Hot Tips

Hot Tips includes ideas that readers and workshop participants have found to be useful in promoting language in the clinic and at school. Some of these relate to Love and Reilly resources and others are more general in nature. Please feel free to email us with some of your experiences.

Word Journey

Narelle – teacher (Queensland) -

"As a result (of attending a workshop on oral language) I purchased several of your resources.(Word Journey, Word Wise and Away with Words) The Teacher Aides and I have found them to be a fun way of getting students to participate in Language Development sessions and gaining confidence in using their imagination and speaking to a group. I tell the students that they are warm up activities and sometimes we do them for nearly the whole lesson."

A Sound Way

Sue – teacher ( Queensland ) -

"My copy of A Sound Way is tattered and torn but very well loved and very well used. Mr Tongue's House is an activity that I always use, whether it be an individual child I am working with or a whole class. I purchased a whole lot of mirrors that our students love using when we are working out where the sounds are being made in our mouths. I have found it is a good idea to always start off with a fun activity, like animal sounds. This activity certainly engages the children very quickly and we all enjoy watching our mouths making the mooing, squeaking, squawking, cheeping and roaring sounds. Try singing Old MacDonald had a Farm into the mirror as well. This leads very well into moving on then to the speech sounds."

Vocabulary

Lynette - Speech Pathologist (Victoria) -
Regarding "roll" - This is a response to "homework" from a Love and Reilly Vocabulary workshop focusing on words with multiple meanings.

A Day at School
Unwillingly, I roll out of bed and get ready for the day at school. At the supermarket, I take out a roll of notes to pay for the ingredients for my students' cooking lesson. At school, the first job is to do a roll call. In the cookery class, the students roll out the pastry to make a sausage roll. They also each prepare a salad roll and a cabbage roll. They then roll up serviettes to put on the lunch table. After lunch, they roll up in blankets for a nap. Some of the naughty children roll backwards and forwards in their blankets. Half an hour later there is a drum roll. They get up. We all go outside to play Bocce where we roll the balls as close as possible to the kitty. The next lesson is craft. Students are asked to make a special model using a cardboard roll. If finishing early, they can play snakes and ladders and take turns to roll the die. The day ends with a funny story. The children roll around the floor with laughter. The role of the teacher is a varied one!!

Chatterbox

Julie - Teacher (Victoria)
"I take small groups of children with reading/ spelling difficulties in a small country school. The Chatter Box cards with their stimulating topics have been invaluable in promoting lively discussion and consequently have proved an excellent aid for writing activities. The children beg me to use these cards and a second set would  be much appreciated!”

Julia - Speech Pathologist (NSW)
“The Chatterbox cards are great to have handy for those moments with older kids when you need quick topic ideas.  I use them for "Two Minute Talks", "Quick Thinking", group discussions, and paragraph and essay planning and writing.”

Andrew, Speech Language Pathologist -

• I use these cards with language-disordered students, autistic students (middle years to secondary school age) and stuttering students. I have found them useful for practicing fluent speech at the monologue level.
• A student's difficulty responding to a Chatterbox card led to a group discussion about individual strengths and weaknesses.
• I recommend these CHATTERBOX cards to teachers for daily Topic Discussion.

Wizard

Richard, Speech Language Pathologist -

• I have used the WIZARD cards placed along a game-board.
• I have used this resource to introduce parents to the concepts of sounds and letters.
• Some classroom teachers have been keen to use WIZARD as a work-station task during the morning 'Literacy Block'.

WordWise

Majella, Speech Language Pathologist -

• I extend some sections of WORDWISE. For example in JOBS I ask further questions e.g. Where would you find this person? Why does he/she need a ?
• I use WORDWISE to provide suggestions to the classroom teachers on how to target language skills in the classroom environment - i.e. in groups. I have also tried to link some of the ideas to the curriculum. E.g. when a teacher told me she was doing the topic of Sea Creatures in the class, I discussed relevant pictures for DESCRIBE ME, and WHY? relating to the sea and its creatures.
• I have extended the WHY activity with older children by asking them to write down what things they need each day. We then complete the WHY activity with the items from their list.

Merrian, Speech Language Pathologist -

• Very useful in promoting visualization as a strategy to improve recall. E.g. "close your eyes, picture a butterfly and tell me what parts it has." (PARTS activity).
• I use these for my language groups in schools. Wordwise has proved an easy and motivating activity for integration aides to use in follow up sessions two to three times a week with these language disordered students.
• I use the activities to stimulate home practice ideas - e.g. naming tools in the garage and the parts that they have, naming furniture in different rooms of the house. (BRAINSTORM and PARTS)
• With older students I have expanded the activity to include written responses for DESCRIBE ME and WHY?

Away With Words

Merrian, Speech Language Pathologist -

• I add extra cards from time to time to the SAME BUT DIFFERENT Task. E.g. jumper, shirt and jeans. I also introduce an extension task "Tell me the 'odd one out' and why? E.g. apple, carrot, banana.