Speech Classes

I have been going to Glenkirk Elementary school for 4 weeks now every Monday and Wednesday for speech class.  It is fun to ride the bus (zero bus issues, unlike New Mexico) and show Mommy what we worked on that day.  It is not as intensive as the New Mexico program was but it is all school year long so I will be getting speech help consistently all year which should help prepare me for Kindergarten.   This week we were focusing on the "L" sound and we used the tongue depressor to help make the "LLLLL"sound you make at the doctor.  The depressor was grape flavored, which is amazing. 

Speech eval and paint

Yesterday Mommy and Daddy met with my Speech teacher, Mrs. Sharon.  I will read to you the results of the meeting:

"Dexter is able to produce the following sounds in words: /p/ 100%, /m/ 100%, /b/ 72%, /n/ 100%, /t/ 100%, /d/ 72%, /k/ 87%, /s/ 35%, /f/ 100%, /sh/ 65%, /l/ 60%, /w/ 87% and /s/ blends 41%.  During classroom conversation he was able to use intelligible speech 80% of the time."  Then she compared my pre-test to my post-test following the 16 weeks of speech therapy. 
"Test #1 HAPP-3:  A test where you show pictures of words and I tell you the word.  The first time I made 110 pronunciation errors, the second time I only made 60.
Test #2 Intelligibility: The first time I was only understood 30% of the time, now 80% of the time.
Test #3 Avg sentence length: First time 1.5 words, now 3.9 words.
Recommendation:  Dexter has made good gains in his speech sound development.  A big change that positively impacted his intelligibility was correctly using stressed and unstressed vowel sounds.  He continues to use the following processes: consonant cluster reduction and liquid simplification."

Today I stayed home with mommy and we went to the city library (can't go to the base library any more - thanks budget cuts)  We just happened to be there when they were having story time for 3-5 year olds.  They read books about bubbles and then we had an art project where we painted on bubble wrap. 

just checking in

Playing at pbskids.org  - I love all the Curious George games

It has been a few days since my last update so thought I would say hi.  This was my final week of speech therapy class.  I was able to ride the bus both days, last week was some bus fluke I guess.  We don't have any new words or books, it was a review week and evaluations.  On the 21st mommy and daddy have a parent teacher conference to talk about my progress and what I can continue to do at home.  No much going on in Albuquerque, perhaps we will have an exciting weekend.

Building and Sh

Here is my latest dinosaur castle

This week at speech class we read the book "The Rainbow Fish" and we practiced words that start and end with Sh.  Shut, Short, Show, Shot, Shrimp, Shy, Shop, Shadow and Shag rug. Brush, Cash, Dish, Fish, Leash, Push, Rash, Splash and Squash.

Next week is my final week at speech class.  Hopefully I can ride the bus for my final two classes, they canceled the bus last Thursday and mommy had to take me to class.  Not sure if it was a one time thing or a result of the sequester cutting back on special ed funding.

Puzzles and F

This week at speech class we worked on the letter F.  Tuesday we did words that start with F like: face, fan, farm, fawn, feed, feet, fern, fence and film.  Thursday we were supposed to learn words that end with F but it snowed all night and school was canceled.  Maybe we will learn more F's next week.   The book this week is "Over in the Ocean" which is a great book!  My second favorite book this session, the Mitten from week one is still by far my favorite book.

This morning I rediscovered my puzzle collection.  I haven't done much puzzles lately but I am trying to make up for it now.  I have already done 6 puzzles this morning from 24 piece to 48 piece.

Sssss

More S words this week at elementary school.  Our book was "In with a splash" and our words are:  Sweater, swing, sweep, swim, swan, sweethearts, sweat suit, sweet, swimsuit, skunk, skirt, skeleton, skateboard, scarecrow, skates, school bus, scarf, skin, slippers, sling, sleeping, slide, slug, sled, sleeve, slip and sloth.

I am getting better at my S words.  I only have 3 more weeks of speech therapy classes. I love my time at elementary school and the bus rides to school, I wish it wasn't ending.

S words

This week and next week at speech class we are focusing on "S" words.  Which is good because words that start with S are really hard for me to say.  I just drop the S entirely - for example Snow is No, Small is Mall, etc.

This week the book was "The Very Busy Spider" and we had lots of words to practice at home:
stairs, stamp, star, stop, student, stove, storm, stork, store, smile, smell, smoke, smog, smash, small, small talk, smokestack, smart, spider, spoon, spool, spaghetti, sports car, spaceman, spill, spooky, speaker, snail, sneeze, snake, snore, snow, sneakers, snuggle, snowmobile and snowman.

Colors and Flys

This week at baby school we continued our study of colors.  We all made tie-dye shirts (or at least attempted, see my creation above). 

At Speech class our book this week was "There was an old lady who swallowed a fly"  We worked on the letter L : Laundry, lawyer, lazy, lemon, leopard, letter, lettuce, lifeguard and lighthouse.

Mommy had a chance to talk to my speech teacher this week about my progress.  She said she is very happy with my speech progress, I am talking much more and it is becoming clearer.  Also she is impressed with how well I know the books we focus on each week.  When the class acts out the books I am always telling the class what comes next in the story since I have read them so many times at home.    One area that I have shown progress on but still need a lot of work is just sitting still.  I am constantly in motion - running around, bouncing up and down in the chair, etc - sometimes my teacher has me hold a weighted pillow in circle time to try and keep me calmer.  Mommy and Daddy have also seen this first hand at gymnastics class - most of the time I am just running around and jumping and swinging while the other kids are sitting against the wall waiting their turn. 

The Mitten

This week we restarted speech class.  We read a great book called "The Mitten" about a boy whose grandma makes him a mitten that he looses and all sorts of animals live in the mitten.  One of them is a fox and above I am wearing my fox hat I made.

The sounds we are working on are "Bilabial sounds, alveolar sounds and multi-syllabic words"
Here is my word list: deputy, deposit, domino, telephone, television, take a nap, tamale, teddy bear, two-legged, my papa, my paper, mobile home, banana, my mitten, motorboat, be polite, bubble gum, my money, basket, boy's cap, ball game, bobcat, bait shop, big sock, big feet, bag full, capitol, copilot, carpenter, kimono, communicate, catalog, caterpillar, canopy.

I am very excited to be back in elementary school, the classes are great and riding the bus is so fun.

School bus time

Yea!  It is school bus time again!  My speech class started today.  It was supposed to start on Tuesday but we had a few inches of snow and all schools were on snow delayed so my class was canceled.  I was really bummed I couldn't ride the bus on Tuesday but I quickly forgot that heartache when I rode the bus today.  When I got off the bus mommy was waiting for me at school and I told her "Bye mommy, have fun at work"  This blew away my teacher, Mrs. Sharon, since last time I saw her I was just saying a few words.  I ran into the classroom eager to start.  My class will be 8 weeks long, ending on March 7th.  I will update you along the way with our words and books like last time.

Brown Bear, part 3

Here is a link to my previous two readings of "brown bear"
http://allisonkarrels.blogspot.com/2012/05/brown-bear-part-2.html

Here is my final installment of me reading the book.  My Aunt Heather has been using me in her speech therapy classes she teaches so just trying to help out :)



I had a fun weekend watching football and eating pizza with friends.  Tomorrow is a holiday of sorts, the base is closed by mommy has to work.  I wonder what fun adventures I will get into with Daddy tomorrow!

Minimal Pairs

First off, I cut my hair yesterday.  Mommy misses my curls already, but Daddy likes it better.

Now onto this week's speech therapy words!  We worked on "minimal pairs" which are words that sounds similar - we focused on the sound discrimination between the "t" sound and the "k" sounds.  Examples are:  Tap/Cap, Tea/Key, Tight/Kite, Take/Cake, Cop/Top, Tall/Call. 

Daddy said the word then I was supposed to point to the picture.  I had a hard time with this, apparently I can't tell the difference between the two sounds very well.  After a few more days of practice I got much better though.  Our book this week was Bear Snores On.

Next week is my last week at speech until after the holidays, we will practice the S sound.  I will start back up January 15th for my final eight week session. 

Airplanes and the K sound

This morning I am flying to Ohio.  I love to fly and almost have enough frequent flier miles for a free flight I travel so much!  I am only going for the weekend though to play with my cousins while mommys cousin gets married.    I am sure I will have some updates for you when I return.

At speech class this week we practiced the K sound.  In words like: can, key, car, comb, cat, cow, kids, corn, candy, sock, snack, walk, stick, truck, block, snake, steak, snowflake.  We read a book called "Bear feels sick"

Have a great weekend!

Cooking Pancakes & Word Syllables

It is Sunday which means Pancake day!!  I love to help daddy make pancakes!

This week at speech class we worked on "word syllables"  which just means saying longer words slower and saying each part correct.  Our words this week were: tepee, tummy, number, napping, puppy, penny, money, mopping, top hat, mobile home, potato, naughty, peanut, tonight, noodle soup and motor boat. Our book this week was Three Billy Goats Gruff.

Homework

Every night we read this week's elementary school book and then go over all the words I have learned since I started speech class a month ago.   Hopefully when I see my family next week they will notice my big improvements.

T

This week is brought to you by the letter T. As in Teeth, Tie, Tire, Toad, Toast, Toys, Two, Tarzan and Teacher.  Or Ant, Bat, Boat, Boot, Cat, Coat, Fruit, Goat, and Hat.

Our book this week is Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear - which is fun to read and act out as Teddy Bear touches his toes, turns around, takes a bow, etc.

In the pictures I built a tower, read my book and built a train (pulled by Mater).   Hopefully today I will be saying "Touchdown!" as the Gators beat the Volunteers.

N

This week is brought to you by the letter N.  As in crown, balloon, clown, spoon, phone, raccoon, airplane, lion, seven, chicken.  Also knees, knitting, nap, nest, nurse, nose, napkin, necklace, and nickel.  We read the book "No, David" at elementary school and practiced the nnn sound a car engine makes.

School bus update - Daddy has been driving me to speech class but letting me ride the bus home.  Otherwise I would miss the first 5-15 minutes of class because the bus is always late. 

M

This week is brought to you by the letter "M" 
As in man, mouse, mop, moth, moose, mattress, mittens, mirror and mother
or clam, lamb, plum, team, ice cream, mushroom, comb, broom and jam

M is a fun word.  If you eat something yummy you can say "mmmm" or you can watch fireworks that go "Boom!"

Our book this week was "Are you my mother?" (show above)

An update on our bus adventure.  I rode the correct bus to and from daycare today.  The bus was about 15minutes late dropping us off at class so things still are not running smooth, perhaps a few more phone calls and a few more times of mommy and daddy following the bus will help.

Line Up!

Here we are lined up holding our rope to go into Speech class.  We are in room P19.  There are 5 portables next to the Elementary School for preschool classes & head start programs.  There is a playground in the middle of the portables which was very tempting to go play on but I was good and lined up. 

I am 2nd in line (yellow shirt), note they stuck a girl into our class.  We now have 8 boys and 1 girl, Natalia - she is 5.

My school is just as fancy as my cousin Cole's elementary school pictured above....Hahaha!
I like New Mexico, but I am glad we will live in Virgina when I start elementary school for real or else I would be going to some expensive private school.

P

Today was my first day of speech class at Kirtland Elementary School.  It was awesome!

I sang songs, blew bubbles, painted pink pigs, ate popcorn and drank pop, read "Pigs a Plenty, Pigs Galore" and practiced lots of words that start with the letter P.  This week the letter is P. Pencil, Pelican, Party, Pup, Pig, Pals, Pickles, Pop, Penguin, Penny and Pony

Each week for eight weeks we are going to focus on a letter or sound.  Tuesdays we practice words that start with the letter and Thursdays we practice words that end with the letter.

  There are eight boys in my classroom and two teachers - Sharon and Annie

The only thing that could have made today better would be riding the school bus.  I can't do that until next week

My pink pig I painted