Focused Elsewhere

Once I finally made the decision to homeschool, my attention has been completely focused on homeschool planning and my blogging has predictably decreased. I will try to find more balance. Of course, we've also weathered two stomach bugs, 4 colds, one case of croup, one episode of pink eye, and an ear infection that was only detected through a failed hearing screening at an annual checkup. I feel like I've been handling administering multiple doses of prescription and over the counter meds every day to multiple children for a solid month.

On the homeschooling front I've been busy. I decided that if I was going to homeschool kindergarten I should familiarize myself with the Missouri State Standards for kindergarten. I found them here: Missouri State Standards. One thing led to another and in my usual obsessive way I ended up making my own checklists. I'll post them for anyone who happens to be interested in a couple of days. I've created a printable checklist for Communication Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Physical Education, Art, Music, and Dramatic Arts. I spent way too many hours working on this, but I feel good about being familiar with the standards for kindergarten and having a checklist to make sure we cover everything over the course of the year.

I also made my own homeschooling planner, printed it, and will be binding it as soon as Amazon sends me binding combs of the proper size. Again, I'll be sharing process and pictures shortly.

I will be continuing to use RightStart Math Level A. I continue to be extremely happy with the program. Ava will start at the beginning and Michael and I will continue where we left off at about 1/3 of the way through the level. I've reviewed about a month worth of lessons, making notes on the lesson plans and preparing the printables/consumables to go along with them.

I will continue to work with the Usborne Very First Reading Set (read about it here, here, and here), but for a time I will take a break from those. I want something that teaches phonics and decoding in a more organized fashion and I've chosen All About Reading Level 1. I love this program. I've done several of the beginning lessons with Michael and I really like the program. He's ahead because of the work we've been doing with the Usborne books and so we're doing two lessons at a time right now. When the All About Reading program catches up with his current abilities, we'll slow down and take things at his pace. I've reviewed and prepared the supplementary materials for approximately the first month of All About Reading lessons. I'll do a more thorough review of the All About Reading program soon.

I'm still working on science, social studies, and related arts planning. I figure the first month or more will be experimental in nature. We'll have to find the right balance of structured lessons, pre-school style activities, life and chores, and free play.

And that brings you up to date on what's been keeping me busy these days. I am about 3/4's finished with the /f/ speech therapy kit. I will admit that I haven't touched the file for about two weeks. I'm about done (I think) with homeschooling preparations for the time being, so hopefully I'll have some more free time to pick up that project again.

CEU Challenge: Week 3 - Intervention Programming for Nonverbal Children

This week I took the Intervention Programming for Nonverbal Children course at LinguiSystems and received 0.2 CEUs or 2 hours of Continuing Education Credit.

This course was really fantastic. If you're working with really young children who have limited verbal skills and are wondering where to begin, this course takes you through the basics. It begins by reviewing the pragmatic prerequisites that are necessary for verbal communication: joint attention and turn taking. Then the author reviews pragmatic acts that are essential in communication: greetings, initiation/requesting, and negating/protesting. All five of these pragmatic skills are often valid targets with nonverbal or minimally verbal children. Then she discusses vocabulary intervention in terms of what to target and how to target it. She offers many, many practical suggestions for how to structure therapy with this population. She provides links to internet resources that can be used in planning thematic therapy sessions and describes therapy activities to include in your therapy sessions. I strongly recommend reading this one even if you have no need for the CEU credits.

I know I have some parents out there that follow along. You would probably also benefit from reading this material. I believe that there are many suggestions you could use at home with your children.

The Intervention Programming for Nonverbal Children course was well organized, well written, and easy to read. The 20 question multiple-choice quiz was straightforward and quick to complete. I earned 0.2 more continuing education credits towards the 1.5 I need to earn this calendar year.

Did anyone else take this course? What did you think?

Don't forget to complete Week 4: Introduction to Ethical Decision Making in Speech-Language Pathology - 0.2 CEUs for next Friday!

See the complete 7-Week Free CEU Challenge here.

If you missed it, catch up on my Week 1 review: Counseling Theories and Skills for SLPs - 0.2 CEUs. Then catch up on my Week 2 review: Evidence-Based Practice - 0.2 CEUs.

CEU Challenge: Week 2 - Evidence-Based Practice

It's a good thing I committed to taking these online CEU courses once a week. I'll admit, I left things to the last possible minute this time. This week I took the Evidence-Based Practice course at LinguiSystems and received 0.2 CEUs or 2 hours of Continuing Education Credit.

This was a very nice course on why clinical decisions and therapy methods should be based on a combination of high-quality research evidence, practitioner expertise, and client preferences and values. The course discusses how to locate research and evaluate the quality of that research. It also discusses what to do if you cannot find high-quality research available to answer a specific question. I really do believe evidence-based practice is critical to efficacy in therapy.

Two years ago, when it became apparent to me that Ava's speech was significantly delayed in a manner consistent with a motor-speech disorder (apraxia) I knew that I didn't know enough about apraxia treatment to help her. I needed to know more. I dug into the online ASHA archives for any journal articles written about CAS. I purchased the Source for Childhood Apraxia of Speech and read it cover to cover. I came to understand that the evidence shows that CAS cannot be treated with the same treatment methods as a generic articulation disorder or even the methods most appropriate for children with phonological disorders. If you treat a child who has a motor-speech problem that way, treatment results will not be maximized. Therapy progress will be slow.

My research led to an increased understanding of CAS. Understanding CAS helped me to understand the best ways to treat CAS. Understanding the most effective treatment methods helped me to help Ava. As a side effect, I was able to share a lot of that knowledge on this blog. I have also been able to create therapy materials that focus on the unique needs of the CAS population. I wouldn't have been able to do any of that without digging into the research first.

The Evidence-Based Practice course was well written and easy to read. The 20 question multiple-choice quiz was straightforward and fairly quick to complete. I earned 0.2 more continuing education credits towards the 1.5 I need to earn this calendar year.

Did anyone else take this course? What did you think?

Don't forget to complete Week 3: Intervention Programming for Nonverbal Children - 0.2 CEUs for next Friday!

See the complete 7-Week Free CEU Challenge here.

If you missed it, catch up on my Week 1 review: Counseling Theories and Skills for SLPs - 0.2 CEUs.