Happy December

I can't believe it...but December is here (ready or not!)...

Here is a great calendar listing a MONTH full of great language activities!  This was put out by the Moog Center in St. Louis.  Have fun checking this out...and why not try some (or all!) of these with your family?  You could print this out and have your child cover the squares with fun winter or Christmas stickers once each activity is completed.  Happy December!

Link: What it Actually Feels Like to Stutter

Today I read a great article on the Huffington Post's website about what it feels like to stutter...written by someone who stutters.  It's a great reminder to anyone who works with someone who stutters:  SLPs, teachers, parents, etc.!

What it Actually Feels Like to Stutter (click)

Link: A Great Post Regarding Toddler Communication Facilitation

I follow many communication-development-related blogs, too many to keep up with entirely!  Today I read a great blog post (click):  Language Development for Toddlers: Set it up.  This post reminds parents and therapists who work with young children of the importance of play and of finding things that are motivating to our little ones.  We know when they are motivated...they are more likely to communicate!  Enjoy the post!

Wildcats Helping Washington

Dear Metcalf Family,

In a effort to help those affected by Sunday's tornado in Washington, combined with our theme, "How Can We Help?" Metcalf students and staff are going to participate in a "penny drive." Any type of currency will be accepted, of course. The name reflects the idea that any donation, even down to pennies, can help.

We are asking classroom teachers to collect the money in the large envelope that will be in your mailbox later today. At the end of each day, students from Mrs. Frank's homeroom will stop by to collect the envelope/money. The envelope will be returned to your mailbox each day.

Teachers are not expected to tally the amounts brought in; it will be a community effort within Metcalf to raise as much as we can. The money will be earmarked for Washington; we are still in the process of finding the most effective way to get the donations directly there.

Thank you to the students and staff who are taking this project on and thank you for your participation, and willingness to help others!

Sincerely,
Amy
Principal, Thomas Metcalf Laboratory School, College of Education, Illinois State University

International Students visit Metcalf!

Today many of our students had the exciting opportunity to have students from all over the world visit their classrooms.  This morning students from Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Brazil presented information about their home country to five students who are deaf/hard of hearing.  The presentations were given orally, with visual Power Point presentations including pictures.  Additionally, two of our Teachers of the Deaf provided sign language interpretation to further enhance the students' ability to learn from these visitors.

We learned about how people in Thailand enjoy the sport of boxing and we saw some pictures of delicious-looking Thai food including shaved ice, shrimp and noodles.  We saw pictures of beautiful waterfalls and learned about tiny monkeys that could fit into our hands in Brazil.  The students were excited to learn some Arabic letters and to see how some of their names looked when written in Arabic.  They were particularly surprised to see that the student from Saudi Arabia wrote the Arabic letters and words from right to left instead of from left to right as we do.  We taught our visitors the sign language symbols for some letters as our visitor from Saudi Arabia taught us Arabic letters.

Thanks to everyone who made this presentation possible for our students!  It was an enjoyable morning for all of us and something our students will talk about for a long time.

Early Music Education = Better Language Skills

This year at Metcalf, we have increased music education programming for students in our younger grades.  I have been assisting Ms. Mattoon (our outstanding general education Pre-Kindergarten teacher here at Metcalf) with weekly music classes in our Pre-Kindergarten classrooms.  We are using John Feierabend's music and movement curriculum, First Steps in Music for Preschool and Beyond in our classes.  Metcalf was honored to host a conference with Dr. Feierabend in September where many professionals (both from Metcalf and other schools/organizations) were able to learn from the author and practice his techniques.

I am no stranger to music education and firmly believe in the value of music education for all children. I actually began my undergraduate work as a Music Education major before switching to Communication Sciences and Disorders and graduated with a Minor in Music.  In the evenings, I am currently teaching a few private piano students (and have done so since high school).  During my work as an Early Intervention therapist, I often incorporate music and movement into my speech, language and listening therapy sessions.  Formal research aside, I have anecdotally seen that music education helps increase children's attention, problem solving skills, social language skills, and language skills/concept knowledge.  Plus...music is just good, plain FUN!  Music enjoyment, skill and knowledge are gifts that serve individuals from infancy through adulthood.

Today I read an article posted on Facebook by the Auditory Verbal Center of Wheaton:  Theory: Music Underlies Language Acquisition.  There is a lot of research out there that supports the value of music in brain development...and this is just one short illustration of that.

So today...give it a try!  Sing, dance and be joyful with your children and students!

Listening and Spoken Language Preschool Program at Metcalf

The 2013-14 school year brought an exciting new program to Metcalf...the Heart of Illinois Low Incidence Association (HILIA) Listening and Spoken Language Preschool!  Check out our flier for more information (click on the image to enlarge)!

Speech? Language? What's the difference?

It is very common for people who are not Speech-Language Pathologists (or someone in a related field :)) to confuse the terms speech and language.  Straight from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association's website, here is a good explanation of the difference:

Kelly's 4-year-old son, Tommy, has speech and language problems. Friends and family have a hard time understanding what he is saying. He speaks softly, and his sounds are not clear.

Jane had a stroke. She can only speak in one- to two-word sentences and cannot explain what she needs and wants. She also has trouble following simple directions.

Language is different from speech.

Language is made up of socially shared rules that include the following:

• What words mean (e.g., "star" can refer to a bright object in the night sky or a celebrity)
• How to make new words (e.g., friend, friendly, unfriendly)
• How to put words together (e.g., "Peg walked to the new store" rather than "Peg walk store new")
• What word combinations are best in what situations ("Would you mind moving your foot?" could quickly change to "Get off my foot, please!" if the first request did not produce results)

Speech is the verbal means of communicating. Speech consists of the following:

Articulation

How speech sounds are made (e.g., children must learn how to produce the "r" sound in order to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit").

Voice

Use of the vocal folds and breathing to produce sound (e.g., the voice can be abused from overuse or misuse and can lead to hoarseness or loss of voice).

Fluency

The rhythm of speech (e.g., hesitations or stuttering can affect fluency).

When a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely (expressive language), then he or she has a language disorder.

When a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has problems with his or her voice, then he or she has a speech disorder.

In our example, Tommy has a speech disorder that makes him hard to understand. If his lips, tongue, and mouth are not moved at the right time, then what he says will not sound right. Children whostutter, and people whose voices sound hoarse or nasal have speech problems as well.

Jane has a receptive and expressive language disorder . She does not have a good understanding of the meaning of words and how and when to use them. Because of this, she has trouble following directions and speaking in long sentences. Many others, including adults with aphasia and children withlearning disabilities, have language problems.

Language and speech disorders can exist together or by themselves. The problem can be mild or severe. In any case, a comprehensive evaluation by a speech-language pathologist (SLP) certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) is the first step to improving language and speech problems.

New Blog!

This is presently my third school year at Thomas Metcalf Laboratory School and one of my personal goals for this school year was getting a Speech/Language blog up and running...so here we go!  On this blog I plan to share some of the things going on in room 104 at Metcalf (our speech room!) as well as provide resources for parents and teachers regarding speech and language milestones and tips for working with children who may have speech and/or language related difficulties.  I also plan to post information periodically for undergraduate and graduate students working toward degrees in Speech-Language Pathology.  One of the big (and very exciting!) parts of Metcalf School is our affiliation with Illinois State University as a Laboratory School.  We are privileged as professionals here working at the school to work and train talented undergraduate and graduate students working toward degrees in related fields including (but not limited to!) education, psychology, speech-language pathology, audiology, special education, and more!

Feel free to post questions or e-mail me at rlbrunn@ilstu.edu.  Stay tuned, as I hope to begin to post regularly to this site.  Later this week I will be attending the ASHA convention in Chicago, IL and hope to have many new tidbits from that to share!