The mini-victories

I had an awesome day at work. :)

On the contrary, I thought it'd be a blah day. I started it off a little behind schedule so that put me in a mini funk. My alarm went off at 5:30 and -- this rarely happens -- I snoozed without even realizing it until BF came in to check on me. He asked, "What time are you supposed to wake up?" "5:30." "Um, it's past 5:30..." "What?! Did I snooze and not realize it?" "I don't know." But then I laid in bed for another half hour (or 2 snoozes) until I finally forced myself to get up. I got to work around 7:20 and proceeded to finish my triennial report for an unconfirmed IEP meeting (note to BSILF: it took me probably 10 minutes to compose/edit the first 2 pages; I just had to fill in the assessment results this AM). Fortunately, I had first period to work on it; Hump Days have turned into my "day off" with the 320s. I switched my usual morning 320 session with his occupational therapist and right after that, they all leave for their Community Based Instruction -- they get to go out into the community every Wednesday to socially interact. They're so lucky; they go to the mall, library, etc.

During second period, I couldn't find two of my students so I called my usual Tuesday 2nd perioders -- DA and CV. Unsurprisingly, they barged in like a hungry pair of wolves, asking for food. At first I lied and said I didn't have anything. They whined about how hungry they were so I lectured them again, and then said that IF they worked hard, then I would give them a granola bar at the end. They whined some more about how they were starving so I told them to give me a good reason as to why I should give it to them before. "Because it gives us strength." "And it's good for our brain." (Actually, it was more like this: DA yelled, "strength!" and CV paused and said, "Brain?") So I gave them my yummy Nature Valley Yogurt bars. =P They munched away so I snuck in some 'boring' tx.

I was quite proud of my logic behind it, though. Both boys need a lot of help with their language (grammar, vocabulary, reading, and spelling). So I decided that every session, I would introduce two pairs of homophones -- and make sure they knew how to spell the words and use them in a grammatically-correct sentence. Of course they didn't know what a homophone was so I explained and then snuck in a side-mini-lesson of prefixes. Being typical middle-school aged boys, they laughed when I said, "homo." I didn't care -- I flat out gave them the taboo example (homosexual) and explained it further. =P They begged to stay after the bell ring...which meant funny business. Turns out DA was trying to avoid running in P.E. I promptly kicked them out.

Later on, I saw my Blackjack boy (all he ever wants to talk about is cell phones and other electronic gadgets. I can't count how many times he has begged me to ask BF for the Blackjack that he already gave to his parents). Blackjack boy is in speech simply for a severe lateral lisp. But it's not such a simple thing for me to help him remediate. For crying out loud, I've been seeing him 1:1 since September (and finally changed his service time to group at his IEP this past week). I've tried all kinds of prompts and cues and read this and that but I hadn't been effective. But today, I tried a crapshoot move. I told him to do what one of his previous SLPs told him to do (i.e., roll his tongue up) but try to keep it behind his teeth and keep that tongue "skinny". Note: I can't even do this; how horrible is that?! Well, for the love of God, he produced the /s/-phoneme!!!!! I made him do 10 x 3 sets (with breaks in between). The poor guy was so tense doing them.

I often feel sorry for my lateral lispers -- they've been in therapy for at least 5 years and they still sound like they haven't gotten anywhere. One speaks so softly...and my guess is that he is embarrassed. As for Blackjack boy seriously doesn't have any friends. I wouldn't've known that at all, considering how he is one of the best conversationalists on my caseload. I know counseling is not within my scope of practice so I just leave all that alone. But I still can't help but feel for them.

My last bunch were the rowdy bunch of boys. I had promised them that I would alternate seeing them, but I haven't kept up to my promise so I finally did today. I think we had a pretty successful session, despite the slight change in group (replaced 2 boys with a girl and my other lisper).

With a job like this, you gotta do a mental song and dance for the small victories.