summer speech part 5

Last Thursday, SJ had his weekly speech session.  They took a break from writing this week.  His therapist focused on Inferences and Social Language.  She also told me that she was going to be targeting the following two goals for the next few sessions.

1.      SJ will make inferences about increasingly complex situations with minimal visual cues.

2.      SJ will establish a topic relevant to the current situation and context, and will initiate conversation related to such topics, at least one time during a 30-minute session.

She began with the inferences.  She read him a sentence and told him to try to picture what is happening in his mind.  Then she had him answer the questions.  Out of the 9 scenarios, he was able to appropriately answer 6 of them.  Not too bad!  This is an example of a scenario and SJ's response.

· The lamp was working just a minute ago.  Now the light won't come on.  What might have happened?  Acceptable answers were light bulb burned out, lamp got unplugged or it's broken.

SJ answered the question by saying that "you need a new light bulb or battery".  Bravo!  What an appropriate response, SJ!  

Another scenario that SJ wasn't successful with is the next example.

· Sam worked very hard on his homework.  Now he's upset with his little sister.  What might have happened?  Acceptable answers were that sister drew on his homework, sister tore his homework or sister ruined homework.  

SJ didn't answer the question correctly.  In fact, he gave his famous "I don't know" response.  This is typical for him.  If he doesn't know the answer immediately, he doesn't take the time to think about it.  He simply blurts out "I don't know".  This is something that we have been working on for a long time!

The therapist then moved on to predictions.  She read him a sentence and told him to try to picture what is happening in his mind.  Then she had him answer the question.  Out of the 7 scenarios, he was only able to appropriately answer 3 of them.  This is a definitely more difficult for SJ.  This is an example of a scenario that SJ could answer correctly.

· Marguerite is locked out of her apartment.  What might happen next?  Acceptable answers were she will ask the landlord to let her in; she will stay at her neighbor's apartment until someone else gets home or she will call someone to come and let her in. 

SJ answered that "she can call someone who has a set of her keys".  Good response SJ! 

Another scenario that SJ wasn't successful with is the next example.

· Dan is riding his bike.  He hits a big bump in the sidewalk.  What might happen next?  Acceptable answers were that he will fall off his bike; his bike will wobble, but he won't fall; he will get hurt.

SJ answered initially that "I don't know", but then said maybe there was an earthquake.  What?  Nowhere close to SJ being correct there.  More practice in predicting is what I am predicting for SJ's future!

Last, his therapist moved on to social language exercises.  She gave him situations and he had to tell her how he would start a conversation with someone.  He did fairly well with this exercise.  They did 6 situations and SJ answered all 6 appropriately.  Way to go, SJ! 

Here is an example of one of the situations. 

· Your best friend comes home from a long trip.  SJ said, "How was your trip?"

That was a great conversation starter.  We will finish all the remaining inference and social conversation situations for homework.  I am hoping with a little more practice that SJ will get as good at the inferences and predicting as he is at the conversation starters.