after school speech #21

Last Wednesday, SJ had his weekly speech therapy session.  The therapist said he worked well, but seemed a little distracted at times.

They worked on Similarities and Differences. She had him read the sentence .  Then, he would circle yes if they had similarities or no if they were different.  Out of the 15 sentences, he got 12 correct independently.  The other three he could answer with prompts.  One of the ones that confused him was the following sentence.

Can you drive both a car and a horse?

Next, she focused on Determining Similarities by Function.  He was given 4 words and had to circle the 3 that had similarities.  For example:

Stairs Ladder Tree Picture

He needed prompted that tree should be circled with stairs and ladder.  Out of 16, he independently answered 8 correctly.  With prompts, he answered 4 correctly.  The remaining 4 he was still puzzled him.

Last, she had him do a Defining by Using Patterned Definitions activity.  There were three topics:  where things grow, where things are kept and what things are made from.  He did fairly well.  Out of the 18, he did 12 independently.  The other 6 he needed cues. Here is an example of one of the topics.

Where things are kept

Butter is kept in a fridge.

A spare tire is kept in a back of car.

Gasoline is kept in a gas station.

Hay is kept in a barn.

A driver's license is kept in a wallet.

Savings and checking accounts are kept in a bank.

after school tutoring #18

On Monday, SJ had his tutoring session with Mrs. Banks.  They are still reading Tarantula Shoes.  SJ is really enjoying it.

She said he read very nicely for her. However, when it came time to do the comprehension questions, SJ didn't know most of the answers.  

She explained to him that he needed to pay attention when she was taking her turn reading. Instead, he was figetting and constantly looking around the gameroom.  

She told him that he would have to reread the chapter to find the answers.  He wasn't happy about that, but he did comply.  

They also did a spiders glyph.  He had to decide the color of the spider's eyes (orange-he likes spiders), the color of the spider's legs (black-he doesn't have a pet spider), the color of the spider's body (white and brown-he captures it and takes it outside when he sees a spider in the house), the name on the line (no one-who in the family is afraid of spiders), the color of the web (yellow-he has read Charlotte's Web), amount of shoes on the spider (2-he finds it interesting that spiders can't fly, but they can balloon from one place to another), what kind of hat to draw on the spider (sombrero-he finds spiders in the garage) and the color of the barn's beam (red-he thinks people are afraid of spiders because they bite.) Here is the finished glyph.

another sleepover...surprise, surprise no one slept

A few weeks ago, SJ got invited to another classmate's birthday party (actually two classmates since they're twins).  He was super excited and wanted me to RSVP right away.  (Of course, I forgot.  I did tell one of the twins in person, but you know how reliable 6th graders are.)  

I told SJ to ask the boys what they wanted.  He forgot to ask them, so I had to ask their mom when I finally called to confirm.  She said ITunes gift cards would be fine, so that was easy to manage (bonus was that I got fuel perks).

The night of the party the guests were supposed to arrive around 6:30.  SJ could hardly contain himself until it was time to go. We arrived a few minutes after 6:30.  I told SJ not to worry about gluten foods.  "Just eat whatever their mom serves," I told him.  

I picked him up the next day around 11 am.  He was exhausted, but he was chatting away about what they did at the party.

They had pizza for dinner.  They had a bonfire after dinner.  He said they roasted hot dogs, marshmallows and made s'mores.  

All the boys planned on sleeping the twins' rv. Before they fell asleep, they watched a few "Michael Meyers" movies. SJ said they were a little scary, but he "sort of" liked them.  He said they had delicious popcorn to snack on during the movies.

He said he finally fell asleep around 4 am.  He told me that their mom made all the boys pancakes for breakfast.  He said they were yummy.  

I was very glad that SJ got invited to another sleepover party.  As soon as he got home, he went right to bed.  He was one tired, happy boy!

after school speech #20

Last Wednesday, SJ had speech therapy.  She said he did fairly well, but he did complain about being tired.  He still hadn't recovered from his very fun weekend.

First, she worked on describing situations with him.  She read him a sentence and he had to write a sentence describing a time when he felt that emotion.  There were 10 sentences.  He needed prompted on 4 of them.  She explained what cheerful (happy), frightened (scared), surprised (shocked) and foolish (silly) meant to him by telling him the synonym that I have in parentheses.  Here is an example of an emotion he needed prompted on.

What does surprised mean?  Surprised is how I feel when I get a gift.

Next, she read him a paragraph on saying how you feel.  Below the paragraph, there were 15 comments that could potentially solve or worsen the kid's problem.  He got 11 out of 15 correct without any prompts.  Here is the paragraph.

Antoine has a problem.  He can't stand his third period teacher, Mr. Hansen.  Antoine thinks the class is boring, the work is too hard and Mr. Hansen is too mean.  Antoine really wants to transfer out of his class.  He has an appointment tomorrow with his counselor.  He knows the counselor will ask him why he wants to switch classes.  

One of the comments he needed prompted on was the following comment.

I feel like Mr. Hansen doesn't like me because I work too slowly.

Originally, he thought that would solve his problem, but she explained to him that the comment is an opinion.  He doesn't know for a fact that Mr. Hansen doesn't like him for that reason.

Last, she assigned him a worksheet on listening well.  There were 14 statements.  SJ had to decide if they were things a good conversation partner would do.  He only needed promoted on one statement.  For example:

Face your partner.

Smile or laugh if your partner says something you both think is funny.

Nod your head to show you understand what your partner is saying.

The one he needed prompted on was the following:

Think about what you want to say when it's your turn to talk.  

I explained that if he is thinking about what he wants to say he can't be listening to his partner.

after school tutoring #16 & 17

Sorry, I am so behind on this blog.  Life has been keeping me very busy.  SJ had after school reading tutoring last Monday and two days ago.  

Last Monday, Mrs. Banks finished up Niagara Falls or Does It? with SJ.  He really enjoyed the main character, Hank Zipzer, and the book in general.  I was hoping she was going to start another Hank Zipzer book, but she wanted to switch it up.  

She chose Tarantula Shoes by Tom Birdseye. It is about a boy who moves from Arizona to Kentucky with his family and pet tarantula, Fang.  He comes up with a creative plan to make money for cool basketball shoes, so he can fit in with his new classmates.

They read a few chapters last Monday and continued to read more chapters a few days ago.  She said that SJ is enjoying the new book so far.

At the last session, SJ kept using echolalia (repeating text from movies, videos or books) while she was reading.  She continued to read, but then SJ couldn't answer all the comprehension questions.  She made him reread what he hadn't listened to and explained that he needed to pay attention.  He didn't like it, but he did comply.  Good for you, Mrs. Banks.

She said she hadn't seen SJ exhibit that behavior in a long time.  Hopefully, it was just an isolated situation.