The Weekly Review: Week 47

Blog Post of the Week

I enjoyed Swistle's idea about spite charity. I love the way her mind works.

Weekly Pleasant Surprise

An old friend that I had lost touch with years ago sent me an email. Since then we have exchanged several more. It has been lovely catching up. It makes me sad that we are now living several states apart.

Ava this Week

Ava adapted to her cast amazingly quickly. She's capable of at least 85-90% of her usual activities with her right hand out of commission. Every so often, she'll want a little assistance though. She'll run up to me and ask for help, and then casually add on to the end of the request, "because I have a cast, you know." I love the way she continues to inform me as if I could possibly be unaware of the fact.

Weekly Michael

When Ava wants a snuggle, she'll come over to me and plop herself down in my lap. When Michael wants a snuggle he'll ask to be tickled. It's adorable. He'll come over and plop himself down in front of me demanding, "Tickle me Mama!" If he feels my initial tickle was too cursory he'll request, "Tickle me some more Mama." He also uses this as a delaying tactic after all the stories have been read and it is time to climb into bed.

Weekly Procrastination

Hmm... Ava's birthday is in less than three weeks. I should probably plan a party, order a cake, and think about a couple of presents.

Ava's Weekly Home Therapy Focus

This week we've dialed way back. We're taking a break from /k/. Ava's done so well with initial /s/ and /sh/ that we're taking a break in the initial position and just pushing those in final position. We're continuing to work on /l/. We're also testing the waters with s-blends. Specifically we're doing some /sn/ words.

Final S: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Description

These articulation picture card sets are designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for these sets are young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with sounds at a one-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in these sets. (Scroll down to preview set.)

Key Features

• This set includes 30 therapy cards with the target word and picture on the front, and the difficulty level and a carrier phrase on the back.
• The words are all VC or CVC in syllable shape.
• The words are simple and are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
• Combines the target sound with all possible vowel sounds at least once.
• Words are sorted by difficulty level for an easy progression from easy to hard.

Permissions

I give permission to copy, print, or distribute this card set provided that:

1. Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
2. No copies are altered without my express consent.
3. No one makes a profit from these copies.
4. Electronic copies contain a live link back to my original and print copies not for merely personal use contain the URL of my original.

Looking for Feedback

I would love to hear back from anyone who uses this card set. Let me know if you find errors or there is anything you would change. Comment on this page, or send me an email at testyyettrying(at)gmail(dot)com.

Where can I find more?

More sets are on my Free Speech Therapy Articulation Cards page.

Card Sets

To download click on the image to open it full size. Then right click on the image, choose "save as" and save the page to your computer.

I recommend you print on cardstock and laminate for durability.

Why does preschool registration begin in late January?

We just finished registering both children for preschool. Why on earth am I making decisions now about preschool that doesn't begin until August? My daughter is two years old and I am supposed to try and decide how many mornings a week of preschool I think she will be ready for eight months from now. I am just supposed to guess whether or not she'll still be taking an afternoon nap so I can decide if I want to enroll her in the crowded morning sessions or the less crowded afternoon sessions. Sure, I could wait to enroll her, but the program fills up quickly. If I wait, I'll probably lose the opportunity all together.

We decided to play it conservatively. We enrolled both children five mornings a week. We can always change our mind later and decide to only send them three mornings a week, but if we don't reserve all five mornings we won't have the opportunity to increase our number of days after the spots have all filled up.

We decided to move Michael up from the explore classroom (a mix of 3 and 4 year olds who mostly attend part-time) to the discover classroom (a pre-school classroom of 4 year olds who are required to enroll for all five days of the week). I feel like he is getting a little bored at home and wants to spend more of his time with his peers in a social environment. Of course, as soon as I made that decision I began second guessing it. I don't really want him to go all five weekdays. I'd like to have one more year where the three of us (Michael, Ava, and I) have a full day at home together. Still, I remind myself, I can change my mind in the fall.

We decided to enroll Ava at a different school all together. We enrolled Ava at the same school she'll be receiving her IEP speech services from beginning in March. The preschool program there is supposed to be amazing and some of the rooms are co-taught by SLPs. They can just pull her out of her classroom for her speech session which will save me an extra trip twice a week. Of course, as soon as I made that decision I began to wonder if I should have just enrolled her at our local school (Michael's school) for preschool. We know and like the explore room classroom teacher. If we had done that she'd be going to the same school as her brother. I'd just drive her from one school to another two days a week for speech.

All of this would be more straightforward if I weren't forced to make these decisions eight months ahead of time based on information that will be outdated by the fall. What's done is done. Fall will come. Everything will work out. The children will be older and more independent as it should be. I just need to relax and calm the decision anxiety a little.