or spinning the parachute, and I’ll stop singing AND moving the parachute when I want the child to fill in a word. As soon as the child fills in the word, I will begin singing and moving the parachute again. For many students, this is more motivating than a high five or saying “good job.”
  • Quick Responding – If you are working with learners with autism, the absence of quick responding is sometimes a serious barrier to learning. I have found that using the parachute is a good way to motivate the student to respond quickly when presented with at ask by using it as described above with the song fill-ins. Once I am getting quick responding with the parachute, I quickly begin to work on generalizing the skill to other environments (such as the table or during a floor activity).

Don’t forget to save 15%* this week only on your Parachute when you enter or mention promo code PCHUTE2 at check out!

*Offer is valid until 11:59pm EDT on July 8th, 2014. Not compatible with any other offers. Be sure there are no spaces or dashes in your code at check out!