A Candy Plan!

Orange plastic pumpkin basket spilled over with candy pouring out

You’ve planned the costume, you’ve walked the route, you’ve practiced knocking on doors… a few more thoughts to help make your family’s trick or treat evening sweet.  

What will you do with all that candy?  Once your loved one sees her/his bounty of sweetness, she/he may not want to part with a single piece. Create a plan and share that plan well before that candy is in your house.

Will your family spend the last minutes of Halloween counting and sorting candy?  Will there be a huge candy trading event in the middle of your living room? Providing a plan for the evening can make a difference in ending the evening on a sweet note. 

Create a ‘buy back’ program if you would prefer your loved ones not have free access to that much candy.  Make your program work in a way in which your loved one will receive a certain number of dollars, stars, tokens, etc. when they ‘trade in’ a certain number of pieces of candy.  Check with your dentist to see if they are offering a buy back program. 

Create a ‘decorate a gingerbread house’ program.  Decorate a box with pictures of gingerbread houses.  Put candy that could be used to decorate a gingerbread house in the box.  You now have everything you need to decorate your holiday gingerbread house. 

Create a ‘week long candy plan’.  Divide a shoe box into 7 sections. Place one or two pieces of candy in each section.  Give your loved one the opportunity to choose the candy in one section every day. 

Whatever your plan, share it with your loved ones well before the candy starts pouring in the house.  Make it very clear where the candy will be stored and what the plan will be once it is collected. It may feel like you’re taking the fun out of the candy collection, rather you are providing the framework for a fun and enjoyable evening from start to finish!

Yours in Speech, 
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC.

Costume Creations!

Dressing-up, costumes, masks and make-up….some would say these are the best parts of Halloween and others would beg differ significantly.  While the stores are filled with the newest versions of costumes, consider making one that best ‘fits’ your loved one. One that ‘fits’ her/his physical body, sensory needs, and emotional needs.

Consider costumes that follow the ‘less is more’ theory.  Less different pieces of a costume, more focus on making the pieces ‘scream’ exactly the theme or character of the costume. 

  • Jeans, t-shirt, bandanna around the neck  – you have a cowgirl/boy
  • Jeans/leggings, t-shirt, bandanna around the head – depending on your fold the bandanna, you now have a rocker or a pirate
  • Larger sized white t-shirt (your going to want a pair of pants of sorts under it :)) 
    • draw a face on it – you have a ghost
    • Add black dots on it – you have a die
    • Add black lines on it – you have a zebra 

Consider costumes that do not have tags or items that will distract your loved one to the point where she/he is unable to focus on walking, the party, etc.  While adorable and fun, things like fringe, beads, sparkles, and sequins can create an entirely different issue. In this category lives masks and make-up. While both of these items bring a lot to a costume, please consider staying away from these if you know your loved one will be distracted or upset by these additions. 

Consider costumes that can go over the layers of possible winter gear that may or may not be part of your evening.  Given the weather, being prepared to add or take away a layer on a moments notice will make the difference on the stress level of the evening. 

Consider incorporating the phrase “Trick or Treat” on the costume itself if your loved one is non-verbal or might ‘freeze’ .  Somehow, someway, make the words part of the costume – add a simple button to the costume with the words ‘Trick or Treat’.

Consider practicing wearing the costume around the house – remember practice makes permanent.  This gives your loved one not only the time to become familiar and comfortable with the costume, but will give you time to troubleshoot potential issues (ie: costume too long and possibly a tripping hazard, costume too tight/loose, etc.).

Prior planning with the costume will prevent unneeded stress and potential unexpected behaviors so you can all enjoy a fun evening being together. 

Yours in Speech, 
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC.

Practice Makes Permanent

children trick or treating with pumpkin baskets

We’ve shared the idea of “practice makes permanent’ in previous posts. This technique is ever important when preparing for an evening of ghosts and goblins and candy acquisition – aka, Halloween. You may think it’s too early and there are so many days to prepare before the end of the month, however we all know how quickly the days fly.

Practicing for an evening of trick-or-treating does not have to look like ‘practice’ or be announced as such. Take a walk on the trick-or-treat route you intend to follow during the day. Make sure to point out various landmarks as well as the changes (different decorations, leaves falling off the trees, etc.). Expand that practice walking the route as it begins to get dark, note the street lights turning on as well as pointing out how the houses may look different, but are the same during the day or night. If your loved one enjoys a good map, make a map of your route and fill in the landmarks together.

As the day draws closer, practice trick or treating from room to room in your house. Close the bathroom door and have your loved on practice trick-or-treating for toothpaste or a toothbrush. While it sounds silly, it’s a safe non-pressured way to practice this exchange as well as gives you a marker for future experiences (“Remember how we did this at home for toothpaste?”). Trick-or-Treating for everyday items (ie: while getting dressed or cleaning a room) may also be the ticket for ‘fun’ buy in for a less enjoyable activity.

Share with neighbors and family the ‘practice makes permanent’ theory and request a practice time that is more similar to the actual event. While your loved one may need a few rounds of practice, it will soon make sense how the exchange of events will occur and the pay-off is well worth the time invested in practicing. Note: the pay-off does not necessarily need to be candy. While candy may be a delight and preferred, practicing these skills can result in the acquisition of other items not necessarily of the sugar food group sort.

A final round of practice making permanent may be partaking in some of indoor or less conventional trick or treat options in the area. Here are a few links that may help in planning these practice sessions:

We’ve said it once and we’ll say it again, practice makes permanent which can significantly decrease unexpected behaviors which creates a less stressful situation for EVERYONE to enjoy!

Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

Prior Planning Goes the Distance!

Changes in schedules and routines are completely expected if not expected.  As we approach the July 4th holiday, evaluating the changes in schedules and routines – PROACTIVELY – will provide for a much more enjoyable holiday experience for everyone! 

Last year, one of the blog posts was dedicated specifically to preparing for the July 4th holiday.  We invite you to revisits that post as the information continues to be ever important.  These proactive steps do not end with just the holiday. As you are devising your summer plans, it is helpful to be aware of the resources within different venues and activities that are designed to meet the needs of individuals with special needs.  

If you are visiting the Cleveland MetroParks Zoo, you should be aware of these services available to you and your loved ones.

Going to an Indian’s game at Progressive Field? Check out these resources and these and these. 

Headed to the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse?  You are going to want to be aware of this information.

And if your summer plans take you to Cedar Point, you definitely are going to want to read this information. 

In general, before you head off to any vacation or stay-cation destination, check with the facility to inquire of what materials and resources are available onsite to address the needs of individuals with special needs. 

Yours in Speech, 

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC.

It’s All Routine

This month we’ve focused on schedules and free activities to fill those schedules. This week we are discussing routines and the importance of routines related to speech-language development.  Personal, familial, classroom, or therapy routines provide a framework of certainty. Within these routines are the skills and expectations that help to introduce and maintain speech-language skills, social pragmatic skills and increased independence with executive functioning skills.

Take a moment and replay your morning routine back in your head.  Do you brush your teeth before you wash your face? Do you take a medication right away or do you take it with your first cup of coffee? It’s easy to picture yourself completing your morning routine and if something is off, you know it immediately.

Routines for infants and toddlers provide a number of opportunities to practice important speech-language and social skills. Anticipating the steps, sequencing steps, learning the vocabulary associated with the steps are all skills infants and toddlers need to develop meaningful associations with language and action. Daily routines provide the repetition of vocabulary and actions leading to independent participation in these routines.

Routine for school aged children can provide a calming environment for anticipating activities as well as expectations throughout the day.  Similar to infants and toddlers, sequencing steps, learning vocabulary and making associations provides the foundation for increasing successful independence throughout the day.  Routines also give the child the opportunity to learn the expected behaviors and unwritten social rules in a repeat practice setting. Daily routines facilitate conversations between child and adult to specifically explain and model appropriate social and behavioral expectations.

Routines for older children and young adults create a setting where focus can be more on new skills and independence versus the actual steps.  These routines are not only part of the day, but provide the opportunity to increase independence and demonstrate expected behaviors and social skills which should be the focus of mastery for young adults.  Routines at this age also provide opportunities for increased independence imperative for vocational and secondary education settings.

Individuals who have tendencies to become rigid regarding implementation and execution of routines, such that any variation creates adverse behaviors need to have their routines continuously changed.   This does not mean the target task or activity needs to change, however change when the task or activity occurs. For example, night time routine might go tv time -change in pjs – brush teeth – book time – lights out. Consider changing to book time – brush teeth – change in pjs – tv time – lights out or some variation.  You know your loved one best and will be able to determine how often the change needs to occur.

If you have any questions or need a sounding board regarding routines, please reach out to your speech-language pathologist.

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

Plan for the Day

note book with daily routine

It’s finally here…. JUNE!  Days are longer…much longer. Weather it warmer…. much warmer. Everyone is home… school’s out…..everyone’s home…. all day.  Did we mention the days are longer?

While June ushers in a time a carefree days and weeks, pay attention to just how important a daily routine (dare we say schedule) is for your loved one’s success, ease of mind, and ability to manage behaviors.  

“But we just finished a school year worth of schedules!”

We hear you, but these summer routines and schedules are a lot less time specific.  Summer routines and schedules make the ‘unknown’ day more concrete. They also provide the adults with a reminder or recap of the day.

Resources for creating schedules are available online.  Use simple pictures of places and events or if your loved on is literate, use text.

There are many different types of set-ups for schedules or routines you might want to consider.  Ultimately, create a combination of different types that suits your family’s needs best.

Object schedule: Using objects that represent the events throughout the day may give your loved on the visual support needed to easily transition from one activity to the next.  This also provides a concrete explanation of the expectations throughout the day so there is no ‘arguing’. It’s so much easier to ‘blame’ the schedule for completing a non-preferred task. “I’m sorry, but the schedule says it’s time to clean-up. Check the schedule.”

Picture schedule: Simple clipart pictures or actual photos can serve as  visual reminders for the schedule or routine of the day.  Providing a method of indicating the event is complete provides a very concrete message for your loved one.  Some suggestions to show an event is complete include turning the picture over, removing the picture from the schedule, or placing a check-mark next to the picture.

Text Schedule: If your loved on is literate, consider a simple checklist for the day’s events or using a white boards to catalogue the schedule for the day. These types of schedules can include exact times as well as specific locations.

High Tech: If your loved one is more comfortable using a ‘smart’ device, consider using the calendar built in to the operating system or a daily planner app (free ones are the best when trialing this support). Work with your loved one to set up the calendar, make sure to include alarms or notifications for each event. Using a ‘shared’ calendar provides everyone the flexibility to add or change items accordingly.  

 

Providing visual supports and schedules to loved ones gives everyone the opportunity to enjoy the lazy days of summer more successfully and with much less stress.  The speech-language therapist at Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC will be happy to provide more ideas and assistance with developing visual supports specific to your loved one’s needs.

 

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

Beginning to Bloom

spring flowers blooming in the yard

Spring is springing and hopefully will be sprung sooner than later. Flowers are blooming and the dreary colors of Winter give way to the beauty of Spring.

Flowers are not the only thing blooming this time of year.  Everyone’s mood begins to bloom and change as the weather makes its way from cold and dreary to warm and beautiful.  Sometimes, loved ones (young and old) experiencing difficulty identifying these moods, let alone being able to talk about them. Being aware of and identifying one’s emotions is very complex and higher level language skill.  There are techniques and supports that can be put in place to help your loved one better comprehend and identify his/her moods and emotions.

Start by making emotions/moods more concrete.  Use simple terms to label and explain emotions/mood. This doesn’t mean limit the vocabulary used, rather choose the vocabulary based on your loved one.  Happy – sad – mad – tired – frustrated are good ones to start. When a loved one is experiencing a specific emotion, let them know what it looks like, feels like, and sounds like.  If your loved one is in a particularly happy mood, tell them. “You are smiling and laughing. You are in a happy mood!” “Your hands are balled up in a fist. Your face looks tight. I can tell you are frustrated.” You may want not want to do this every time a loved on is mad or angry as it may make the situation worse, however a simple “I know you are mad.” may be enough.  Your loved one will begin to realize and connect how their emotions are communicated and may begin to use the language versus the physical reaction to share their emotions.

Older children need to be made aware of their emotions and ways to better communicate those emotions.  Help your tween or teen focus in on the facial features associated with different emotions. This helps to not only make them more aware of their own emotions, but tune into the emotions of others.  A game of ‘Emotions Charades’ makes not only for a fun family game night, but a safe way to practice these skills. The Feelings Game and Matching Emotions are  free online resources that may also be of interest to you and your loved one.

Enjoy the blooming of the new season as well as watching your loved one bloom.

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

Lakeshore Speech Therapy Summer 2019 Programming

Every summer, we at Lakeshore Speech Therapy work to provide our clients and families with programming that meets everyone’s needs.  This year we are excited to offer programs for everyone from toddlers to teens. Please take a moment to see all that we have to offer.  Share this information with friends and family that may benefit from these amazing programs.  As always, please share your ideas for future programs.

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC

 

Testing..1, 2, 3….Testing

The end of March marks the start of the ‘testing’ season for student’s in the elementary, middle, and high schools. These high stakes tests are stressful for everyone, but imagine the stress your loved one might be experiencing knowing these tests are looming in the near future. Your loved one may appear more irritable or extremely giddy. Your loved one may want to sleep more or have more energy than you’ve ever seen. You may be eaten out of house and home or begging your loved one to eat just something. Stress looks different on everyone, but what is a parent or caregiver to do?

Breathe.

Helping your loved one cope with high stress situations is a life lesson that will span the ages. Helping your loved one not only cope with the stress, but providing much needed relief can make these days and weeks less ….. stressful.

You know your loved on the best and can probably tell their stress level just be the look in their eye. Unfortunately, being able to relieve that stress may take more convincing and patience on your part.

Create a ‘stress-less zone’. Make a special corner of a bedroom or living room the ‘stress-less zone’. A comfy pillow and cozy blanket may be the needed tools. Consider some music (some students prefer the louder the better rather than quiet music) and lighting (dim or bright) as the invisible walls of the ‘stress-less area’. Aromatherapy may be an option to add to the stress-less zone. Expensive oils may or may not be needed; consider an old t-shirt with familiar perfume or cologne on it or a stuffed animal with powder on it – any smell that is soothing to your loved one.

Create a ‘crash zone’ for your loved one. An old mattress or gym pads on the floor or a mini trampoline may provide just the place to for your loved one to ‘crash’ into at the end of the day. Old school blow up punching doll or an actual punching page may prove to be effective tools to de-stress. A few empty cardboard boxes that can be stomped and crushed may also be great additions to this area.

Create a ‘silent zone’ for your loved one. An area that is void of all stimuli. An area in the corner of a closet may be just the spot to recenter and decompress. Make the area as simple as possible with a mat or a single pillow. Remove as much visual and auditory clutter as possible. A place where silence is truly golden.

Create a ‘zone’ for your loved one that is combination of the few mentioned here and those that you know work best. Take the time to designate the space and materials to creating these ‘zones’. Your loved one may not be able to express how much it is appreciated or how they enjoy their special zone, but you will know by the look in their eye.

Yours in Speech,
Lakeshore Speech, LLC.

Imagine…Create….Language

We are a quarter of the way through 2019 already!  Hard to believe how fast time flies…..especially when you are having fun.  March ushers in a month of leprechauns and basketball and the strange time of year when it’s still not warm enough to go outside but staying inside isn’t the best option either. It’s that time of year when ideas and creativity to keep our loved ones engaged and busy don’t come as easy as they did a few weeks ago.

We have your back and hope our ideas spark new life into your family’s March schedule.

Introduce basic S.T.E.M. activities like making your own bubbles or making your own robot.  Spending time to create opens the door for imagination as well as language. You don’t need to be a computer programmer to build your collection of S.T.E.M. activities.

  • Idea #1: Build a Robot
    • Collect different boxes, toilet paper tubes, plastic containers, etc.
    • Grab a few rolls of tape and string or yarn
    • Create a ‘problem’ that requires your loved ones to have to make a robot to ‘fix’ the problem. Problems like too many socks are getting lost in the wash or nobody knows when the garbage is full.
    • This activity will work on helping your loved ones better understand directional and location concepts, follow directions, ask for help, name items, work with others, share, etc.
  • Idea #2: Practice Continuing Patterns
    • Collect different dried foods – pasta, beans, cereal, dried fruits
    • Create patterns (basic to complex) and have your child continue the pattern
    • Flip roles and see if you can continue the patterns
    • This activity will work on helping your loved one with sequencing tasks, vocabulary, patterning, following directions, etc. – skills needed to master math and language goals.
  • Idea #3: Build a Roller Coaster
    • Collect paper tubes from toilet paper, paper towels, and wrapping paper, tape, and marbles or small toy cars.
    • Explain to your love one you are going to create the next big roller coaster for the summer!
    • Tape together some tubes, cut other in half and create a roller coaster to go in your cardboard amusement park!
    • Use a marble or small toy car to test out your coaster!
    • This activity will work on helping your loved one with shared attention, vocabulary, directional concepts, following directions, listening, taking turns, etc.

Your S.T.E.M. activities do not have to be complex or expensive.  Play with some of these ideas and if you and your loved ones create a masterpiece, share it with us on Facebook!

Yours in Speech,

Lakeshore Speech Therapy, LLC