Testy yet trying

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Bonus Points for the Mom Who Lets Her Children Walk Around With Serious Illness and Injury for Days on End

Remember that time I let a two-year old Ava walk around with a broken hand for five days before taking her to the pediatrician for an unrelated ear infection and discovering the broken bone by accident? (story, bonus pictures) Stellar example of motherly instinct there.

Well, this time it's Michael. He developed a cough a couple of weeks ago. There was no fever, no runny nose, no obvious signs of illness. He was just coughing. At first it was a little. Then it was nearly constant. Finally I called the pediatrician. We discussed it over the phone. Our best guess was mild asthma triggered by fall allergies. We brought him in for a "listen" and to discuss treatment yesterday morning.

We walked out with a diagnosis of walking pneumonia, a prescription for some fancy antibiotics, instructions to use his inhaler faithfully three times a day, and a directive to return in 10 days to be sure we kicked it. Lovely. This time I let my 4 year old walk around with pneumonia for two weeks before calling in an expert. You'd think I'd learn to be a little less conservative about calling the pediatrician.

Friday, September 14, 2012

The Weekly Review: Week 77

SLP Resource of the Week

Have you ever wanted one of those way too expensive plastic "whisper phones" for working with artic students? These are the phones that redirect the child's own voice into their ear so they can better hear their own productions, maintain focus, and have more fun during articulation practice. I found a link describing how to make your own adorable whisper phones using two elbow pieces of PVC pipe and some cute duct tape. (Just scroll down a bit to get to the whisper phone section of the post.)

Ava this Week

Ava has begun to carry around a baby doll. She wasn't much interested in dolls before now. She preferred her small, cuddly, stuffed "friends". Lately she will rush outside to push her doll in the swing, sit with her on the sofa helping her watch the television, and generally have the doll mimic much of her play. It's fun watching her enjoy playing with a baby doll a bit.

And just because I like adorable hair pictures, here is a hairstyle that turned out particularly well this week.

Weekly Michael

Well, the saga of interpreting the concrete decoration continued this week. As we were walking to school one day this week Michael stopped, noticing the line drawing of the penis that had been scratched into the setting concrete many moons ago. He looks up at me with stars in his eyes exclaiming, "Mama, look! It's a rocket ship!" I kept a remarkably straight face. My two preschoolers gathered around the penis on the sidewalk and held an animated debate. Ava was still voting for scissors and Michael firmly believed it was a rocket ship. He bent over and traced his finger along the horizontal line drawn across the top of the "rocket" telling his sister that *this* was the proof. Scissors didn't have lines like this. She ceded the point and thereafter each morning we walk to school the children eagerly anticipate the moment in the walk where they will see their rocket ship.

Weekly Weight Loss

This week I'm down 1.5. Every bit of that happened in the three days since I went low-carb. Thank you, by the way, to all of you who took the time to email me with your thoughts and experiences with low-carb diets. I read every email and they were all helpful. I learned that I was responding so badly because I was going too long between mini-meals. If I eat smaller meals more often I keep my energy level constant and I feel much better. Of course I miss all the yummy carbs, but I have to say I feel great. My energy level has increased and is much more consistent. Food is something I do regularly to fuel up, but I'm not thinking about it all the time. It's actually been a nice change of pace. Oh, and losing 1.5 pounds in 3 days has been pretty rewarding too.

And I should correct my statement made earlier this week about my husband and I both losing 10 pounds in 12 weeks of calorie counting. Actually he lost a little over 15. :-)

This Week's Special Event

Tonight my dad and a family friend are taking the children on their second overnight camping trip of the summer (my mom's not much of a camper). The children are beyond excited and are spending most of their spare moments discussing what they need to pack. Ava seems to have conveniently forgotten that she kept everyone up half of the night last time crying for her mama. I'm sincerely hoping they will be skipping that part this time. :-)

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Initial CH: Free Speech Therapy Articulation Picture Cards

Initial /ch/ Card Set

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.

Description

This articulation picture card set is designed to be more comprehensive than the typical sets you might find elsewhere. The target audience for this set is young children or children with more severe speech delays that need intensive practice with initial /ch/ at a one-syllable level. No blends or vocalic /r/ sounds are included in this set. The set pairs the initial /ch/ with as many different vowel sounds as possible to maximize co-articulation variety.

Key Features

This set includes 12 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 CV or CVC in syllable shape.
The words are easily understood by or easily taught to young children.
Combines the target sound with a variety of vowel sounds.
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:

Each copy makes clear that I am the document's author.
No copies are altered without my express consent.
No one makes a profit from these copies.
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. Other card sets include /p, b, t, d, m, n, h, f, v, k, g, w, s, z, l, th, ch, sh, s-blends, and l-blends/ and more sets are being added regularly.