Auditory Processing-Center #3

So far this week you have several "centers" to use when you work with a child that has auditory processing issues. 

First Center-The Processing Program Level 1 & 2
Second Center-The Following Directions app
Third Center-Lately, thanks to one of my student's love of all things super hero, I've been using this.

Spiderman makes everything better, right?!?

Print the first and third page and then print page 2 and 4 with a manual feed, and there you have it!

Hope you've enjoyed auditory processing week here on Speech Lady Liz!


Did I mention how thankful I've been that you all have been so patient with me as I've adjusted to this new life in Chicago?! I have the next two weeks off so let's hope I find a place to live and can get myself organized before the school year starts again.  Here's hoping!!!



P.S. Happy Birthday Dad! Love you!


 

End Of The Week SLP Blues-Auditory Processing Edition

 Listening skills are sometimes harder to target than you think.  Here are some fun activities to use with your students.

*Click on the picture to get to the site link.














Make sure to follow these blogs and/or like them on Facebook.  Hope this cures your "End of the Week SLP Blues"!

Appy Hour-Following Directions

The Super Duper folks have been extremely generous with me and their app codes. I knew I wanted to have an auditory processing week and I realized the saying is true "ask and you shall receive ".   I asked for a following directions app and here it is.


So I have to admit I'm not much of a drill and kill type of SLP...assuming you all could tell that about me. So as much as I seriously love the auditory processing program that I reviewed yesterday I need some variety and I know the kids do too.  I generally like to have centers during 1:1 therapy.  It's that ADD I suffer from. I know the kids I work with can't sit and look at pictures for 45 minutes straight so I like to have activities that we move to and from. Even in a small therapy room I use colored circles to mark the activities. So first we do the red circle, then the yellow and then the green (I use this stop light as a visual for centers too). If they make it to the green then they get free play time.
Anyways, enough with that, let me tell you how I incorporate this app and The Processing Program.  The red center is generally the one that is the hardest for kids to sit through (but generally the center where I get the most data) and that's the drill or picture center. I use the auditory processing program and we do that for 10 minutes. Then the yellow center is iPad based because as soon as I pull the iPad out they are beaming with excitement. So now I can get to the nitty gritty of how I use this app. I add the child's name to the list and then depending on what their goals are, I do as follows:
-Choose what directions I think are appropriate ( love that about the super duper apps), then we go through them one by one and they follow a direction or they give me a direction.  They have to listen to what the app has said and repeat the directions back to me (I'm tricky like that. I like to make them work when they don't even know they are working).
- If the child's goal is to follow multi-step directions, then I choose 2-3 and I verbally give them the directions. Once they think they have completed the task they get to go back and scroll through to see if they got it right.  This is very motivating!  Just the visuals keep them loving this yellow center. 

After the yellow center comes the red center. This center could be a number of things. I like to make it less following directions based. I like to have them listen and decide if something rhymes, or what word had stress on it, or listening for the change in sounds in words. It's up to you. If you need help with these activities come back tomorrow or Friday for free ideas and downloads to use.


Happy "Appy Hour"!

Review-Super Duper's The Processing Program Level 1 & 2

Auditory processing is something that at the beginning I felt totally clueless on how to treat.  I don't feel like it was covered in grad school like it probably should have been, seeing as the majority of my caseload since has had some kind of auditory processing component.  When Super Duper asked if I wanted to try out a product I jumped on the chance to try The Processing Program 1 and they were kind enough to send me Level 2 as well.
 
                                                                    
The book is broken up into competency levels. It is set up kind of like a diagnostic test, but is very specific about the target.  Each page has a prompt for the SLP and then on the other side has pictures.  Level 1 starts out with identifying single nouns then it jumps to noun + noun and so on.  The book targets 46 basic concepts including singular and plural nouns, pronouns, sizes, colors, quantities, prepositions and conjunctions.
Let me tell you why I like it.  Need help coming up with short-term goals? Bam, just use this book and go through the pages until you find a break down in the child's ability.  Choose goals based on the next levels in the book.  Not only this, but in the beginning of the program it talks a lot about the Altered Auditory Input (AAI) technique to make commands easier for each child to process and how to teach this technique to the individuals involved in the child's life. This was a technique that I knew the basis of, but it goes through and really teaches all aspects of it.  The AAI technique involves modifying the speed that you present the items at, the pauses that you use when you present items and the melody at which you speak.   

The beauty of these books is that there is not a lot of "fluff". It's a very straight and to the point program. You use it exactly how it tells you (so nice not to have to think too much!). That being said I like to incorporate this book with other approaches and activities. The processing program is certainly not just for processing.  You could use it to expand utterances, “I see a doll, ball and mouse in a hat.” You could use it with your kids working on articulation.  They could try and find pictures of items that have their sound in them.  You could have your kids working on fluency identify items and say them with different disfluencies or say them using their strategies learned.  Trust me, I understand that sometimes in the schools you have to have a group of kids based on age and not based off goals.  As unfortunate as that is it’s a reality, so products that help you target multiple types of disorders and target many different goals is always a bonus.

The Processing Program Level 2 is similar, but is for older children. It targets 101 advanced concepts and targets them in longer and more complex command combinations. This book is even better to use with your expressive language kids because the pictures are more complex.

Make sure to check back tomorrow and the rest of the week for more ideas on how to use this book in a "centers" approach

For more information on The Processing Program Level 1 & 2 check out this video. Also, I just got an email that said The Processing Program Level 1 is 30% off!





*Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are Speech Lady Liz's.  The companies are nice enough to provide materials to try out, but provide no other compensation.

What The Heck is Auditory Processing?

Many of you will follow the blog this week, and start to wonder "Does my husband/boyfriend have auditory processing issues?" Let me clarify that selective hearing and auditory processing are not the same thing. I don't want you all trying these discriminating tasks and directional activities on your significant other.  Not saying it wouldn't help, but I wouldn't count on it either. 


Auditory Processing Disorder has become such a hot topic these days.  So many students we work with and so many unidentified students are struggling with auditory processing issues.  If you are unfamiliar with Auditory Processing Disorder here are some hand-outs that you can pass out to parents.  Along with handouts, here is a great article put out by ASHA.

Check back everyday this week for new ideas on how to treat auditory processing disorders.  Feel free to email me with any questions or ideas and I can address them on Speech Lady Liz or on Facebook.