after school speech part 25

On Thursday, SJ has his weekly speech appointment.  We were actually on time.  This was due to the fact that I had called off work that day to attend his IEP meeting.  I didn't feel as rushed as I do when I am coming home from work and trying to get so much done.  Anyway, I was so proud that we finally made it on time.

SJ was impatiently waiting for his therapist to take him back.  She was discussing the previous patient's therapy session with their mom while SJ was sighing ever so loudly.  I told him she would be done shortly and to try to be patient.  Easier said than done.

SJ's therapist mostly worked on Inferences.  She would read him a sentence and he was to picture in his mind what was happening.  Then he needed to answer her question.  For example:  The street is blocked off with police tape.  What might have happened?  He was to answer a crime scene, an accident or road repair.  However, he answered that the streets were closed.  That is against the rules.  (This was obviously one that he got wrong.) He had some trouble with this exercise and only got half of them correct. 

The next exercise involved looking at a picture and making inferences about them.  SJ had a much easier time making the inferences with the visual clues.  He got all of them correct.  She moved on to another verbal exercise that also had a second sheet of pictures associated with it.  She told him about a pair of pictures.  Then, she asked him a question about them. She told him to listen carefully and look at the pictures to help him with his answer.  For example:  She pointed to picture 1.  The girl's shoes are dirty.  She pointed to picture 2.  Now her shoes are clean.  What happened in between?  He was to answer that she cleaned her shoes, got new shoes or changed her shoes.  He answered that she changed her shoes (something he would do!).  He did very well with this exercise and got all of them correct. 

Last, she worked on Main Ideas.  She told him that supporting details tell him more about a main idea and non-supporting details don't relate directly to the main idea.  She read him some sentences and then told him what the main idea was.  She needed him to tell her which sentence in each paragraph does not support the main idea.  For example:  The main idea was learning to ride a bike.  She read these sentences to him.  "I had a difficult time learning to ride a bike.  My bicycle was green with a yellow seat.  My dad spent every Saturday morning teaching me to ride.  I could finally do it after a month."  He needed to tell her that the detail about the color of his bike was not supportive of the main idea.  She said he did okay with this exercise.

She told me that SJ informed her at 5:01 p.m. that his session should be finished.  "Well, we are not quite done yet, SJ," said his therapist.  "Well, I got here at 4:31.  Speech is for 30 minutes, so I should be done at 5:01," insisted SJ.  "We didn't get started right at 4:31," his therapist told him.  "Well, if you wouldn't have been talking so much to that lady, we could have started on time," said SJ.  "Why do moms have to talk so much?” added SJ.  I didn't know if I should laugh or be embarrassed.  She was laughing at it, so I guess I can laugh too.  He is a piece of work!  A funny little piece of work!