Communication skills

          My child’s area of delay is speech and language. Therefore, communication strategies are important to use in the classroom.  The children and adults in the classroom have a hard time understanding him when he speaks.  He substitutes /p/ for /f/, /r/ for /l/, and omits sounds in consonant blends. He also uses incorrect pronouns and language.  We have taught the whole class many signs to use and he uses these signs throughout the day.

            He is usually taken out of the classroom twice a week to work with the school’s speech pathologist.  She is currently working on helping him produce /s/ blends.  She has also worked on him remembering colors, shapes, time concepts, and location concepts.  He will usually grasp most of these concepts by the end of the lesson, but cannot remember them long term.

            All of the communication strategies are used in the classroom and by the speech therapist.  We encourage communication throughout the day.  Choices are always offered in the classroom.  Commenting and expanding are used most often used strategies.  The text recommends speaking clearly and not too fast.  I also always try to make eye contact when repeating or expanding his sentences. 

Cook, Ruth E., Klein, Diane & Tessier, Annette. (2008).  Adapting Early Childhood Curricula for Children with Special Needs.

Motor skills

The focus child in my classroom has typically developing motor skills.  He has continued to develop skills using gross and fine motor skills throughout the school year.  The text recommends offering opportunities to practice.  The classroom is filled with a variety of activities that promote using large and small muscles. 

He participates in center activities such as puzzles, peg boards, sand/ water table, blocks, playdough, etc.  He also participates in activities for gross motor skills such as dancing, climbing, sliding, balancing, and running.  The playgroud offers the time and space to practice these skills everyday. 

He has progressed in writing the letters in his name.  He was not able to form any letters when he first started school.  He is still working on forming the letters and writing them in the correct order. His cutting skills have also improved.

He has a lot of opportunities to practice self-help skills.  He is able to feed himself and put on clothes.  He is able to button his clothes and continues to work on zippering his jackets. 

Cook, Ruth E., Klein, Diane & Tessier, Annette. (2008).  Adapting Early Childhood Curricula for Children with Special Needs.

Social stories

I think that social stories are great tools to use in the classroom.  I have made books for children who have challenging behaviors.  I read it to the class and then leave it in our reading corner to use when needed.  The children like to read them because they are usually simple and they can relate to the content.

My focus child has a speech delay.  The social story will be about communication.  I will provide pictures for common signs that may be needed in the classroom.  I will also provide the words for those signs.  For example, I will put in the sign for stop and write the word under it.  I will then write a sentence about the sign and word.  The whole class will be able to use this book and it will provide another means of communication in the classroom.