after school speech part 35

Last Tuesday, SJ had his weekly speech session.  I told the therapist about his continued problems in reading comprehension.  She said she can't specifically work on that, but there are some things she works on that also touches on comprehension.  I told her that any help that she can give in that area would be so appreciated.

She took SJ back and I ran to get his dinner.  When his session was over, she told me he did very well.  She told me that they did a worksheet on Paraphrasing and Summarizing.  SJ had to read the following story and then answer the questions.

Today Ann was five years old.  She had a birthday party.  Her mom baked a special cake.  She frosted it with pink icing.  She put five candles on the cake. 

Ann's guests came to the party.  They each brought a present for her.  They all played games.  Then Ann sat down at the table.  She said, "Time for cake and ice cream!"

Next Ann opened her presents.  Then she gave each guest a favor.  What a great birthday!

SJ then had to answer questions on the Main Idea and Details.  He got all three questions correct.  Next he had to answer questions on Paraphrasing and Summarizing.  He had a little more difficulty with this section.  For example:  Which sentence means the same as this sentence?  The cake was baked by Ann's mom.  SJ could choose a. Ann's mom frosted the cake.  b. Ann’s mom baked the cake.  or c. Ann baked the cake for her birthday.  He wanted to choose A, but the correct answer was B.

He did a little better on the summarizing questions.  For example:  What did the guests do at the party?  a. They brought presents, played games, and ate cake and ice cream.  b. They decorated the cake and gave favors to Ann.  c. They sang songs, played games, and painted pictures.  He choose A, which was the correct answer. 

The last activity she did with him was to discuss what a conversation is.  She gave him a sheet that explained what conversations are and why people have conversations.  Then, SJ had to decide if different scenarios were true conversations or not.  For example:  You ask a salesperson in a shoe store to get you shoes in your size.  He put a C for conversation.  Your teacher tells you your homework assignment.  He put an X since it was not a conversation. 

Last, she selected a few vocabulary words for SJ to look up in the dictionary for homework.  The words were rumor, gossip, public, private, small talk and party favor.  It was a very busy weekend, so we just got that homework assignment done tonight.  At least we finished it before our appointment.  (Although, we were cutting it close.) 

I am glad she is working on this with him.  I am hoping it will stop him from doing his echolalia (repeating) and get him to really engage with others.  Fingers crossed!